Tuesday, January 19, 2016

What does Rome stand for?

Some Catholics defend the orthodoxy of their denomination by pointing to "official" statements of Catholic doctrine and ethics like the Catechism. Putting aside the officially heterodox teaching of Rome, does that prove their point?

Consider a college with an officially Christian statement of faith. And the same college has a handful of Christian faculty whose teaching matches the statement of faith. A few orthodox professors. 

However, the same college also has Mormon, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, and atheistic professors. Would it be correct to say the college teaches Christian theology and ethics?

Well, that's one of the things it teaches, but it also teaches the negation of Christian theology and ethics. It has faculty who teach rival positions. Who teach contrary to the statement of faith. Christianity theology is one of the positions that's represented in the curriculum and classroom, but along with various competitors. 

I don't simply mean they educate students about what these alternative viewpoints represent. Rather, these professors attack Christianity and promote positions contrary to the Christian faith. 

But suppose someone says, Ah, but that's just their private opinion. That's not official. The college officially has a Christian statement of faith.

But the official statement of faith is just a charade. For the collage tolerates faculty who openly repudiate the official statement of faith. The college knowingly hires and promotes such faculty.


That's the situation we have in the contemporary church of Rome. In practice, and to some degree in theory, Rome has become very pluralistic. 

2 comments:

  1. "Catholic" now encompasses "pluralistic"

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  2. Rome and here adherents are basically like the alien race, "the Visitors" from the t.v. series "V".

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