Protestantism: No Moral Bark in the HHS Mandate Debate

Why the Protestant teaching of "Faith Alone" is Dangerous Ground.

Summary: Protestants can only argue the Constitutional side of the HHS Contraception Debate; they have no moral integrity to argue the moral side or what they have taught verbally, and practiced for decades

Here's the simple explanation of why Obama-Pelosi-Sebelius-and-Progressives (OPSP) think they are not violating Christian principles by mandating free contraception to all Americans.

They believe -- literally -- what Protestants have taught, that salvation is by FAITH ALONE (Sola Fide). While Protestants technically refer to Faith Alone in the concept of initial justification, it sounds to the ill-informed that it is the bedrock of Christian life -- that Christian principles are acts of the mind and not of the body.

Sola Fide became the banner cry of Protestants in objection to what they falsely believed was the teaching of Catholicism (that we are saved only through and by our works). Catholicism never taught that, but because of some misled bishops and at least one pope at the time of Luther and Calvin, the political emphasis was in the "works" direction. That caused Luther to rebel, something the Catholic Church does not fault him for. Calvin was a different sort. See footnote [1].

Now, most Protestants do not practice what they preach. They preach "Faith Alone" but they don't practice it. Out of their love for Christ they do good works. Plenty of them. They will argue that their "faith" informs their "life" or daily behavior.

This distinction between faith and works is an important distinction in the current political debate about OPSP's mandate for free contraception to all Americans.  The mandate's philosophy (and thus the philosophy of OPSP, is that Christianity is a "faith only" proposition. That is, it only exists in the mind. In other words, OPSP believe what Protestants have been saying out loud since the founding of the country: Our faith is what we do mentally, not what we do outwardly.

So, it is logical to OPSP that mandating a "work" should have no impact on the Christian "faith" -- because Christians are really just "faith alone" -- their religion is one of the mind -- it's just a psychological state -- a mental trick -- and it really has no effect on the physical realm -- or works.  To OPSP Christianity is a private matter -- what you do in your home or church -- and it should have no place in the physical, material realm. They ask, "Isn't that what faith alone means?"

But OPSP cannot say that to the "practicing" and "knowledgeable" Catholic [2], who have consistently taught that faith informs the works that we do. Catholicism has always taught that faith and works are inseparable -- two sides of the same coin. And that is why in the current debate it is Catholicism that leads the charge against the OPSP attack. Only the the Catholic Church has the moral integrity to do so. Protestants can only argue the Constitutional side of the issue; they have no moral integrity to argue the moral side or what they have taught verbally, and practiced for decades with regard to contraception, which leads logically to "faith alone" -- that religion is just a mental act (faith alone) and that contraception is morally okay.

See also my post on Humanae Vitae 17.

[Footnote 1] What upset Luther doesn't explain the other Protestant rebellions against the Church, e.g., Calvin's or Henry VIII's lust for power. Calvin's thirst was for spiritual control, Henry VIII's was for political control.

[Footnote 2] There are really very few "practicing" and "knowledgeable" American Catholics. Most have been Protestantized. Kathleen Sibelius, in fact, baptized a Catholic is now denied communion because of her political practice of supporting abortion and contraception. Catholic bloggers think Pelosi will soon be excommunicated since she has repeatedly fulfilled the canonical requirements of such an action over her support for abortion and contraception and other progressive, immoral policies. But, when the bishops get up the backbone to do what the Church requires, is another thing. 

Humanae Vitae (via the Holy Spirit) to the Rescue

The caption says: I TOLD YOU SO

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY PROTESTANT FAMILY WHO ARE CONVINCED CATHOLICISM IS WRONG AND ONLY THEIR CHURCH IS RIGHT.... even when they change churches because they don't like what their pastor was teaching.(*)

Dear Family,

I trust you are paying attention to this very important moral battle for the soul of our nation. You may be thinking that the Religious Liberty enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution is being trampled upon by Obama and his minions.

But there is a more important battle being waged. It is a battle for the souls of men and women, young and old, and those unborn as predicted by Pope Paul VI in 1968.

 

In 1968, the lone and very unpopular voice of Pope Paul VI wrote a REAFFIRMATION of Church teaching about artificial birth control and contraception in all its forms. The instrument was his Encyclical Letter OF HUMAN LIFE, (or in Latin the first words of the letter... Humanae Vitae.) No other Church agreed with the Pope, and EVERY other Church, especially those that had no respect for Catholicism) CHANGED their stance on birth control and allowed it. This was only one of many ways that moral relativism creeped into Christianity. But not so in Catholic teaching. Yes, many Catholics embraced Protestantism in practice. But the Church as a teaching institution protected by the promise of Christ in the Gospels,  never caved.

In 1968 Protestants and secularists laughed and ridiculed the Pope for his prophecies of the natural consequences that would beleaguer the world if artificial birth control was allowed. In section 17 of Humane Vitae he wrote (and I'm paraphrasing):

1. The road to infidelity in marriage will be opened wide.
2. There will be a general lowering of public morality.
3. Men would finally lose respect for the woman... and use "her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected an beloved companion."

Then the second paragraph of that section (17.2) reads this way, 44 years ago:

"Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power (contraception) passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law.... Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife."
 
At the time theologians (even Catholic theologians), physicians, sociologists, and all manner of other experts advised the pope to loosen the strings of the Church's teachings on contraception. But the Pope, being protected by the Holy Spirit (Christ's explicit promise) from promulgating doctrine in error, wrote Humane Vitae, and once again the Holy Spirit protected the Church from teaching error. (Mt 16:18-19, John 16:12-13, John 20:22-23)

And this past week we see it fulfilled, yet again.

And it is the only Church that has never reversed any teaching from the time of the Apostles. If you think it has changed, then you don't know the teachings of the Church but have listened to the misrepresentations of others who would marginalize the Church for their personal gain. 

This is why so many of us are Catholic. We'd rather be members of a Church that has proven its infallibility by NOT changing moral teachings, (even under intense pressure to do so), than to become moral relativists, like the rest of christian culture.... even the Orthodox. Truth does not change. Natural Law does not change. Christ does not change.    What is true is NOT up to us to decide.

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* Ray Guarendi is right. There is a new atheism in the U.S. It comes from Christians who say, "There is a God. And he's just like me."