[Bigdaddydvo]

Bluff, fantastic post.

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On the surface it might appear that NR is further away from Peter666 than myself and others. But there are key similarities in their religious outlook. The most key of these is of course that they both are "protesting" against the Church of Rome by their dissents from its views and practices. Thus they are placing personal judgements or the judgement of a minority over the that of the Church. Another similarity is their more restricted views of who can be saved. Note that while Peter666 would agree that through baptism of desire and conformance with the moral dictates of the natural law, that non-christians might be saved, he has nonetheless seemed to assert more limited views of God's mercy, especially regarding those who actively practice a different religion. I could perhaps be wrong about this.


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Despite the similarities you outlined, I think there is distinction between guys like Peter666 and NR. Peter seems to view the Church as something static and unchanging, akin to a snapshot of 1950's Catholicism. Though the Church's spiritual truths are immutable, the ways we worship and methods of devotion are subject to change as the Church dictates. As an example, this is shown through as the evolution of the Mass's celebration for the last 2000 years. Peter rejects the Church's authority to make these changes in making clear his dissent with several reforms initiated in the 2nd Vatican Council. To sum, the Church says CHANGE while Peter says DON'T CHANGE. (For the record, I love the Mass in the Latin Rite, and probably cringe as much as you do watching Liturgical abuses like Hand Holding during the Our Father creep into the new Rite. Nonetheless, the New and Latin Rites equally reflect the spiritual magnatude of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass)

Protestants like NR want reform in areas the Church isn't budging (women priests, birth control OK, etc--I'm not saying Not Ready is for or against these things...the issues are for example purposes only). They are saying CHANGE while the Church is saying NO CHANGE.

They are similar in their rejection of the Magestirium'm ultimate authority to say Yes or No on a particualar subject. It just happens that their motivations for disagreement are different.