La Shawn taking heat over remarks about Pope

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Some people have gotten upset at La Shawn Barber over her post about the death of the Pope. They are so upset and so offended that they are writing her emails to let her know that they are delinking her blog. First, the differences between Catholic and Protestant Christians are not new. Second, La Shawn's comments didn't come anywhere near the shameful Catholic bashing that too many other Christians like to engage in. Three, um what did you expect from a non-Catholic Christian? A whole sale endorsement of catholic doctrine? Four, this over the top reaction is as bad as the Catholic bashing that other Christians engage in.

Many years ago, when I was still deep in my young and somewhat foolish stage, I thought it was appropriate to berate every Catholic I came across over things like praying to saints, the definition of a saint, communion, the immaculate conception of Mary, how many children Mary had, and a lot of other things that Protestants and Catholics disagree about. A friend of mine who was Catholic calmly and graciously pointed out to me that it wasn't necessary for me to beat him or any other Catholics over the head with this stuff all the time. He also pointed out that my approach was not exactly the best way of convincing anyone of anything. I thank God for his kind words because they kept me from going off into the deep end into un-Christian anti-Catholic vitriol.

Once I stopped obsessing about the differences I was able to see what faithful Protestants and faithful Catholics held in common (see hubby's post about the "Protestant Pope"). I've been able to appreciate some of the richness of Catholic tradition. That doesn't mean that those things that I disagree with Catholics on have gone away. I still find many things in Catholic doctrine troubling and unbiblical. I could say the same about more than one Protestant denomination. But the differences are not enough to make me break fellowship with my fellow believers.

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