Nathan Sheets - 6 Things I Like About the Catholic Church

galadriel2006 and I have been having small discussions here and there about Catholicism. Many protestants take issue with Catholics, some of whom assume that 1) Catholics are not automatically "saved" (whatever that means) and 2) that the Catholic church is actually shown in the Bible as being the anti-Christ.

I find both assumptions rather silly for protestants to be making considering the state of the "protestant church". I don't know why many evangelicals cannot see it, but the state of the "American church" is in shambles. That is for another post—and frankly I believe that realization must come from a revelation from the Holy Ghost. In order to show galadriel2006 that I am, not, in fact, totally ignorant of the Catholic church, I've decided to do a few blog entries on them, discussing several Catholics beliefs that are both the same as me and different than me. This first one will be on things that I like about the Catholic church.

1) They are pro-life.
Obviously this is important to me. But not only are the Catholics pro-life, they are sometimes single-handedly for life. Without the Catholic wing of the pro-life movement, we'd have a lot of issues. Many of the ladies at Oregon Right to Life, where I worked for a summer internship, are Catholic—and not the wishy-washy Catholic kind either.

2) They are against contraception.
While the feminists may shriek at this, the Catholics give wonderful, spiritual reasoning for this, most of which I agree with. It isn't a blind position, devoid of any reasoning whatsoever. They, like me, see the connection between contraception and abortion. We also understand that marriage was created for family-making, not sex-having. God created sex to be had within the context of marriage, in order to create a strong family unit, as well as a spiritual foundation for the children. Or, in other words, He created sex in marriage, not sex for marriage.

3) The woman follow the order.
There probably are exceptions to this, of course. The Catholic church has done a pretty good job of keeping the order of men and women, at least in the church—households could be another thing altogether. There are no Catholic girl-priests, and I've yet to hear of the women killing themselves because of this doctrine. I also believe that women should not be in authority over men, but the protestant churches either ignore this teaching in the Bible, explain it as "cultural", or, on the other hand, follow the teaching outwardly while the women of the church manipulate their husbands and the leadership in order to have control. Not good.

4) They have reverence in their services.
As a charismatic, I'm not a huge fan of the slowness of the mass. But while I do believe in being free before the Lord, that does not mean that we should lose reverence. Does that make sense? I totally believe that you can shout to the Lord, wave your hands to the Lord, dance before the Lord, and do it with fear and reverence. But many churches, charismatic or otherwise, do not have reverence for God. The Catholics, presumably because of their long tradition and routine of their services, at least keep it reverent. Of course, as with any church, reverence is not all their is, because God looks at our hearts.

5) They are not "once-saved-always-saved".
Well, there you have it. While it seems as if Calvinism is all-the-rage among protestants these days, the Catholics hold to the Biblical teaching of perseverance, though I believe it eventually becomes moot if you rely on purgatory to cover for your sins.

6) They recognize that Mary was blessed.
While obviously they take it to a degree that is extremely uncomfortable to me (see upcoming posts), they see that Mary was special. (This is not to say protestants don't, of course. This is not supposed to be a Catholics vs. Them kind of thing, just things I like about the Catholic church.)

There are actually quite a few Catholic teachings that I either agree with or am, at least in my ignorance, leaning toward. I may discuss those as well.