The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Timothy George says we have nothing to worry

But are they rushing out and joining the Catholic Church? Do they really believe the only differences now are about incense, robes, and rosary beads? And he (the pope) does in fact defend many aspects of a Christian worldview...just not the most important one.

To go back to the Luther illustration, supposing Ratizinger was in fact a Luther in the making (his specialty is Augustinian theology), would it be more or less likely that he would move in those directions if he believed the bible was human rather than divine in origin? Would he be more or less likely to move in that direction if he believed God was not really a Divine Person but "the ground of all Being," or a cosmic force realizing itself through evolution? And this isn't just about the beliefs of the pope himself, there is a "trickle-down" effect on other priests and teachers inside the church. This is true whether the pope is "good" or "bad," and from what I've seen most Catholics will swallow anything, so I don't wish to see a more heretical pope just so Protestants will remember why we're not Catholics.


How Protestants perceive the pope really is not imortant in my opinion, provided they don't join his church or start citing his authority on doctrinal matters, which at present, none of them (that I know) are doing. If they believe what the RCC is teaching is "the true gospel" it's their own fault and the fault of their pastors. The souls of millions within the RCC are simply too precious for me to worry about the doctrinal incorrectness of certain latitudinarian Protestants.