On the nature of Protestantism

So, we all know that life begins at conception. We know that the Gospels are the authoritative sources on Christ's life. At least one of them, Luke, claims that John the Baptist leapt in the womb of his mother Elizabeth at the presence of the first trimester Jesus. We also know that murder (the killing of innocents) is contrary to Christ's teaching and therefore all Christian religion.

Now we have the following excerpts from a LifeSite news article from October 2, 2009 entitled Baptist, Bretheren, Lutheran, Methodist Churches Ask Senate for Abortion Funds.

A coalition of mainline Protestant churches have authored a letter to members of Congress asking them to make certain the health care bills they are considering contain taxpayer funding for abortions. The letter comes from a group of churches that have long advocated the pro-abortion position

The letter calls abortion a "morally justifiable decision" and opposed any amendments to the House and Senate bills, which current contain massive abortion funding, to strike that taxpayer-financing."

So, let me get this straight, even the most basic glossing of the Gospels reveals in stark terms that abortion is a grave moral evil and we have THIS!?!? How do Christians go so far astray??? I look at the Catholic Church and see a great many Catholics have gone just as far astray (Catholics for a Free Choice, anyone?), but what I also see is that their leadership holds a very different position. The Vatican requires that ambassadors sent there must be pro-life on abortion. Numerous other magisterial documents have been released and summarily ignored by such Catholics, but at least the institution (and no small portion of the laity) holds to the truth of the truth of this issue. We just don't see this near universal advocacy of evil. I guess that promise to Peter about the gates of Hell not prevailing means something?

"Already, federal policy unfairly prevents low-income women and federal employees from receiving subsidized (abortions)," Rev. Debra W. Haffner, executive director of the Religious Institute complained.

The letter added that she doesn't want more abortion funding bans in place and complained that additional "restrictions" on abortion funding constitute a "serious moral injustice."

So, it gets worse, not only is it wrong to deny funding for mass murder, it's morally unjust not to fund it or to restrict its funding! She isn't even playing the "safe, legal, and rare" card. More an IRreverend if you ask me!

The denominations endorsing the letter include the American Baptist Churches, Church of the Brethren, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church and others.

So, in other words, if you belong to any of these denominations and take Jesus and His faith seriously, you'd better jump ship because your denominations have just reaffirmed their separation from Christ.

I don't know what to say here; I know I've ranted a lot today, but I just don't know how to comprehend such madness! But such is the nature of Protestantism, I suspect. Without the guidance of a magisterial body protected from error by the Holy Spirit, they just can't keep their heads on straight. Such is what happens when one relies on human means to come to truth; one gets it wrong eventually.

I don't know, I just see how Protestant communions fracture, alter beliefs that have been held for centuries, abandon traditions, drop books of the Bible, ignore the Gospels and just fail to understand the appeal. I mean yeah, there's emotional support, there is, to some extent a message of Christ or something akin to it in most of the denominations, and a broad cultural context for it, but under serious inquiry, the system of Protestantism just doesn't hold water. An honest look at Catholicism won't yield such conclusions, but when your religion is based on breaking away and radical reform, it's bound to stumble in some really embarrassing ways.

-Bellarmine

P.S. I know that not all Protestants and not all Protestant denominations have endorsed this particular bit of stupidity; I'm not saying that you have. I'm saying that your religious perspective is uniquely vulnerable to it as is evidenced by the above article. This was not intended as a particularly scholarly piece, but rather as a specific commentary on a general trend that I have observed over the years. A real exposition of my reasons for this belief would take much more time than I have now. I'm sorry if you're offended, but an abandonment of doctrinal truth is called heresy or apostasy. Either way, it's wrong and something that I am confident that history will side with the Catholic Church on.