"There is something about the nature of Protestant sermons, Bible studies and devotionals that seems to always take Bible verses out of context." - This is not charitable. Many Protestant preachers preach exegetically through entire books of the Bible to guard against taking verses out of context. An argument for your point can always be made without tearing down anyone critical to it.
I am sorry, but that is not my experience. I worked as a Methodist youth minister and attended Liberty University. I have heard at least hundreds of Protestant sermons and that has been the norm. I am sure there are exceptions but I have not heard them. My intent is not to be uncharitable, but to judge the tree by its fruit. I have heard plenty of bad homilies, too. But, the daily mass readings are designed to provide the contextual meaning for the passages and Catholic Bibles contain explanatory notes to ensure that difficult verses are understood. I would go so far as to state that Everything in regard to Catholic teaching and practice concerning the Bible is to ensure that verses are not taken out of context and to prevent error. Were the same true of the Protestant churches, Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, Bible Classes, etc. that I experienced I would gladly say so and be pleased that such was the case. But, I could give you fairly shocking examples of several ministers who preached long sermons on a topic that they claimed was explicit int he Bible, but in truth is not mentioned or really even implied in its pages.
I'm sorry that you had such a Biblically error filled youth. I'm sure you know that you are painting with a broad brush from your own experience. That was not my experience at all. I also never once heard a preacher disparage Catholic preaching. There are many faithful churches preaching clear and error free doctrine. Let us be thankful for that! I'm thankful that you are now in the Catholic Church and that you are now thriving. Peace be with you.
I must to tally agree with Judson! He is spot on! When my parents married, my mother was a dyed in the wool Protestant, and my dad a Catholic. They had a good marriage except my mother obsessed with turning me into Protestant, so I wouldn't go to hell. Thus she sent me to Congrational, Methodist and Baptist Churches at a time when Congrationalists and Methodist were still staunch Even videos like Baptist. Everyone preached against the Catholic Church every Sunday both in Sunday School and services. They never seemed to talk about anything else! They commended my mother and condemed my dad to hell! Fortunately for me both my dad and his grandmother were well taught in the Scriptures and Catholic faith. As a result I remained faithful to the Catholic faith and rejected the Protestant faith. Fortunately also when I was 17 my mother, thanks to Bishop Sheen, converted and never looked back. I never experienced the love and mercy of God from Protestants, never!!!!!!
Before I returned to the Catholic faith I was at a Protestant College, and I also attended Baptist, Methodist and Church of God in Christ (another Protestant offshoot).I can tell you from my experience I heard quite a few sermons (and of course my friends and or members) over the years putting down Catholics, or just simply being ignorant. It was actually a comment from a female pastor years ago who said, "the Catholics have taken the whole Mary thing way too far," and this one just turned me back toward Mary in a big way. Now I know many kind Protestants. I have many friends in that area, and they are overall respectful, but if you get down to speaking about the Catholic faith it is no secret how many people feel. And to be fair I do not speak very highly of the Protestant faith overall, but I will always offer respect toward them.
I respect genuine faith, but I do feel a duty to correct false teaching, identify outright bigotry and to defend the truth of Catholic doctrine. I think we all have that in common
If I can interject a bit here, in my experience, I have benefited tremendously from the research of Protestant theologians on the subject of Sacred Scripture. I have used their research to write Catholic essays/thesis/chapters.
There are some good writers and I am sure there are some good preachers. But I can tell you that when Dr. Charles Stanly, for instance held up his Bible and repeated over and over, "The Bible says once saved, always saved." or "The Bible says absent from the Body, present with the Lord." or Dr. Falwell said, "The Bible says that drinking even one drop of alcohol is a sin." Or Pat Robertson said that the Bible says that Saint Peter has absolutely no role of authority, etc.... they were either untruthful or extremely confused. ... and don't even get me started on Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker or Joel Osteen... I have no idea what they were reading!
Yes, we agree. That is not my point and as I said I do not condemn all or really anyone. But the confusion sown by taking this particular verse out of context is one of the main charges of anti-Catholic bigotry. All Catholics need to understand why and how to defend against it. I promise you that at a certain Baptist university right now a room ful of students are being taught "Catholics are not really Christian. The Bible says call no man father..... etc." and, the reason is lack of context.
Perhaps this lack of context also derives from Protestants’ lacking Sacred Tradition. We as Catholics know that Scripture and Tradition are inseparable and equally necessary for our salvation. However, Protestants reject Tradition and have done so ever since their founders broke off from the Catholic Church. This may contribute to Protestants’ lacking the full context in many of their beliefs.
"There is something about the nature of Protestant sermons, Bible studies and devotionals that seems to always take Bible verses out of context." - This is not charitable. Many Protestant preachers preach exegetically through entire books of the Bible to guard against taking verses out of context. An argument for your point can always be made without tearing down anyone critical to it.
I am sorry, but that is not my experience. I worked as a Methodist youth minister and attended Liberty University. I have heard at least hundreds of Protestant sermons and that has been the norm. I am sure there are exceptions but I have not heard them. My intent is not to be uncharitable, but to judge the tree by its fruit. I have heard plenty of bad homilies, too. But, the daily mass readings are designed to provide the contextual meaning for the passages and Catholic Bibles contain explanatory notes to ensure that difficult verses are understood. I would go so far as to state that Everything in regard to Catholic teaching and practice concerning the Bible is to ensure that verses are not taken out of context and to prevent error. Were the same true of the Protestant churches, Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, Bible Classes, etc. that I experienced I would gladly say so and be pleased that such was the case. But, I could give you fairly shocking examples of several ministers who preached long sermons on a topic that they claimed was explicit int he Bible, but in truth is not mentioned or really even implied in its pages.
I'm sorry that you had such a Biblically error filled youth. I'm sure you know that you are painting with a broad brush from your own experience. That was not my experience at all. I also never once heard a preacher disparage Catholic preaching. There are many faithful churches preaching clear and error free doctrine. Let us be thankful for that! I'm thankful that you are now in the Catholic Church and that you are now thriving. Peace be with you.
I must to tally agree with Judson! He is spot on! When my parents married, my mother was a dyed in the wool Protestant, and my dad a Catholic. They had a good marriage except my mother obsessed with turning me into Protestant, so I wouldn't go to hell. Thus she sent me to Congrational, Methodist and Baptist Churches at a time when Congrationalists and Methodist were still staunch Even videos like Baptist. Everyone preached against the Catholic Church every Sunday both in Sunday School and services. They never seemed to talk about anything else! They commended my mother and condemed my dad to hell! Fortunately for me both my dad and his grandmother were well taught in the Scriptures and Catholic faith. As a result I remained faithful to the Catholic faith and rejected the Protestant faith. Fortunately also when I was 17 my mother, thanks to Bishop Sheen, converted and never looked back. I never experienced the love and mercy of God from Protestants, never!!!!!!
Forgive the spell check typos! I am still trying to turn off spell check!
Before I returned to the Catholic faith I was at a Protestant College, and I also attended Baptist, Methodist and Church of God in Christ (another Protestant offshoot).I can tell you from my experience I heard quite a few sermons (and of course my friends and or members) over the years putting down Catholics, or just simply being ignorant. It was actually a comment from a female pastor years ago who said, "the Catholics have taken the whole Mary thing way too far," and this one just turned me back toward Mary in a big way. Now I know many kind Protestants. I have many friends in that area, and they are overall respectful, but if you get down to speaking about the Catholic faith it is no secret how many people feel. And to be fair I do not speak very highly of the Protestant faith overall, but I will always offer respect toward them.
I respect genuine faith, but I do feel a duty to correct false teaching, identify outright bigotry and to defend the truth of Catholic doctrine. I think we all have that in common
Absolutely.
If I can interject a bit here, in my experience, I have benefited tremendously from the research of Protestant theologians on the subject of Sacred Scripture. I have used their research to write Catholic essays/thesis/chapters.
There are some good writers and I am sure there are some good preachers. But I can tell you that when Dr. Charles Stanly, for instance held up his Bible and repeated over and over, "The Bible says once saved, always saved." or "The Bible says absent from the Body, present with the Lord." or Dr. Falwell said, "The Bible says that drinking even one drop of alcohol is a sin." Or Pat Robertson said that the Bible says that Saint Peter has absolutely no role of authority, etc.... they were either untruthful or extremely confused. ... and don't even get me started on Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker or Joel Osteen... I have no idea what they were reading!
Sure, but to be fair, I can give you Catholic names that are problematic too...
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Balthasar
von Speyr
Rahner
Küng
Richard Rohr
And that's off the top of my head
Yes, we agree. That is not my point and as I said I do not condemn all or really anyone. But the confusion sown by taking this particular verse out of context is one of the main charges of anti-Catholic bigotry. All Catholics need to understand why and how to defend against it. I promise you that at a certain Baptist university right now a room ful of students are being taught "Catholics are not really Christian. The Bible says call no man father..... etc." and, the reason is lack of context.
Perhaps this lack of context also derives from Protestants’ lacking Sacred Tradition. We as Catholics know that Scripture and Tradition are inseparable and equally necessary for our salvation. However, Protestants reject Tradition and have done so ever since their founders broke off from the Catholic Church. This may contribute to Protestants’ lacking the full context in many of their beliefs.
Yes, exactly!