The Pope Says ---- GET OUT!

Today Pope Benedict warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion. According to the Catholic Church if you go against Church law you can be ex-communicated. There is a saying from antiquity that goes as such, “I am glad that I was born a human being not a beast, next, a man and not a woman, thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian.” (sounds like Gal. 3:28-huh) Well I am glad to be born a Protestant not a Catholic! Good grief honorable Pope!

If you’re not familiar with Catholicism, they believe that scripture along with tradition are regarded as authoritative, unlike Protestantism that believes in solo scriptura, only scripture is authoritative. I am not anti-Catholicism but I have significant issues with the primacy of the Pope and tradition. But I don't want to diminish all the things that the Catholic Church has contributed to history and the humanitarian work they do throughout the world. Catholicism has never been attracted to me duly because of confession and rejection of birth control…that’s just absurd. However, I do regard the tradition highly and in my senior year of college I spent a summer in Rome, Italy. I visited the Vatican on several occasions. I was even able to attend a Papal audience to see the late Pope John Paul the III. It was a memorable moment.

So who really is the church? Who really is a Christian? I sometimes try and draw a line in the sand, but then I am reminded of the parables where Jesus admonishes us to allow the wheat and tare to grow together and allow God to make the separation. But I also want to be a gatekeeper for my Faith. I am not always sure how I do that without being a hypocrite or being irresponsible. But I am pretty sure that I don’t want to enforce ex-communicating those who think differently than me.