Your Pastor Doesn't Want You to Pick Up the Crown
Dear Readers,
I apologize if you weren’t able to read this in time. This article is being negotiated for outside publication. I will add details into this post when it is republished.
Thanks,
Alan
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"We live in more enlightened times, we were told, where people actually understand what they believe instead of just reciting rote dogma. The fact they couldn’t even recite dogma anymore, let alone say explain their faith was outside of mushy platitudes, was lost on them."
This struck a chord in me. I grew up in evangelical churches, and they did bring up this point-- that we were freed from the tyranny of rote dogma, but there was so little substance to the teaching that if you stripped out the Bible verses, you could mistake a sermon for a self help seminar
Wonderful article.
You described the "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" that passes for Christianity quite well. I have noticed how the females, effeminate male, immigrant, LBGTQ++++ types are welcomed with open arms and slide gently into the pews, increasing the headcount for the parish. If a young male firebrand converts, he is immediately counseled to "tone it down", or stop being so legalistic. We had a study after Church and it was like 9 women and myself. I quit going after awhile, it was depressing.
A quote i remember, "The Catholic Church is a women's club, with a few male officers". Vatican 2 kind of pushed the increases feminization of the church with the butterflies and balloons masses. I read Tolkien would not attend a mass in English.
The quote is from one of Leon Podles books. I read several, including "The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity", "Sacrilege" and a few others. He is a faithful Catholic, as well as a federal investigator. Highly recommend his work to learn more about this pressing issue.