Some Catholics Just Don’t Understand: Thoughts on the New Evangelization

In my conversations with Protestants and fellow Catholics, in my own experience leaving and returning to the Catholic faith, and especially in watching my wife on her journey to Rome, one thing has become painfully clear. Most faithful Catholics simply do not understand Protestant reasoning. Moreover, they fail to grasp the degree to which anti-catholic sentiment truly reaches. Even for those who recognize on some level the opposition to Catholicism, too often they can’t wrap their brains around the notion that many catholic practices that they assumed were universally held would actually be repulsive to some otherwise faithful Christians.

A clarification is in order. In using the term “anti catholic,” I don’t mean to imply that fundamentalist Christians hold any hatred or malice toward Catholics (though undoubtedly, some do hate what they believe the church teaches and practices). Rather, I simply mean that they are opposed to the catholic faith. At times, vehemently so.

Searching for True Bible Christianity

Scripture Alone?

Every Protestant and fundamentalist Christian group outside of the Orthodox, Oriental and Catholic Churches subscribe to the belief that Holy Scripture is the sole arbiter for truth and the only authority on which teaching and doctrine can be based.

At first blush, this makes perfect sense. Just as governments have laws and companies have policies which we must follow and for which we will be held accountable, certainly Christ’s church would have a “rule book” that we can all turn to for guidance and instruction. Obviously, there is no need for any other authority than the Bible, right?