There's one particular troll who turns up in the combox from time to time--a fella called Joseph D'Hippolito. I usually just delete his comments because they're so ugly, but the latest one is so choice I thought I'd put it right up here for everyone to read. Feel free to comment...
Joseph says:
Dwight, you can enable comment moderation for a thousand millenia and you can delete comments that you don't like for another 10,000 millenia, but you can't change or ignore this truth:
You will go to Hell unless you renounce your religious bigotry and recognize that anyone who embraces Christ as Lord and Savior -- regardless of whether they're Catholic -- become God's adopted sons and daughters.
Your stance has nothing to do with being a Catholic. It has everything to do with your pompous, snobbish, egotistical attitude. If you were Anglican or an evangelical, you would have the same attitude.
I wish you had as much courage to look into your own soul as you do to dismiss readily people whom you have never met (and I'm not talking about myself, here).
On reflection, I think Joseph might have inspired a new alter ego...Ex Catholic Kevin...
The internet is full of people who are extremely nasty and who have no particular qualifications, skills or experiences other than the fact that they can type.
ReplyDeleteMy advice is that such people are almost always best completely ignored. I give two reasons for this:
1. If you respond to them, you make them somebody
2. Letting anyone and everyone have a public say can damage the mission and work of a website. I've learned that one the hard way. Freedom of speech is great and all, but a site needs to decide what the purpose of open commenting is and then to only approve those comments which contribute positively toward it.
I also think that being rude and insulting is never okay. Ever.
What Joe, and countless others who share his philosophy, doesn't get; is that God makes the rules - not you, not me, not Joe.
ReplyDeleteGod sent His Son Who died for us, offers us salvation and told us how to achieve it. Jesus established a Church to teach and hand on God's truth and to enrich us with God's Sacraments.
Joe would just love to come to God on his own terms. Doesn't work that way. We come to God on God's terms and through His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, which is itself in a beautiful mystery Christ's Body.
So Father, please, apart of course from prayer of charity, ignore Joe. Let him live on in his own proud universe, independent of God and answerable to no one but himself.
Do I understand from your remark about the new alter ego that Joseph is a former Catholic? (It's not clear from this comment but it may be from the others you've seen.)
ReplyDeleteIf so, yes, I've met a few like him (even in my own family!). Another example of poor catechesis (although I've usually been pitied as some sort of bead rattling retard rather than directly insulted like this).
Anyway, Father, thanks for sharing the love that's out there!!
I like it that Father D lets us disagree and debate his posts, as well as say nice things about them.
ReplyDeleteThere are enough blogs where all one is allowed to do is either agree with the author whilst flattering him/her (vomit grovelly type commenting), or apologize in an ever so 'umble and creeping way for not being truly worthy to comment in the first place!!
I read Joe's words here and tried addressing them to myself:
"I wish you had as much courage to look into your own soul as you do to dismiss readily people whom you have never met (and I'm not talking about myself, here)."
I am guilty of doing that to people. I expect we all are to a degree. Heck! I bet even Joe could give us an example where he has been guilty of that. Maybe he did it to Father with this comment!!?
Ex Catholic Kevin sounds cool! I can't wait to get into a comment debate with him!!!
I love your post Veritas, I concur completely.
ReplyDeleteWell, since you do believe that anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour will be God's adopted children through the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Catholic Church and as good children will love and obey their superiors, I'd say congratulations Father! Looks like you're all set for Heaven woohoo!
ReplyDeleteI'll look forward to reading the new alter-ego. Now, I imagine that Mr. D'Hippolito might find a direct reference in the caricature to be pompous and bigoted. That said, you have my permission to name the character after me.
ReplyDeleteI would ask my fellow Joe if he follows Christ, if he embraces Christ.
ReplyDeleteIf so, then he (and I and everyone) need to embrace all that Christ said and did.
We need to embrace the foundation He established (Matt 16:18). We need to embrace His forgiveness in the way He chose to provide it (John 20:21–23). We need to embrace His words, regardless of the difficulty, in John 6:47-55. We need to embrace a Church that daily does just what Christ said to do (Luke 22:19).
If you embrace a person, that hug put your ear right by their lips. When we embrace Christ, we must listen to all that He said, wherever that might lead us.
Nothing to add other than another vote for a new, ex-catholic alter ego (regardless if Mr. D'Hippolito is or not).
ReplyDeleteI hope Fr. Longenecker doesn't stereotype all ex-Catholics as ignorant knee-jerk bumpkins. I am an ex-Catholic myself and I certainly don't act or speak like "Kevin". Someone mentioned only poorly Catechised Catholics leave the CC, not true. I was well Catechised AND read quite a bit of solid Catholic books like The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the old classic Catechism of Trent, Ludwig Ott's "Fundamenyals of Catholic Dogma" and such like materials. But I also studied honest unbiased History as well along with extensive Biblical Studies using excellent Reference material and good exigesis, which is why I am an ex-Catholic. Historical facts and Biblical study with proper exigesis contradicts Roman Dogmas. And yes I've read a good many Catholic apologists as well. When I started off in Historical and Biblical studies I was a Catholic and WANTED the Catholic Church to be what it claimed I wamted to stay Catholic and was biased in favor of the CC, but after extensive study I had to admit that Roman claims are not true. I am still upset about it but the Holy Spirit showed me the way after much prayer and anguish.
ReplyDeleteAhh, another proud graduate of the Jack Chick Theological Seminary's Rivera School for personal evangelism and Catholic baiting... Ducky
ReplyDeleteI've seen his posts around the Catholic blogs. He has slowly lost his faith. I will pray for him.
ReplyDeleteJohn, Its curious that your research helped you to discover that the Catholic faith was not Biblical or Historical.
ReplyDeleteCould you give me one specific example of this?
You had already mentioned that it is shown that Peter was not a monarchical pope, but I explained that we never taught that anyway--so in this case you discovered that what we believed was 'false' but it wasn't something we actually believed.
Despite your claim that you are well educated in your Catholicism, at least on that one, not much of your reading seems to have sunk in.
But I may have it wrong, and by all means do give another specific example.
John, Like Fr I am puzzled by your journey.
ReplyDeleteI started an atheistic and in teenage years became a staunch Evangelical.
However, as I continued my solid study of Scripture and the 2000 year history of the Church I was reluctantly (at first) dragged by the Holy spirit to the inescapable truth that Our Lord had founded One Church and that only that Church's teachings actually "squared up" with Scripture.
I was also finding more and more Scriptural references that simply flatly contradicted Protestant teaching - far too numerous for me to even to begin to list. It was my love of Scripture, begun as I first discovered Christ, that in fact forced me to become Catholic. Too many statements in Scripture can only be explained by the Catholic faith. Too many statements in Scripture simply contradict Protestant teaching or simply don't make sense when held up against Protestant teaching.
And my intense study of history showed that there had been only One Church from Our Lord's time. One Church that had bishops, priests, deacons, Sacraments, Prayers for the dead, prayers to the Saints, a head bishop (Peter) etc etc. The study of the earliest writings of the Church Fathers showed me that these things were NOT, as the Protestants claimed, medieval inventions at all. They were there from the beginning.
I can only literally thank God that after a very long journey He brought me home.
Yes, John. Please give us a specific example. I just finished reading Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma myself and while I was reading it came back to the Church after a 5 year absence. As a result, I am having trouble seeing how you could have done the level you said you have and left the Church.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if "Joe" is real or is "Kevin" or if "Kevin" is real but I just have one question:
ReplyDeleteWHAT BLOG HAVE YOU BEEN READING!?!
Definitely not the one I've been reading!
very strange indeed........
Rather than respond to anyone specific here I will tell you where I am. I am not one of those rabid Jack Chic type Anti-Catholics, I don't think I would even qualify as one of those low Church Evangelicals that are common in the U.S IE Calvary Chapel, Southern Baptist or any Baptist type Churches. I am a Catholic, just not Roman. To be specific I am an Anglican, not like the goofy Parody Anglicans of Fr Longeneckers Blog, or the pseudo-Christian American Episcopal Church but the true World-Wide Anglican Church of the Africans, the Anglican Church of the Global South, the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and the one I belong to is the legitimate Anglican body in the U.S. The Anglican Church in North America.ACNA. We have much in common with Roman Catholics, more so than the standard issue Evangelical Christians do. But there is much we still disagree on as well. To me Conservative Biblical, Prayer Book (1662 of course) 39 Article Anglicanism is closest to the Apostolic Church and what the RCC should have been.
ReplyDeleteHow about an ex-Catholic convert to Jehovah's Witness? It just adds another layer of potential.
ReplyDeleteJohn said:
ReplyDelete"I am an Anglican, not like the goofy Parody Anglicans of Fr Longeneckers Blog, or the pseudo-Christian American Episcopal Church but the true World-Wide Anglican Church of the Africans, the Anglican Church of the Global South, the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and the one I belong to is the legitimate Anglican body in the U.S."
I just love the way that EACH of the countless breakaway Episcopal / Anglican groups loudly declares that IT is the true Anglican church, not like those "other" confused heretical groups.
John, I'm afraid your group has no more claim to be THE ONE than any of the other 40,000 (and counting) denominations / sects etc.
The best thing about the picture (of course besides your ordination) is Bishop Baker's miter. Where did he get that?
ReplyDeleteJohn, why should your Anglican church be the right one and the other couple of hundred be the wrong ones?
ReplyDeleteIs there any basis for this claim other than your own opinion?
Well lets see how many Catholic Churches are there, hmm, we have the Liberal Catholics, the "main stream Catholics", "Conservative Catholics",the Traditionalist Catholics, and the ultra-Traditionalist Catholics called "Sede-Vacantists", which one is the"True Catholic" after all they ALL claim to be the real deal.
ReplyDeleteWell the test of which Anglicans are the genuine article are:
1. The Traditional Book of Common Prayer 1662 and local variations directly based on it.
2. The Historical Ordinal
3. The 39 Articles of Religion
4. Holy Scripture as the inspired infallible written Word of God by which all Doctrines and Traditions are tested by. Holy Scripture containethh all things necessary for salvation and whatsoever is not read therein nor can be proved thereby is not to be believed by any man, which BTW is the Patristic view. In the Early Church ALL things were tested by Scripture.
BTW when Roman Catholic Apologists say there are 30,000, 33,000, now the latest I heard that number is up to 40,000 Denominations. That is a bold faced lie, that has been dubunked numerous times, the truth is that there are less than 10-20 Denominational groups who if you look at them closely on the essentials differ very little between each other, I suggest before you trumpet 30,000 plus Denominations you all do some research otherwise non-Roman catholics will not take you seriously, the word is out, any Catholic who uses that "30,000 plus Denominations" schtick is a laughing stock in the Evangelical Apologist camp, just sayin'
John says of the fact that there are around 40,000 Protestant denominations - "That is a bold faced lie, that has been dubunked numerous times..."
ReplyDeleteWell, no, John. It has not "been dubunked numerous times". In fact, quite the opposite. If you do just a little impartial research you will find PROTESTANT scholars who give this as the number of Protestant denominations.
John, please follow Fr Longenecker's links to the articles by Protestant sources.
I can understand, though, why you would be desperate to deny the number of Protestant denominations - it is rather embarrassing.
John,
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I missed it when I first read your last post, but one of your statements is a whopper! When talking about the different Protestant denominations you state that - "who if you look at them closely on the essentials differ very little between each other".
WHAT!!!! Are you serious?
The numerous Protestant churches differ radically on every single issue and doctrine known to mankind.
They differ on:
Sacraments - are there any? If so how many? Are they important let alone essential? Do we baptise infants?
Scripture - Is it infallible?
How are the hundreds of thousands of Bible verses to be interpreted?
Should we have an ordained ministry?
Should women be ordained?
Is divorce ever permitted? If so when?
Is birth control OK?
Is abortion ever allowed?
Is alcohol allowed?
Are you allowed to kill in war?
And so on, and so on, and so on.
No two Protestant churches agree on any but a few of these issues. And if they agree on anything today, chances are tomorrow some of their members will have had a fight about some issue and broken away from their denomination to start a new one.
Only ONE Church traces its history in an unbroken line back to Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Only ONE Church was given the authority of the keys of Heaven and Earth. Only ONE Church, in an early Council, declared what writings were in the inspired Canon of Scripture - the Scripture that you read.
And that Church is the Catholic Church.
John: The 30,000 + assertion of Protestant denominations has been verified by the tax filings published in Pub 78. If you would take the time to review this aforementioned data and their attendant 990 filings , the number is staggering.
ReplyDelete