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I have a priest friend, a second generation Italian, who was explaining to his grandma something about the Scriptures and he mentioned in passing the Jewishness of Jesus and Mary. His grandma interrupted "No Juda, Italiano!"
It's not just the Baptists...

Oh, I know it's not just the Baptists, although they do outnumber everyone else in this region, so it's easy to find examples from them. I think the degree of ignorance about scripture equals the ignorance about history. One of my co-workers - a college educated, degreed person - asked where in the Bible it says, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Let me tell you about a faux pas of my own. I graduated from a very good Southern Baptist college in my area. Overall, I consider them to have been wonderful people, and I got along really well with them. As you know, there are many kinds of Baptist - Southern Baptists, Missionary Baptists, etc. Some of my Baptist friends informed me that they were not referred to as "Missionary Postion Baptists," that there was a difference between the two. It was one of those cases where what I said was not what I meant.

That is an excellent thought.

Just be careful that, as we Baptists should not paint all of another faith with one brush, it is unfair to paint all Baptists as ignorant of history or scripture.

I hope everyone understood this in the humorous way it was intended.

I am not implying that Baptists in particular are ignorant of scripture. History, sometimes, but not scripture, at least in East Tennessee. Although many are very good at cutting and pasting parts of scripture to the point of quoting scripture out of context. I think people in general are somewhat ignorant of scripture, at least these days. If I were to level a charge against many in my area, it would be that they only read the parts of scripture that they agree with. For example, St. Paul's statements about faith. Given his audience, and perhaps his enthusiasm, St. Paul made a strong case for faith. St. James, while not disagreeing with St. Paul about the importance of faith, links faith with works to the point of indicating that where no works are present, there may not be any faith there either. In other words, St. James says, in a sense, yes faith is good, but there's more to the story. Many folks in my area read St. Paul and ignore St. James as not relevant. I don't think you can do that with scripture, especially when you belong to a group that supposedly believes everything in the Bible as literal and true. If I were putting my faith in either St. Paul or St. James - not necessary since there is no real contradiction between the two - I would go with St. James. He actually knew Jesus, talked with him, listened to him, and probably actually knew more about Jesus than St. Paul, who came along later. Maybe it all goes back to Martin Luther's arrogance and presumption in declaring St. James writings, a work of divinely inspired scripture, an "epistle of straw" because it didn't agree with his (Luther's) position. Perhaps scripture is somewhat like the Church - more have used it than ever served it.

Amen!

Pastor Berean is quite correct. I have a friend of mine who is a member of a very fundamental, independent Baptist Church. At work, he got into a discussion with a Roman Catholic about Byzantine Catholics. The Roman Catholic refused to believe that we are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and insisted that we were some sort of schismatic group. He printed out the �Who are Byzantine Catholics?� page from this website and had her bring in her Catholic Catechism to show her all the references to Eastern Catholic theology. While she acknowledged he was correct he said he thinks she still believes that we are not actually Catholic.

Admin

Administrator wrote:

[At work, he got into a discussion with a Roman Catholic about Byzantine Catholics. The Roman Catholic refused to believe that we are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and insisted we are some sort of schismatic group. ...While she acknowledged he was correct he said he thinks she still believes that we are not actually Catholic.]


Administrator,

This happens to me often among my Roman Catholic friends. When we were attending a Byzantine Church in Spokane some years ago one of our Benedictine Sister friends ran into us at a Roman Catholic Church where we went one Sunday and told us she was so glad we had 'returned to the faith'.

It does give one opportunities to share and inform. I grew up Roman Catholic, graduated from a Catholic University, taught in a Catholic mission, and was working on an M.A.in Religious Studies years later (in my forties yet!) when I first learned about the Byzantine Catholics and that they were in communion with Rome.

My summer school roomate was taking a course in Byzantine Spirituality from the local Byzantine priest. She invited me to attend Divine Liturgy one Sunday. The next summer I took the same course....Ummmmm.......and then.... \O/

Blessings,


Mary Jo

Admin and Mary Jo,

It really is mind-numbing. I often have occasion to encounter Latin Catholics who pull into the parking lot in front of Our Lady of the Annunciation (the Melkite Cathedral) and alight from their car to admire the exterior of the building. Inevitably, they accept an invitation to view the interior. On entering the vestibule, one immediately sees a large mosaic portrait of Richard Cardinal Cushing, of blessed memory, above a bronze plaque that describes him as "our beloved benefactor" (as he indeed was).

This representation is probably 2 feet by 3 feet (dwarfing photographs of the Pope and Patriarch). To this, which I always thought ought to give a hint that we have some relationship to the Catholic Church (even potentially the erroneous one that we are Latins), I have heard folks say -

"how nice, but everyone loved him, didn't they"

"he was so ecumenical, never minded to which church someone belonged"

"I had heard that even Jews, Protestants, and Orthodox loved him, guess that was the case"

I wish I had a nickel for each time over the past 3.5 decades that I've given the explanation of who and what we are (not sure how often it's been believed though :rolleyes: .

Many years,

Neil

Administrator wrote:

[At work, he got into a discussion with a Roman Catholic about Byzantine Catholics. The Roman Catholic refused to believe that we are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and insisted we are some sort of schismatic group. ...While she acknowledged he was correct he said he thinks she still believes that we are not actually Catholic.]


We are Catholic? I thought we are Orthodox! (Father Dennis would love that one).

There is no difference between the two!

I firmly believe that if one KNOWS the Sacred Scriptures very thoroughly, then one should be Catholic/Orthodox. Because the Catholic/Orthodox Church is the MOST Biblical Church of all churches. Everything that's done, said, lived are all based on the Scriptures. The Liturgy, the devotions, Sacraments, etc. are Scripture based.

It really baffles me soo much how can Protestants who supposedly know the scriptures remain a Protestant? Or are they too blinded by their ego of interpreting the scriptures the way they want believe?

One can pick a verse of the Scritures and many Protestant Churches interpret it all differently. But that would not be so with the Catholic Church...as she is the AUTHOR of the Scriptures. She also determined which books are worthy being in the Scriptures.

As the famous Protestant evangelist, Billy Graham, CREDITED the Catholic/Orthodox Church for writing the Scriptures. So, the Protestants should thank the Catholic/Orthodox Church for bringing the Scriptures to existence. The Protestants should also realize that the Catholic/Orthodox Church is the BEST interpreter of the Sciptures because it is she who wrote it.

Just don't forget that, okay everyone?

It also baffles me so much as to WHY would anyone want to be a member of a church that's founded by men? The Catholic/Orthodox Church is the ONLY Church founded by Christ Himself, the True G-d and Man.

That's not geared to attack the Protestants. I'm merely baffled by it.

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

We are very fortunate that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Knoxville, the Chancellor and the Vicar General are very supportive of the Byzantine Catholic Mission. We get coverage in the RC diocesan newspaper and honorable mention in RC church bulletins. Two of the RC priests that I know of have even given sermons about us. After 5 years of this, the RC faithful are getting a really good idea of who we Byzantines are and what we believe. This kind of support helps greatly.

SPDundas:

I understand the Protestant argument that the Holy Spirit reveals the meaning of scripture to individuals. But how can the Holy Spirit reveal so many different interpretations to so many individuals? I have difficulty accepting that the Holy Spirit is that inconsistent.

I disagree, of course,with the last few posts, but amnot here tp try to defend my beliefs on your forum.

Thanks for the input