Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
SmallTownGuy: I hope you find me here.
ReplyDeleteFr. Tim
Greetings,
ReplyDelete1. All Christian churches who share in baptism have within them something of the universal church that Christ inaugurated. As a Roman Catholic, I believe that as the Church led by the successor of Peter, the entirety of this church that Christ began subsists (lives within) our Church. This does not mean that everything that is the RC Church contains this universal church. Your Church, by virtue of baptism shares in the same entity that was founded by Christ.
2. I absolutely agree with this second point. As a Catholic (please let me use this term to mean Roman Catholic - less typing, no insult intended) that the tradition of the RC Church is the accumulated wisdom by which we interpret scripture.
3. Yes I do consider myself an evangelical Catholic priest. Are you familiar with ECT (Evangelicals and Catholics Together). They have hashed out a common position on the issues you are raising. I have come to understand that if we can set aside our preconceptions about each others community, we will discover that in fact Evangelicals and Catholics are far closer in their beliefs than RC's are with most mainline protestant churches.
Missed one point: the Gospel is the divine word of God revealed to humanity. It contains everything necessary for salvation. This too is a Catholic teaching.
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