Jason Engwer already made some comment on this post:
I'll add a few of my own:
It’s helpful for understanding the way many Protestants view the larger body of Christ, the “Holy Catholic Church” of the Apostles’ Creed, so here goes: The Church is like a navy, a collection of ships united in purpose and in destination. Each denomination is like a different ship in that navy, and while each crew is primarily tasked with the health and well-being of its own vessel, it’s also deeply invested in the strength of the fleet. Each vessel is more vulnerable as the fleet weakens. Each vessel is stronger surrounded by its protective armada. If the analogy holds, then one of the mightiest battleships in the fleet, the Catholic Church, is taking torpedoes left and right.
i) The persuasiveness of that argument lies in the choice of metaphors. We could, however, take the same idea in a different direction. Innocent bystanders will be killed if they happen to be standing by the target when the bombs drop. They weren't targeted, but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes you'd better step away from the blast zone if you wish to survive.
ii) Consider a different metaphor: if a railcar is on fire, you should uncouple the burning railcar to prevent the fire from jumping from one railcar to the next, thereby engulfing the entire train.
Even on pragmatic grounds, there's a lot to be said for disassociating ourselves from the church of Rome. Why should the whole train go up in flames because we refuse to uncouple ourselves from their burning railcar?
iii) I don't view the Catholic church as a part of the larger body of Christ. I view the Catholic church as a nominally Christian sect that made a number of wrong turns early on, only gets worse because it continues in the same wrong direction–as well as making additional wrong turns. The residual orthodox doctrine and ethics in modern Catholicism is rapidly shrinking.
iv) Yes, there can be strength in numbers. If Catholic voters in general were conservative voters, if Catholic politicians in general were conservative politicians, then to some degree the Catholic church would protect our evangelical flank. However, the Catholic church in American has been in bed with the Democrat party for decades. The Catholic church is largely responsible for the liberal establishment that now threatens evangelicals as well as conservative Catholics.
v) The implosion of the Catholic church is an opportunity for evangelicals to take in Catholic refugees. Expose them to the Gospel.
Second, given the plethora of recent sexual scandals in Evangelical churches and seminaries, the Catholic catastrophe should remind us that perhaps only the lack of an equivalent hierarchy has spared Evangelical churches from similar, systemic sin. “Our” scandals are more fragmented only because our churches are more fragmented. Yet the entire church should be galvanized by what’s happened and diligently consider the extent to which our own congregations are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
No doubt we have our own scandals. That said, the comparison is inapt:
i) As a rule, sexual scandals in evangelical institutions are heterosexual because evangelical institutions are overwhelmingly heterosexual, mirroring the norm. To some degree, heterosexual scandals are unavoidable because, when straight men and women commit sexual sin, it will be heterosexual.
By contrast, homosexual scandals are largely avoidable by screening out homosexuals. Some will slip through the vetting process, but that's very different from Rome. Rome refuses to even acknowledge that ordaining sodomites is a recipe for disaster. That's aggravated by mandatory clerical celibacy, which creates a magnet for sodomites. They have now burrowed into the priesthood, hierarchy, and ecclesiastical "Deep State" (Catholic bureaucracies, the curia). To my knowledge, no evangelical denomination has a network of homosexual pederasts from top to bottom. The nature and extent of the Catholic abuse scandal has no counterpart in evangelical institutions.
ii) In addition, some erstwhile evangelical institutions become so corrupt that they must be abandoned. Problem is, Catholic loyalists maintain unconditional fealty to their sect.
Third, reputational harm to the church can sweep far and wide — well beyond the guilty parties themselves. No one should presume that in an increasingly secular world our fellow citizens can so easily discern the good guys and the bad guys. I remember well moving from the Bible Belt to Boston in 1991, and being stunned to discover that my classmates painted the church with a very broad brush. In my youth and naïveté I had largely pointed and laughed at the televangelist scandals of the 1980s, only to discover that I was one of “them” until proven otherwise, a gullible congregant in a church of con men.
Yes, there's guilt by association. But that provides a teaching opportunity to differentiate ourselves from the Catholic church–or nominally Protestant charlatans.
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