Catholicism Fading in Latin America

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The growth in protestantism is all very disturbing. And if you are asking 'why?' then you should be aware that it's rather self explanatory.

Pretend it's not self explanatory, since it is not.  I grant that for many protestant denominations, I can see why you would find their growth to be disturbing, but the issue which seems to touch most directly upon why you might find this all very disturbing is not a defining issue for protestantism.  Or are you equating all protestant denominations with those which you find disturbing?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The growth in protestantism is all very disturbing. And if you are asking 'why?' then you should be aware that it's rather self explanatory.

Pretend it's not self explanatory, since it is not.  I grant that for many protestant denominations, I can see why you would find their growth to be disturbing, but the issue which seems to touch most directly upon why you might find this all very disturbing is not a defining issue for protestantism.  Or are you equating all protestant denominations with those which you find disturbing?

You're kidding yourself if you think the growth in 'protestantism' is in say, cuddly Episcopalians. It's growth is in the same sort of church that the USA excels in spreading like a venereal disease across the world. It's the same style, the same vapidness, the same suits, the same music, the same sermons, the same promises, the same banality, the same persecution complex, the same victims, the same victimised, the same sh-t that the USA, the one country in the world that makes Christianity into a consumer product exports throughout the world.

Everywhere it goes, it chips away at local culture and decides that the issues that concern the Reverend Asshole of Bum, Ohio must be the concerns of Uganda or China or Chile. Throwing in a little latin heat doesn't take away the taste.

Sigh.  Even tho admittedly they are the largest segment of the growth, to take the most homophobic variants as the standard of Protestantism is to misrepresent what Protestantism stands for.  Now if the reason some denominations were growing more than others was due to their anti-gay stance, I could understand your vitriol against Protestantism in general.  But that seems to be a chance result.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

But, for those "Christians" who reject the bible as the world of God and go off and create their own religion, I don't have anything to do with them.  Believing that the bible is the word of God is the dividing line for it is written:

1Cor 14:36-38 Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38 But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.

So Paul determined what books would be in the canonical Bible?  That would be an astonishing claim, and not one I think you are trying to doodle here, yet without it, then even for those who accept 1 Corinthians as the word of not merely Paul, but of God, one cannot logically use the passage as a basis for claiming the entire traditional Protestant canon is.  But beyond that, 1 Cor 14:36 can be used as a basis for thinking that there may be texts outside the canon that are the word of God, or even texts outside the Judeo-Christian framework.

Incidentally, my opinion of Paul has considerably warmed in the past few years, but only with regard to those letters or portions thereof that he actually wrote.  The textual evidence strongly suggests 1 Cor 14:34-35 is an non-Pauline addition to a genuine Pauline epistle.