Roman Catholic World Youth Day is taking place in Sydney this week. The event has drawn thousands of young people from all over the world. World Youth Day is designed to get young people enthusiastic about their Christian faith and putting it into action. This sounds pretty good to me. Not all Christians are that keen on the idea however. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney has launched a campaign to ‘reach out’ to the Catholic pilgrims.
This is bordering on offensive in my mind. The campaign implies that Catholics are not Christians: “Outreach Media staff member Cameron Blair hopes the website will widen that contact Christians can have with Roman Catholic pilgrims”.
Sydney Anglicans are a successful, evangelical diocese. I like a lot of what they do. I’m embarrassed though at this attack on their Christian brothers. I’m sure that they could find something better to put their energy into, with Sydney’s inner-city being what it is. With all the problems the Anglican Church is currently facing, I’m surprised that the Sydney Anglicans can’t recognise Catholics as fellow-conservative Christians, who share many of the same priorities.
I have been raised as a Roman Catholic, and have joined the Anglican Church as an adult. I’m quite aware that there are differences between the two churches. I’m not sure that those differences are important enough to warrant an expensive, time-consuming campaign to evangelise those from the other side.
Filed under: Roman Catholic Church, Sydney Anglicans, World Youth Day
George, are you sure you’re so aware of the differences between Roman Catholicism and conservative Anglicism? I was raised a Roman Catholic, and am now a Reformed Baptist. I have regular debates with my father, who is staunchly Catholic, over a lot of theological and historical issues. I am fairly familiar with Roman Catholic teaching, and I definitely cannot accept it as genuinely Christian. Paul’s message in Galatians regarding those who preach other gospels is directly applicable to the Roman Catholic Church.
I’m happy to expand further; but the gist of what I’m saying is that the Anglican Church in Sydney has its head screwed on right, theologically, if it is reaching out to Roman Catholics with evangelism, rather than accepting them as brothers. We can no more accept Catholics as brothers than we can Muslims, if we properly understand the critical differences between our beliefs.
Regards,
Bnonn
Hi Bnonn
Thanks for your comment. Sure, there are some theological differences between Catholics and Anglicans. I am well aware of these, having been brought up between Catholic and Protestant churches myself. I am not saying that the two denominations are exactly the same, or that the differences aren’t important. What I am saying is that it is offensive for the Sydney Anglicans to try and poach young Catholic pilgrims. If the Anglicans don’t like World Youth Day, that’s fine – they are entitled to their opinion. However, rather than interfering in the Catholic Church’s event, they could perhaps be more productive if they put their efforts into organising something positive of their own. I’m sure that being constructive is better than destructive.
Well George, I suppose that depends on where your priorities lie. If the Anglicans are more concerned with saving souls than making friends, then I think they’re doing exactly the right thing. What they’re doing is positive; just as if they used a Muslim event as a means of witnessing to more Muslims.
Regards,
Bnonn
Hi Bnonn
I think that it is important to recognise that one doesn’t have to agree with something entirely to show respect for it. That for me is the issue here.
I think it is also necessary to distinguish between those who hold to an orthodox Christian faith, and those who don’t. There is obviously a huge difference between Muslims and Catholics in this regard. I do not expect Protestants to agree with the all the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, I do however think that they should recognise the Catholic Church as fellow followers of Jesus Christ.
But George, my whole point has been that, if we are faithful to the Bible, Christians cannot recognize Catholics as fellow followers of Christ. I am distinguishing between those who hold to an orthodox Christian faith (that is, the Christian faith taught in the Bible), and those who don’t. Specifically, since Roman Catholics deny the very core of the gospel (justification by faith), they are, as Paul says in Galatians, “to be accursed”. They are as much followers of Christ as Muslims or Mormons are.
I used the example of Muslims in my previous comments precisely because the Catholic Church recognizes Islam as a religion which worships the same God that Catholics do. Genuine Christians need to understand what exactly the Catholic Church teaches, and how it differs with the faith delivered to the saints. It is not the same religion.
As regards respecting the beliefs of others, I can certainly see biblical warrant to respect freedom of conscience; what I can’t see is biblical warrant to respect outright falsehood, false teaching, and a denial of the gospel of grace. I respect Presbyterian beliefs, even though I think they’re wrong (being a Reformed Baptist myself). But that is very different to respecting Roman Catholic beliefs. Those I cannot respect without actually disrespecting God my savior. Christians cannot respect other religions and respect God; the two are mutually exclusive. No more can a Christian love money and God than another religion and God. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). If we are to remain faithful to biblical teaching, we cannot compromise with Roman Catholicism or Islam or any other religion for the sake of humanistic goals. Respect in the sense you seem to mean is not something we find in the Bible; it’s something which has been adopted by many Christians from secular society—and it has arisen there as a result of humanism, religious pluralism, and moral relativism. It actually undermines our position and dilutes our witness.
So we can’t claim that Roman Catholicism is worthy of respect; let alone falsely affirm that Catholics worship the same God we do. We are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
Regards,
Bnonn
Hi Bnonn
I think we will have to agree to disagree on this. The intention of this post was not to argue about the differences between Catholics and Protestants, but rather to question the appropriateness of an expensive, time-consuming campaign which does nothing to promote Christian unity. It also fails to address what I consider to be more important problems which are present in the streets of Sydney.
I would not like to presume that I have all the finer points of Christian faith worked out entirely. Christ’s followers are broken people. It is for this reason that we should have patience with those whom we don’t agree with, and show them the same genuine love that Jesus Christ demonstrated as God incarnate.