Debating with Fundamentalists

I was involved in a debate on FaceBook (if debate is even the right word) wherein a Biblical Fundamentalist spent a great deal of time explaining to me what the Catholic Church “really” teaches.  Lets just say that I very quickly became annoyed.  I wasn’t annoyed because he had misconceptions about the Church.  It is understandable, even expected for a non-Catholic to not have an accurate picture of what is taught by the Church.  It is rare enough for Catholics to have an accurate understanding of Church teaching (I include myself in this, as I find the more I learn, the more I need to learn).  I don’t even find it annoying when they criticize the idea that the “Fullness of Truth subsists in the Catholic Church alone.”  I would not expect a non-Catholic to accept this. In fact, I would expect them to hold that the Fullness of Truth is in their own faith community.  What annoys me is when they make a false statement about the Church, and upon being corrected, contradict the Catholic attempting to explain the truth.  To explain this phenomenon I will use this (entirely fictional) conversation between Fred the Fundamentalist and Cathy the Catholic:

Fred: Did you know that Catholics place Mary above Jesus?

Cathy: Actually, we don’t.  We do honor her as the Mother of God, and we ask for her intercession, but we don’t make any claims that she is divine.

Fred: Yes, you do! You pray to her with the Hail Mary, which is derived from pagan worship!

Cathy: Fred, if you look at the Hail Mary, you will see that the majority of the text comes from the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel.

Fred:  But my pastor said you do worship Mary.  Why should I not trust him?

Cathy: Is he Catholic?

Fred: No.  But he went to seminary.

Cathy: A Catholic seminary?

Fred: No.   Bur he had a class on Catholicism called “Modern Cults and False Religions”

Cathy: (Rolls eyes). That isn’t biased at all.  Don’t you think that if you want to know what Catholics believe, you should ask a Catholic?

Fred: I trust my pastor, and if he says Catholics worship Mary, it has to be true, because he wouldn’t lie.

Cathy: So basically, even though I told you what the Church really teaches, you will take the word of your non-Catholic pastor over a practicing Catholic?

Fred: Sure.

Cathy: So why did you even start this conversation if you weren’t actually interested in what I have to say?

Fred: To rescue you from the Whore of Babylon.

Cathy: (sigh) Good-bye Fred.

Granted, this is somewhat satirical of Fundamentalist “Evangelism” but it gets the point across.  All too often, people who “ask questions” about the Catholic Church are actually uninterested in the truth, and are only making thinly veiled accusations.  So how is the best way to deal with this? I would suggest using the Socratic method, particularly if you focus on source reliability and motives of the questioner.  This is all I really feel like writing for now, so until the next time, God Bless!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Catholic Church is NOT "Unbiblical"!!!

I do get tired of Evangelicals’ various web pages that claim that the Catholic Church is “unbiblical”.  The truth of the matter is that so-called “Biblical Fundamentalism” has scant Biblical support, where the Catholic Church is a “Bible Church” in the truest sense of the term.  To prove my point, I will present two charts, the first supporting Catholic doctrine, and the second a criticism of Evangelical Fundamentalism.

The Church teaches…	The Bible says…
Priests have the authority to absolve sins	Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)
The Holy Eucharist is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ	So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. (John 6:53-57)
Mary is the Mother of God	And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1: 41-43)
Marriage is permanent and is indissoluble	And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10: 11-12)
Mary is the Queen of Heaven	And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. (Revelation 12: 1-6)
St. Peter held primacy among the Apostles and was the first pope	Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 16-19)
Sacred Tradition is binding	So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

So the Catholic Church is far from being “unbiblical”.  Here is Biblical support for what Protestants consider to be some of the Catholic Church’s more objectionable teachings.  Of course, I also charged that Fundamentalists teach things directly contrary to the Bible.  I am not one to make claims without supporting evidence, so take a gander at this:

Fundamentalists claim…	The Bible says…
The Bible is the sole authority for doctrine and practice	I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. (1 Timothy 3: 14-15)
Baptism is merely a symbol and is not salvific	For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him. (1 Peter 3: 18-22)
Works play no role in salvation whatsoever	Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2: 12-13)
Celibacy is not to be encouraged	I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. (1 Corinthians 7: 7-8)
The Scriptures are easy to understand	And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. (2 Peter 3: 15-16)
There is no distinction between mortal and venial sin	If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal. (1 John 5: 16-17)

Do these tables prove anything? Not a thing.  This did not take a great deal of effort on my part.  The point is if left to our own devices, we will undoubtedly come to interpretations that are not intended by the Lord.  This is precisely why we were given the Church, so we can have as our guide the Magisterium which will keep us from departing from sound doctrine.

Submission to Authority Part II

I find it interesting that the concept of submission to authority is found under the fourth commandment: “Honor your father and mother”.  Think about that for just one moment.  All authority is bound up in the family.  If you reflect upon this, it makes perfect sense.  God uses familial language to describe His relationship to us.  When we pray using the words Jesus taught us, God is addressed as “Our Father” (Matt. 6:9, Lk 11:2).  We call our priests “Father”.  (Note: this is not a violation of Jesus’s command to “call no man father”, but that is a topic for a different post.)  Does this mean that we are bound to what is commanded to us in all cases? No.  In his book Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Peter Kreeft describes the relationship between those in authority and those under authority (p. 215):

[I]f parents, husbands, rulers, and masters are in authority “over” children, wives, citizens, and servants, they are no less “under” responsibilities to those others.  Husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the Church (See Eph. 5:25), not be their “boss”.  God designed these human relationships to be a dance between equals playing different roles, not a power struggle between unequals for the same “top” role.

 So if this is true, that authority and obedience is about relationships between equals, and not about power struggles, then it follows that obedience is not an admission of inferiority.  You are not saying “I obey because you are superior to me.” You are saying “I obey because that is my role in this relationship.”  Of course, we do have recourse if those in authority are not living up to their responsibilities. A pastor has a responsibility to see to the spiritual needs of his parish.  Political leaders must govern for the common good.  Military leaders must ensure that civilian casualties are minimized and that all operations meet the criteria for just war.  Employers must pay their employees a fair wage and not perpetuate a cycle of poverty.  Husbands and fathers provide for their families and give them selves to their wives in a self-sacrificial manner.
But what does the Catechism say?  I will not be providing specific references here, but I will summarize some basic concepts.  First, proper relationships are based upon the dignity of the human person.  This dignity is inherent to the person, and was created by God, and therefore no man can take it away.  Obedience is its own reward.  Also, just as all are given dignity by God, those in positions of authority were placed there by God, so when we “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” we are not simply paying taxes, but giving the government what it is owed, namely, obeying civil laws which do not contradict precepts of the Church.  This post is short, and will possibly be revisited in the future, but what we need to understand is  that to be truly faithful, we must recognize out roles in our various relationships, submit when required, and if in a position of authority, we must be faithful to those responsibilities.

Book Review: A Biblical Walk Through the Mass/ Dr. Edward Sri.

A Biblical Walk through the Mass

by Dr. Edward Sri

Dr. Edward Sri has given a gift to the Catholic faithful.  This gift is this truly wonderful book, A Biblical Walk through the Mass.  This book is coming at a critical time for the American Church, as the new English translation of the Novus Ordo will be coming into use in a few short months.  This is placing the Liturgy at the forefront of the consciousness of the American Catholic.  The purpose of this little book (at only 156 pages, including the index, it is a fairly quick read) is to not only familiarize the faithful with the text of the new translation, which is used throughout, but also to show the biblical roots of why we do those things that we do in the Mass.
Dr. Sri does not charge straightaway into unpacking the Biblical roots of the words and actions in the Liturgy, but rather in a brief chapter explains exactly what the Mass is, and what sets the Mass apart from other liturgical and quasi-liturgical celebrations.  Yet he does not develop a long discourse on the nature of the Mass, but only addresses three points that are necessary to understand in order to facilitate the main thrust of the book:

• The Eucharist is a memorial sacrifice
• The Eucharist as the Real Presence
• The Eucharist as communion with the Lord.

As an example, here is part of Dr. Sri’s explanation of how  the Eucharist is a sacrifice because of the very language used by the Lord (p. 8):

One important note is how the language of Jesus used when speaking about his body and blood had strong sacrificial overtones.  He said his body would be offered up and his blood poured out.  As we will see later, this language would have recalled the Jewish sacrificial rites in which an animal’s body is offered up and blood pured out in sacrifice.

Beyond the opening remarks on the nature of the Mass, Dr. Sri the book’s structure follows the order of the Mass.   Starting with the Sign of the Cross and ending with the Dismissal, Dr. Sri firmly roots everything we say and do in the Liturgy in Scripture, and also expounds on the theological significance.  He explains such things as:

• The Greeting is more than an exchange of pleasantries
• The Examination of conscience suggested by the Confiteor
• How the Liturgy of the Word can be called “The Greatest Bible Study on Earth”
• The Biblical roots of the Presentation of Gifts
• The theological significance of the Sanctus

This list, of course is not comprehensive (after all this is a book review not a book summary).  In all, I highly recommend this book to deepen your understanding of the Mass, and why we do what we do when celebrating the sacred mysteries.  You can order the book by clicking on the title above, and if you click Dr. Sri’s name, you will be directed to his biography.

God Bless!

Submission to Authority

It really bugs me that I have to post on this topic.  It really, really does.  But the simple fact is that a great number of our problems, both in and out of the Church, comes down to a simple refusal to submit to legitimate authority. Truth of the natter is that people die from refusal to submit to legitimate authority.  I am not talking about the execution of political prisoners (which is abhorrent), but little things, like speeding or drinking under the influence, getting into an accident, and killing somebody.  And why did this person die? Because somebody could not be bothered with submitting to legitimate authority.
Now that I have been suitably melodramatic, I am going to discuss the issue that set me off.  At my local parish the pastor made an administrative decision: he fired the school principal.  It is the policy of the diocese not to make reasons for dismissals public, and treats the information as confidential.  The former principal has also elected not to go public with this information.  Given this situation, it should be a done deal, right?  I mean, this isn’t like the pastor is teaching heresy from the pulpit, flagrantly violating liturgical norms, or some other such thing.  He fired a staff member.  This should be the end of it, right?
Wrong.
A faction in the Church has arisen, under the battle cry of “This is our Church” demanding (not requesting, mind you, but demanding) that this information be divulged.  Since when is every person in the parish granted a say in the hiring and firing of Church staff?  In fact, this mindset is that of Evangelical Protestantism. (As a side note, there are some things Evangelicals do very well, such as proclaiming the Gospel, but Church governance is not one of them.)  The Catholic Church has a structure such that the laity participates in the ministry (lectors, ushers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, bible study leaders, etc) but the decision making is largely left up to the pastor for parish level decisions, the bishop for diocese level, bishop conferences for national level, you get the idea.  This breaks down if the average parishioner expects to have a say in the decisions of the day-to-day operations of the Church.   The Church is not a democracy.  We just have to trust our clergy to be making the best decisions.  I will follow up soon with what the Catechism has to say about submission to authority.

Stay Tuned…

Finals are wrapped up and now I am packing for home.  I will shortly be receiving a review copy of Dr. Edward Sri’s book, A Biblical Walk Through Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy, which I will be reviewing.  I also plan on posting periodic reflections on Bl. John Paul II’s Crossing the Threshold of Hope.  I will possibly also be summarizing a paper I wrote on the ecclesiology of Karl Rahner and explaining why I find it deficient.  This is all I have time for right now, as I must return to packing up my life for the summer. God bless all of you!

The Death of Osama bin Laden

I should be either working on a paper or sleeping right now.  But until I get some thoughts out, neither is going to happen.  On 1 May 2011 the American people were informed that Osama bin Laden had been killed.  To this I say, “Justice has been served,” and I congratulate our military and intelligence agencies for bringing him to justice, although I would have preferred he been taken alive.  I open with this statement to avoid being branded a traitor or any other such thing.
I am not pleased with the general response to his death.  The death of anyone should not be met with parties, singing, and joyful celebration. Ever.  Of course it will be argued that bin Laden is the greatest criminal who ever lived, and masterminded the most evil acts of all time.  This is not true.  He was not even the most evil man within the last 100 years, let alone all time.  The Japanese perpetrated greater crimes against the Chinese in Nanjing.  Hitler and Stalin were even worse.  But even these did not perpetrate the greatest evil in history.  That prize belongs to those directly and indirectly responsible for Deicide–the killing of God–in which we all had a part, thanks to our sins.  In response, God would have been justified in destroying all of humanity.  The God-Man could have called down destruction.  But He didn’t.  He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
What right do we have to celebrate at bin Laden’s death?  Lest we forget, Osama bin Laden was a human being.  This designation carries some important qualities.  The first is the fact that as vile as his actions were, he was made in the image of God.  Being a creation of God, he cannot be pure evil.  God is pure good, in which there can be no evil.  As long as he was alive, he had a chance at redemption.  This really struck home only when I saw the Facebook status of one of my friends.  It was the second half of the Fatima prayer: “…and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.”  We should not be celebrating.  We should be praying for our enemies, even bin Laden (Matthew 5:43-48).
Lastly I would like to point out a distinction between what I have seen Biblical Fundamentalists post and what I have seen faithful Catholics post.  On the Fundamentalist Protestant side, I have seen lots of scripture passages talking about God’s wrath and judgment.  On the Catholic side, I have seen appeals to Divine Mercy.  I would just ask, which oif these two attitudes seems more reflective of Christ?