Liberal social justice Catholics have drunk the Protestant Kool Aid

by Doug Lawrence

The Catholic Church in America appears to be almost evenly split between “libs” and “trads”.

For those who are new to these culture wars, “libs” might be described as Catholics who tend to be light on Catholic dogma and overly reliant on emotion and social work – especially when it  comes to things like voting for pro-abortion, pro-homosexual politicians and the government funding of various welfare programs.

“Libs” also tend to be less concerned about the liturgy, and often have a less than complete understanding and appreciation for the sacraments – especially the need for the absolution of sins in the confessional and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

For “libs”, emotion generally trumps faith and reason and malformed conscience trumps all – leading to the scandal of high profile, pro abortion and pro homosexual Catholic (and Protestant) politicians infesting all levels of government – along with a plethora of seriously defective Catholic In Name Only (CINO) charities, social justice organizations and even, religious orders.

All of these characteristics are really nothing new for Protestant groups – but they are new for Catholics, since they were essentially put into place by the post-Vatican II “reformers/enablers/revolutionaries” and others who have subsequently learned to invent such things, for their own nefarious purposes, from “whole cloth”.

To sum it up: Like most Protestants, Catholic “libs” generally find it difficult or impossible to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as Christ’s one time, once for many, propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of mankind, the Catholic Church as the “Barque of Peter” – the world’s only universal sacrament of salvation, according to the grace, mercy and forethought of Jesus Christ – and the Bible as the inerrant, Holy Spirit inspired, written Word of God – so about all they have left is social justice work – and their poor choices will almost certainly tend to perpetuate the continuing need for it! 

“Trads” tend to obtain their personal guidance through the exercise of faith and reason, based on a good working knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ, illuminated by two thousand years of Catholic Church Tradition, exquisitely reasoned, settled Catholic dogma and Magisterial teachings, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the lives of the saints and the Holy Bible.

Subsequently, “trads” tend to be very picky about the Masses they attend, the fidelity of the priests and bishops who minister to them, the integrity of the politicians who represent them in government, the causes they support, the Bibles they read and the sacraments they receive – most especially the Holy Eucharist, which they firmly believe to be the authentic body and blood of Jesus Christ, along with his soul and divinity.

The “trad’s” primary reliance on grace-giving sacraments – which for baptized Catholics, serve to engender and deeply nurture the cardinal virtues of faith, hope and charity, among others – is based on almost two thousand years of remarkably successful Catholic church history and tradition- which until fairly recent times, provided the spiritual underpinnings for all the best features of modern, western civilization.

For “trads”, faith and reason are employed in order to better understand the “mind” of the Catholic Church and hence, the mind of Jesus Christ, who is God and who will also be our final judge. Individual conscience certainly plays a big part – but only after all pertinent Catholic teachings and principles have already been carefully and prayerfully weighed and considered.

When “trads” need to get something done, they pray – often using the Rosary, or kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament – believing they will receive. Then, one of several things typically happens: 1) The problem simply evaporates and disappears (praise God); 2) The right course of action becomes apparent and that action is personally carried out, according to God’s grace, resolving or suitably mitigating the problem; 3) If it is within their limited area of competence – God sends a socially conscious Protestant, “lib” Catholic, or other person – to fix things; or 4) Life goes on as before – since even God isn’t willing to tackle certain problems that we create for ourselves, in this “valley of tears”.

Of course, there are exceptions and variations on both sides, but it’s just about that simple!

Defining the theological art and science of Catholic apologetics

Today’s question: Why is Christianity the correct religion? Please do not quote the Bible.

Q: Why is Christianity the correct religion? Please do not quote the Bible.

A: There is more evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ than virtually any other historical figure who ever lived. The very calendar we use today is based on the approximate year of his birth, and it will end on the very day Jesus chooses to return.

Jesus Christ claimed to be God, and he proved the truth of his claim in many and various ways.

Jesus Christ accomplished what the Hebrew scriptures (not necessarily what the Hebrews themselves) predicted he would accomplish. This includes various types of miracles, and many other events and particular works that were predicted (in writing) from 200 to 6000 years, in advance.

Jesus Christ stated that he would allow himself to be put to death and he would rise again, three days hence. He did just that, in the presence of many eye-witnesses, some of whom were his enemies.

In the 40 day period between his resurrection and his ascension, Jesus was seen by some 500 eye witnesses. Many of these same witnesses preferred to die, rather than deny what/who they had seen.

Many details of Jesus’ earthly life and times were initially faithfully preserved by those who actually knew him, as well as his own family. Later, these factual accounts were reduced to writing. In both instances, people who knew Jesus Christ and the particular details of his life, his death and his resurrection were still alive and available to confirm or deny the truth of the accounts.

This process is the way genuine world history has always been recorded and preserved. It’s how we know about Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, George Washington, and every other historical figure who ever lived.

The government of the United States of America has preserved the history pertaining to George Washington, over a period of the last 230 years. George Washington’s descendants along with various other world governments confirm those historical claims.

The Catholic Church, which was personally founded by Jesus Christ, while he still walked the earth, has been the living eye witness to Jesus Christ, for the last 2000 years. The Catholic Church also constitutes the oldest, longest reigning, continuous government on earth, ante-ceding every existing world system in existence today.

The history of the Catholic Church and the history of those governments confirm both the existence of Jesus Christ as a real historical person, and the unique establishment, growth, universality, hierarchical leadership and holiness of the only Christian Church that Jesus Christ ever founded, for the purpose of our salvation.

As a rational person, you must realize that the existence of the historical Jesus Christ cannot be truthfully denied.

As a human being, who is posited to have an immortal soul, subject to divine judgment, you must study all the historical evidence, all the theology, and all the related philosophy, in order to come to a valid personal conclusion as to whether or not Jesus Christ is the divine person he claimed to be.

At that point, a modicum of faith (faith enlightened by reason … not blind faith) will be required, simply because you will no longer be dealing with the purely natural, but also the supernatural and the infinite, since that is part and parcel of the realm of the eternal, almighty God.

Enlightened by the facts and illuminated by the huge body of authentic systematic Catholic theology and related philosophy, any required “leap” of faith is not nearly as far as many people might think.

To Tell You the Whole Truth (PDF)
A Complete, Concise and Understandable
Basic and Advanced Course In Catholicism.

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Inescapable fact: For the First 1500 Years, the Entire (Global) Church Held Exclusively Catholic Beliefs.

To see what I mean above, take four (FALSE) common, Protestant doctrines:

1. (FALSE) Baptism is just symbolic (that is, it’s not regenerative, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t actually cleanse us through it);

2. (FALSE) The Eucharist is just symbolic (it’s not actually the Body and Blood of Christ);

3. (FALSE) Justification is just forensic (we’re declared righteous by God, but we’re not actually made righteous through the Holy Spirit);

4. (FALSE) The Bible is composed of the 66-Book Protestant canon.

To my knowledge, every Protestant denomination holds to at least one of these four doctrines, and many denominations hold to all four.

Now, contrast these views with history:

Forget whatever you happen to think about Baptism, the Eucharist, justification, and the canon of Scripture. At this point, we’re just determining what the whole of Christianity used to teach, rather than whether these teachings were right or wrong (we’ll turn to that, next).

To my knowledge, even Protestants will concede that the visible Church was Catholic during a long period prior to the Reformation. And although it’s true that there were eventually Coptics and Orthodox as well, on all four of the above doctrines, none of them take the Protestant view, either.

So at a bare minimum, we can say that the historic visible Church universally denied all four of the Protestant doctrines above. In fact, the evidence suggests much more than that — it suggests that there are centuries of Christianity in which a Protestant would be hard-pressed to find to find a single orthodox Christian who held to any or all four of the above doctrines.

Let’s look at each, very briefly:

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A basic course in Catholic Apologetics

Download and/or view in your PDF file reader

More on Apologetics from Bob Stanley’s
“The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Deeply Concerned Catholic Priest Writes: I now believe we are at the point where half of America is possessed, or highly diabolically oppressed.

I now believe we are at the point where half of America is possessed, or highly oppressed.

For one, our 100 years of sexual sins and abortion have caught up to us. People screaming “racist!” at non-racists like Trump and Tucker without any evidence and without any interest in honest discussion first seemed to me to be the cause of insanity in our country. But now I see such insanity is the symptom (not the cause) of such insanity.

Such insanity has grown in the minds of Americans already ratifying their consciences under 50 years of killing of unborn children. Or, for example:  The leftists ignoring the fact that coronavirus can be nearly cured by not only hydroxychloroquine but also by inhaled steroids at first seemed to me to be the cause of insanity in our country.

But as I look closer at this, yet again, I see that such insanity is simply the symptom (not the cause) of 50 years of killing our own unborn children.

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Something to remember

Submitted by Bob Stanley

Liberal social justice Catholics have drunk the Protestant Kool Aid

by Doug Lawrence

The Catholic Church in America appears to be almost evenly split between “libs” and “trads”.

For those who are new to these culture wars, “libs” might be described as Catholics who tend to be light on Catholic dogma and overly reliant on emotion and social work – especially when it  comes to things like voting for pro-abortion, pro-homosexual politicians and the government funding of various welfare programs.

“Libs” also tend to be less concerned about the liturgy, and often have a less than complete understanding and appreciation for the sacraments – especially the need for the absolution of sins in the confessional and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

For “libs”, emotion generally trumps faith and reason and malformed conscience trumps all – leading to the scandal of high profile, pro abortion and pro homosexual Catholic (and Protestant) politicians infesting all levels of government – along with a plethora of seriously defective Catholic In Name Only (CINO) charities, social justice organizations and even, religious orders.

All of these characteristics are really nothing new for Protestant groups – but they are new for Catholics, since they were essentially put into place by the post-Vatican II “reformers/enablers/revolutionaries” and others who have subsequently learned to invent such things, for their own nefarious purposes, from “whole cloth”.

To sum it up: Like most Protestants, Catholic “libs” generally find it difficult or impossible to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as Christ’s one time, once for many, propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of mankind, the Catholic Church as the “Barque of Peter” – the world’s only universal sacrament of salvation, according to the grace, mercy and forethought of Jesus Christ – and the Bible as the inerrant, Holy Spirit inspired, written Word of God – so about all they have left is social justice work – and their poor choices will almost certainly tend to perpetuate the continuing need for it! 

“Trads” tend to obtain their personal guidance through the exercise of faith and reason, based on a good working knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ, illuminated by two thousand years of Catholic Church Tradition, exquisitely reasoned, settled Catholic dogma and Magisterial teachings, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the lives of the saints and the Holy Bible.

Subsequently, “trads” tend to be very picky about the Masses they attend, the fidelity of the priests and bishops who minister to them, the integrity of the politicians who represent them in government, the causes they support, the Bibles they read and the sacraments they receive – most especially the Holy Eucharist, which they firmly believe to be the authentic body and blood of Jesus Christ, along with his soul and divinity.

The “trad’s” primary reliance on grace-giving sacraments – which for baptized Catholics serve to engender and deeply nurture the cardinal virtues of faith, hope and charity, among others – is based on almost two thousand years of remarkably successful Catholic church history and tradition- which until fairly recent times, provided the spiritual underpinnings for all the best features of modern, western civilization.

For “trads”, faith and reason are employed in order to better understand the “mind” of the Catholic Church and hence, the mind of Jesus Christ, who is God and who will also be our final judge. Individual conscience certainly plays a big part – but only after all pertinent Catholic teachings and principles have already been carefully and prayerfully weighed and considered.

When “trads” need to get something done, they pray – often using the Rosary, or kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament – believing they will receive. Then, one of several things typically happens: 1) The problem simply evaporates and disappears (praise God); 2) The right course of action becomes apparent and that action is personally carried out, according to God’s grace, resolving or suitably mitigating the problem; 3) If it is within their limited area of competence – God sends a socially conscious Protestant, “lib” Catholic, or other person – to fix things; or 4) Life goes on as before – since even God isn’t willing to tackle certain problems that we create for ourselves, in this “valley of tears”.

Of course, there are exceptions and variations on both sides, but it’s just about that simple! Any questions?

Megan Hodder was a young, avid reader of the New Atheists, but her life changed when she read the work of their Catholic foes

I looked for absurdities and inconsistencies in the Catholic faith that would derail my thoughts from the unnerving conclusion I was heading towards, but the infuriating thing about Catholicism is its coherency: once you accept the basic conceptual structure, things fall into place with terrifying speed.

“The Christian mysteries are an indivisible whole,” wrote Edith Stein in The Science of the Cross: “If we become immersed in one, we are led to all the others.”

The beauty and authenticity of even the most ostensibly difficult parts of Catholicism, such as the sexual ethics, became clear once they were viewed not as a decontextualised list of prohibitions, but as essential components in the intricate body of the Church’s teaching.

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Father Dwight Longenecker: Why I Am a Catholic.

I am a Catholic because the Catholic faith stands the world on it’s head. It turns over the tables. It makes you expect the unexpected. Just when you thought you had it figured it out, the Catholic Church, like a mischievous and shrewd old woman, pulls a trick on you, calls you to step out of the comfort zone and be radical once again. In every age and in every place Catholicism has been subversive, and the message of Jesus Christ is only good news when it is subversive.

I’m also Catholic because Catholicism provides a time tested and true method for ascertaining religious truth. It avoids supernatural explanations while not being so dogmatic as to rule them out altogether. It demands that we use our human reason, but then says human reason is not enough. It requires obedience to an authority, but says that this obedience is to true religion as a map is for the journey. Catholicism is inclusive where it should be and exclusive where it should be. I’m Catholic because I wish to affirm all, for a man is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies.

Link

Another testimony

Things are bad all over … but at least Catholics have hope, rooted in God’s truth.

We live in something of a meritocracy, and our rulers believe they are by far the most enlightened and well-informed people who ever lived. For that reason they feel entitled to make the aspirations of the present day, or what they consider such, the compulsory standard for public life. They view the claim that there are principles that transcend those aspirations as the sort of thing that led to 9/11, and treat the past as worth considering only as something to escape from or a foreshadowing of the glories of the present.

Nonetheless, a variety of conditions, from the state of education and the arts to that of political discussion, makes it evident that Western society is growing less and less able to think clearly and effectively. That’s a big problem, and one that’s hard to deal with, because it is difficult to cure oneself of mindlessness. Still, we should do our best to understand what’s going on.

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The theological art and science of Catholic apologetics

A study in differences: The state of the Catholic Church – and the world – before Vatican II – and after.

Before Vatican II:

Faith, reason, and grace-giving sacraments … in addition to almost 2,000 years of Catholic tradition, philosophy and scholarship … served to assist Catholics in making rational and morally upright life decisions … for their own sake, for the glory of God, for the good of the Catholic Church, and for the common good of all mankind.

After Vatican II:

Change has come to the Catholic Church. Virtually all that came before is now irrelevant.

Personal conscience … enlightened by modern secular thought … is king.

A disoriented/disordered Magisterium fails to provide a suitable and practical replacement for that which they permitted to be summarily discarded.

Many Catholics no longer have a sound basis for making rational and morally upright life decisions. Ditto for the rest of the world. Corruption abounds … in the Church … and at every level of society. The earth rapidly descends into chaos.

Welcome to the Brave New World!   

Editor’s note: There are some signs of a turn-around. Where there is grace … there is hope!

Lots of things still apparently above Obama’s pay grade.

“Obama conveyed the message that one cannot be practically certain about any conviction that is held by faith. He thus implicitly rejected many essential truths of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic faith, including the truth that it is rationally defensible to assent with certitude to the tenets of the faith….President Obama used the incomprehensibility of God as his basis for claiming that what we think we know about God is, and should be understood by us as, inherently doubtful. But the president’s reasoning is unsound, and his conclusion is false.”

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Inverse reasoning: How corruption in the Catholic Church proves that its claims and teachings are not only valid, but true.

First, in this stage of the process, I think it is helpful to read the stories of other converts.  It helps you feel less alone.  I also think you’ll be struck, as I was struck, at how certain themes recur with uncanny regularity.  In this vein, I highly recommend picking up Blessed John Henry Newman’s Loss and Gain, which is a fictionalized account of Newman’s own conversion to Catholicism in mid-nineteenth century England.  I, at least, was blown away by how the issues confronting the potential Catholic convert in Newman’s day were virtually identical to those of our own.  Some of the conversations and situations recounted in the book could almost have been lifted from experiences Nikki and I had.  It’s also worth checking out books like The Catholic Church and Conversion by G.K. Chesterton, Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn, and any of the others we’ve listed on our resource page.

These books, in addition to helping you feel less alone, will also help you feel less like you’re crazy.  This was something I really struggled with myself.  I kept asking myself, “Do I just have some kind of unhealthy need for certainty?  Bunches of people I know and love don’t seem to have any problem with not having great answers to what’s so special about going to worship services on Sunday, what the point of having a minister is, etc.  Maybe I’m just a nutjob.”  Reading all these conversion stories, however, and seeing people struggling (throughout time and space) with the very same issues that I struggled with helped to confirm what I knew deep within me anyway–that it wasn’t “unhealthy” or a weird “psychological tic” to want compelling, non-confusing answers to basic questions about my faith.

Second, I think it’s important to be attuned to what I’ll call the “intangible” signs pointing in the direction of Rome.  We’re not solely intellectual creatures, and I don’t believe that it’s possible to make it all the way to the Church on the basis of pure logic.  For me, as I got closer to the Church, I could look back over the course of my life and identify specific friendships, events, and other circumstances that I had great difficulty explaining as anything other than the workings of God’s grace, leading me Home.  I had a stark choice:  either all of those circumstances were the product of extreme coincidence or God was calling me to the Catholic Church.  And my belief in coincidence only goes so far.

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Seen on the web: Why is Christianity the correct religion? Please do not quote the Bible.

Q: Why is Christianity the correct religion? Please do not quote the Bible.

Response by Doug Lawrence:

A: There is more evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ than virtually any other historical figure who ever lived. The very calendar we use today is based on the approximate year of his birth, and it will end on the very day Jesus chooses to return.

Jesus Christ claimed to be God, and he proved the truth of his claim in many and various ways.

Jesus Christ accomplished what the Hebrew scriptures (not necessarily what the Hebrews themselves) predicted he would accomplish. This includes various types of miracles, and many other events and particular works that were predicted (in writing) from 200 to 6000 years, in advance.

Jesus Christ stated that he would allow himself to be put to death and he would rise again, three days hence. He did just that, in the presence of many eye-witnesses, some of whom were his enemies.

In the 40 day period between his resurrection and his ascension, Jesus was seen by some 500 eye witnesses. Many of these same witnesses preferred to die, rather than deny what/who they had seen.

Many details of Jesus’ earthly life and times were initially faithfully preserved by those who actually knew him, as well as his own family. Later, these factual accounts were reduced to writing. In both instances, people who knew Jesus Christ and the particular details of his life, his death and his resurrection were still alive and available to confirm or deny the truth of the accounts.

This process is the way genuine world history has always been recorded and preserved. It’s how we know about Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, George Washington, and every other historical figure who ever lived.

The government of the United States of America has preserved the history pertaining to George Washington, over a period of the last 230 years. George Washington’s descendants along with various other world governments confirm those historical claims.

The Catholic Church, which was personally founded by Jesus Christ, while he still walked the earth, has been the living eye witness to Jesus Christ, for the last 2000 years. The Catholic Church also constitutes the oldest, longest reigning, continuous government on earth, ante-ceding every existing world system in existence today.

The history of the Catholic Church and the history of those governments confirm both the existence of Jesus Christ as a real historical person, and the unique establishment, growth, universality, hierarchical leadership and holiness of the only Christian Church that Jesus Christ ever founded, for the purpose of our salvation.

As a rational person, you must realize that the existence of the historical Jesus Christ cannot be truthfully denied.

As a human being, who is posited to have an immortal soul, subject to divine judgment, you must study all the historical evidence, all the theology, and all the related philosophy, in order to come to a valid personal conclusion as to whether or not Jesus Christ is the divine person he claimed to be.

At that point, a modicum of faith (faith enlightened by reason … not blind faith) will be required, simply because you will no longer be dealing with the purely natural, but also the supernatural and the infinite, since that is part and parcel of the realm of the eternal, almighty God.

Enlightened by the facts and illuminated by the huge body of authentic systematic Catholic theology and related philosophy, any required “leap” of faith is not nearly as far as many people might think.

Good luck and God speed!

Much more “deep background” on this here

Also investigate these various links

Archbishop Chaput on the awesome value of a truly Catholic higher education

Archbishop Charles Chaput, speaking at Assumption College recently, spoke  about the link between faith and reason and the importance of a Catholic education:

The genius of Catholic higher education is the schooling it gives in the mutual dependency of faith and reason.  At its best, it refuses to separate intellectual and moral formation because they are inextricably linked.  It gives primacy to the disciplines that guide the formation of a holistic view of reality — philosophy and theology.  It aids in the creation of a Christian culture and explains what this means for human thriving.  It offers a coherent anthropology that treats the human being as a whole, and actually gives meaning to the words “human dignity” instead of turning them into a catch-phrase for the latest version of individualism.  It offers an immersion in the virtues, and an appreciation of humanity’s material and spiritual realities — the visible and invisible world — all of which gets their life from belief in Jesus Christ.

To put it another way, Catholic higher education is heir to the greatest intellectual, moral and cultural patrimony in human history.  It has a deeply satisfying answer to who and why man is.  It’s beautiful because it’s true.  It has nothing to be embarrassed about and every reason to be on fire with confidence and apostolic zeal.  We only defeat ourselves – and we certainly don’t serve God – if we allow ourselves to ever think otherwise.

Link

Looks like Atheists don’t believe in logic, either.

Link

Archbishop Gomez: “Our world needs to be brought to a new remembrance of the God who created us and redeemed us.”

Santa Paula, Calif., May 17, 2011 / 03:23 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Addressing new graduates of Thomas Aquinas College on May 14, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez urged them to bear witness to the Catholic Church’s harmony of faith and reason, in a culture that has lost its intellectual and religious bearings.

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Inescapable fact: For the First 1500 Years, the Entire (Global) Church Held Exclusively Catholic Beliefs.

To see what I mean above, take four common Protestant doctrines:

1. Baptism is just symbolic (that is, it’s not regenerative, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t actually cleanse us through it);

2. The Eucharist is just symbolic (it’s not actually the Body and Blood of Christ);

3. Justification is just forensic (we’re declared righteous by God, but we’re not actually made righteous through the Holy Spirit);

4. and The Bible is composed of the 66-Book Protestant canon.

To my knowledge, every Protestant denomination holds to at least one of these four doctrines, and many denominations hold to all four. Now contrast these views with history.

Forget whatever you happen to think about Baptism, the Eucharist, justification, and the canon of Scripture. At this point, we’re just determining what the whole of Christianity used to teach, rather than whether these teachings were right or wrong (we’ll turn to that, next). To my knowledge, even Protestants will concede that the visible Church was Catholic during a long period prior to the Reformation. And although it’s true that there were eventually Coptics and Orthodox as well, on all four of the above doctrines, none of them take the Protestant view, either.

So at a bare minimum, we can say that the historic visible Church universally denied all four of the Protestant doctrines above. In fact, the evidence suggests much more than that — it suggests that there are centuries of Christianity in which a Protestant would be hard-pressed to find to find a single orthodox Christian who held to any or all four of the above doctrines. Let’s look at each, very briefly:

Read more