“Sleepless Vegetarians”?

This article on the MetaLutheran blog is for all of you who like to look to the Bible for support of your own position on whatever happen to be the hot issues of the day.

This article takes us all the way back to the first four centuries of church history. At that time, one of the hot issues of the day was vegetarianism. Many in the Church at that time believed that if you were truly serious about the things of God, you would be vegetarian.

Making My Peace with the Catholic System of Things–The Final Installment

[NOTE: This is the last of a four-part series. Here is the first installment. Here is the second installment. And here is the third installment.]

At last, I am coming to the end of my series on the Catholic system of things and how it relates to my life. If you have just found me, I would recommend that you go back and read the first three installments before continuing. In the first installment, I discussed the problems that I see in mainline and evangelical Protestantism. In the second installment, I looked at the things in the Catholic Church which I see as worthy of respect and admiration. And in the third installment, I looked at my most insurmountable objections to the Catholic system of things, and how the Catholic teachings and practices in question contrast with the clear teaching of Scripture.

So where do we go from here? What do we do with all of this information that I just presented?

If It Had Been Me in the Garden That Day, Would I Have Done Any Better?

It is not uncommon for Christians to lament the Fall and its effects upon our world, saying things such as, “Why should I have to bear the curse of sin for something that someone else did several thousand years ago? If it had been me in the Garden that day, I would never have eaten that fruit.”

But is that really true?

Making My Peace with the Catholic System of Things–The Third Installment

[NOTE: This is the third of a four-part series. Here is the first installment. Here is the second installment. And here is the final installment.]

Here at last is the third installment in my ongoing series on the Catholic system of things and how it relates to my life. As I consider this, there are three principal thoughts which stick out in my mind. The first is that being Protestant ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. I explored this in the first installment, in which I discussed the problems that I see in mainline and evangelical Protestantism. The second is that there is much in the Catholic Church that is worthy of respect and admiration. I discussed this in the second installment.

So, if you are still tracking with me, by this point you are probably thinking something to the effect of “Oh no!!! Joe’s about to march right off the cliff and into the abyss of Romanism!!! Somebody better throw him a lifesaver–QUICK!!!!!”

Well, folks, don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. For though I have now come to the place where I can be a fan and admirer of the Catholic Church, I am not about to sign up. Nothing that I see in evangelicalism, no matter how bizarre or problematic, will be enough, now or at any time in the future, to push me over the abyss of Catholicism.

Why?

This brings me to my third principal thought.

Making My Peace with the Catholic System of Things–The Second Installment

[NOTE: This is the second of a four-part series. Here is the first installment. Here is the third installment. And here is the final installment.]

I am currently in the process of rethinking my attitude toward the Catholic Church and my Catholic upbringing. In the previous installment I recounted some personal history on how I became a Christian and how I got to where I am now. I said that there are three things which stick out in my mind as I look back on the Catholic Church and contrast it with what I have seen in evangelical Protestantism. The first is that being Protestant ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. I looked at mainline Protestantism, its descent into liberalism and denial of essential Christian doctrine in order to appeal to those who believe that modern knowledge invalidates the possibility of the supernatural. I then looked at evangelical Protestantism, the shallowness of the fads that it runs after (including the seeker-sensitive movement and the Christian media machine), and the dreadful image that we present to the world through our obsessive-compulsive approach to evangelism and politics.

Now I come to the second thing.

Making My Peace with the Catholic System of Things

[NOTE: This is the first of a four-part series. Here is the second installment. Here is the third installment. And here is the final installment.]

The death of Pope John Paul II and the election of a new Pope have thrust the Catholic Church to the front and center of the world’s attention during the last few weeks. For this reason, I feel it necessary to share my own reflections on the Catholic Church and how it relates to my own life.