The Problem With Protestantism

JMJ

October 9, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI’s now famous September 12, 2006 speech at Regensburg
Germany is profound. But this has nothing to do with the references to
Islam.

The Pope condemned Protestantism, particularly that especially nefarious

form of it known as “Evangelical Christianity.”

“Protestantism” is the name given to the movement that arose after Martin
Luther in the early 16th century. It signifies, in a nice way, opposition to the
Roman Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church. “Protest” is the root
word and goes with this idea of protesting or opposing Roman
Catholicism. Those who protest or oppose Roman Catholicism, but who still
hold to Christ as the Son of God, may be called Protestants.

So, if Protestants believe Christ is the Son of God, how can there be a
problem, you say? And, since we hear so often of Protestants being
“Christians”, and after all Roman Catholics are Christians, we must all be
one big family. Right? Wrong.

Protestants’ beliefs are heretical. For instance, they believe that Faith alone
can save you. What does that mean? It doesn’t matter what you do as long
as you make Jesus Christ your “personal savior”, whatever that
means. Being a Protestant means never having to say that you are sorry. It
means never having to repent.

And then the bulk of them hold to the idea of “sola scriptura” which means
that Tradition does not mean a whit, and that only what is in the Bible is
what matters. (A Bible, which, by the way, the Catholics gave them, for the
most part.) But who interprets the meaning of the Bible? Well, the answer
is anybody who wants to. Hence, the rise of private judgment which means
everybody deciding what is best for themselves. That, folks, is the
foundation of relativism, secularism, and all of the other politically-correct
ills which so severely afflict so many today.
Protestants are schismatic – they do not recognize the Holy Father as their
leader. It is Bishop (or, as with the Anglicans, Bishopette) So-and-so, or it is
Dr. Whatshisname or the Reverend Makingyoufeelgood. As a result, they
are separated from us Roman Catholics. We are not under the same roof
regardless of what the Evangelicals, heretical Catholic theologians, or the
mainstream USA media says.

Heresy and schism are serious things. They send the unrepentant to an
eternity in Hell, and they threaten the souls, and the lives, of so many more
with the errors that are engendered by these very great sins.

When everything is reduced to your private judgment, to your own take on

things, then communications break down between people. This leads to
isolation. This in turn leads to a more easily controlled and manipulated
populace, by a government that is, to say the least, godless.

The same result occurs when you break from the Church and deny the
authority of the Holy Father. At that point, you, and whoever is with you,
are on your respective owns. And, let’s face it, there is always someone or
something bigger and stronger than you in society.

History reinforces the thesis that Protestantism has either been the tool of
the state, or the powerful in any society, or has enhanced the power of
those with the means to exercise their will, to their own benefit, over their
neighbors. Remember, it was a powerful secular leader, an Elector of the
Holy Roman Empire, who sheltered and helped Martin Luther in his sick
quest for “reform.” Kings, Queens, Princes – all ate at the trough of
Protestantism because it gave them the power to more fully rule, or control,
or dominate their subjects.

You see, without the Roman Catholic Church, a universal and powerful
entity in its own right, the secular rulers were free to do whatever they
wanted. Throughout history the Church has stood for the rights of the weak,
the oppressed, the righteous against rulers of all types. With the Church out
of the way, the rulers would not face any opposition within their borders,
and, most importantly, they would not have to listen to the priests and
bishops who would condemn their actions as immoral, thereby informing
them of the dangers their own actions posed to their own immortal
souls. The rulers, like Henry VIII of England, really became the leaders of
their own churches, they became their own Popes, they became their own
gods. And the gods of the people. No one – not the Pope in Rome, not the
cardinals, not the bishops, not a lowly priest – were going to be allowed to
prick their consciences with God’s Truth.

Theocracy was revived with Protestantism – when the head of state became
the head of the state religion. Absolute tyranny came about. No longer
could the populace seek the help of the Church. No longer did the common
man have recourse to the Truth. That was all stopped by the King’s armies,
the Prince’s guards, the Queen’s soldiers.

It gets worse. Protestantism fueled all of this ridiculous talk and the silly
notion of “freedom of religion”. Well, that means anyone can form their
own church without the possibility of any physical or material
repercussions. But that also means that the citizens of that society are
fragmented. They grow to have less and less in common. And let’s be
perfectly honest about something—religion is very important, and if you
and your neighbor don’t have the same one, if you don’t believe in the same
thing, you may be living in a diverse or a multi-cultural society, but you
really don’t have much to talk about of any importance. And so you don’t
feel very close to them. And that means others with cohesion and discipline
and resources are stronger than you. And that means tyranny ensues. And
that means we lose all real security.

People in the USA instinctively sense all of these things today. Many know
they have no one to turn to if things go bad. Many know they have no
protection if the government turns on them.

Their “freedom”, their individuality, their Protestant religion, has left them
naked. And they know it.

Protestantism, particularly Evangelical Christianity, deracinates

people. What do I mean? I mean that once the common bond of religion is
brutally severed, people can only relate on the lowest level – the racial
level. This is because their community, a community with a culture founded
in history and a shared religion, is dismembered. The Pope detailed the
result of it all when he said "The subject then decides, on the basis of his
experiences, what he considers tenable in matters of religion, and the
subjective conscience becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical. In this
way...ethics and religion lose their power to create a community and
become a completely personal matter."

The Holy Father explains how the West got to this point, and he points out
that Protestantism is responsible for the current disastrous state of affairs:
“The inner rapprochement between Biblical faith and
Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only
from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world
history – it is an event which concerns us even today. Given this
convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and
some significant developments in the East, finally took on its
historically decisive character in Europe. We can also express this
the other way around-- this convergence, with the subsequent addition of
the Roman heritage, created Europe and remains the foundation of what
can rightly be called Europe.

“The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part
of Christian Faith has been countered by the call for a dehellenization of
Christianity – a call which has more and more dominated
theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age.

"Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the postulates of the

Reformation in the sixteenth century....."

Protestants reject Greek philosophical inquiry, and with that rejection they
destroy the Christian culture which is the European culture. And in
destroying this life giving society, the Protestants go on to create their own
culture – a culture of the powerful, a culture of the state, a culture of
domination, a culture that we now know as American. A culture that serves
the Father of Lies, and in ruining countless lives, then sending the
despairing souls to Hell.

What are Catholics to do?

Work to build authentic Catholic communities while working to convert all

non-Catholics. We have to save our souls, and the souls of our Catholic
brothers and sisters. We have to try and save the souls of those who are not
Catholic, even though they have been some of our greatest persecutors and
enemies. We do that by knowing the Faith, by understanding human
nature, and by uniting into communities where we help each other to
develop and keep good habits and customs that promote virtue and make
the realization of eternal life possible. We do it by building a culture of life
which can only be a Roman Catholic society.