I was thinking about this last night. I wonder what the Apostle Paul would have thought had his instructions for the Corinthian church to oust the member, who was unrepentant in an incestuous relationship with his father's wife, had they informed Paul that this member had "excommunicated himself" but that was all they were required to do?
Imagine if they wrote back to Paul and said, "We still let the guy come to our worship services, we let him partake of the Lord's Supper, we invite him to our homes, pray with him, let him tell his neighbors that he is a member of the Church of Corinth. We hope, in time, he comes to his senses and stops carrying on with his step-mom, but what more CAN we do?". I kinda think Paul would have had some very sharp words for the pastor for his disobedience in following Paul's implicit instructions. Now, this was just a regular member of the church, imagine had he been THE pastor or an elder - someone with leadership responsibilities?
The Catholics at Luther's time had no problem excommunicating him yet they let slide the very Popes who were guilty of far worse sins than the ones they accused Luther of committing. The hypocrisy is astounding!
Listening to what our FR Catholics have been taught; then the seven churches mentioned in Revelation were Catholic.
The very Bible that the Catholic church claims it wrote has instructions on what to do with the immoral brother, and yet, immoral priests get a pass, if their *intent* is right.
After all, once a priest, always a priest. Right?
Astounding hypocrisy indeed.
The implicit message that is sent by such is that as long as you die as a Catholic they she will get you into glory. It is liberal RCs who convert into evangelical type faith and actually bring forth fruits which testify to repentant faith and regeneration that seem to be of the most concern.
And while one would think that Rome would be pleased by the greater commitment and conservative views of evangelical types versus liberal Prots, yet it is the former that Rome warns its members about the most, not the liberal Anglicans, etc. as they are not seen as a threat to her supremacy, which seems to be the priority.