Paul's Passing Thoughts

When authority is your truth, you will follow anything or anybody right off the edge of a cliff. Catholics don’t believe/follow the Pope because he speaks truth, they follow the Pope because he is a religious authority. This is the whole idea that God’s kingdom is presently on earth and the church is God’s representative authority on earth. But it gets better; “authority” is really a replacement word for “mediation.” It’s fairly obvious that the Catholic Church presents itself as a mediator between God and mankind. It is also fairly obvious that the Pope can get away with saying or doing anything and folks will still blindly follow.

But what precedes this blind following of authority? What is it predicated on? More often than not, it is the idea that the masses cannot comprehend spiritual reality and “worldly” wisdom is something altogether different. This is why people who are educated experts in a particular field will believe anything that spiritual despots teach; there is a perceived dichotomy between earthly/material knowledge and spiritual knowledge. Only God’s anointed can understand the deeper things of the spirit…blah, blah, blah. This is why highly educated individuals come to church expecting a simple message they can understand. Moreover, contradictions are completely irrelevant because it is “paradox” masquerading as contradiction. The real problem is our inability to understand because we are of the great unwashed.

For almost 200 years Protestantism, which was birthed by Catholicism, was confused about these issues and therefore lacked the cognitive dissonance of its psychopathic prostitute mother, the Catholic Church. But as Protestantism discovers the truth concerning its real identity, that is all changing.

Which example should we pick from out of the daily soap opera called “church”? Let’s follow up on the sanctified demise of Pastor Pete Wilson from Tennessee. In that article posted here, we pointed out the cognitive dissonance of pastors who proclaim us all totally depraved resigning because they act totally depraved. So, this recognition of total depravity that makes us spiritually mature is cause for resignation when acted out.

Why? Marketing, that’s why. The world won’t buy the total depravity gig because…well…it’s silly. Therefore, the church as a whole is being disingenuous; pastors who get caught must resign because of the world’s errant expectations of morality. This is why ABWE was complicit in covering up its child rape culture among its missionaries; the world doesn’t get total depravity and will preclude itself from salvation if made aware of the totally depraved acting like they are totally depraved. If the world can be drawn into the church unaware, they too can enjoy the privileges of membership after assumptions slowly give way to orthodoxy.

How was Pastor Pete’s mega church going to save face? He supposedly resigned due to burnout. Gee whiz, that can happen to the best of us. But coincidentally, his wife filed for divorce shortly thereafter. Poor guy; after all, “pastors are just people too.” However, in regard to her divorce statement, we find these words that are slightly more subtle than throwing a brick through a storefront window:

In a statement, Brandi Wilson “alleges that she has additional statutory grounds for a divorce in this cause and would reserve the right to amend these pleadings to allege additional specific statutory grounds for a divorce and to request specific relief in this cause, if such should be necessary and appropriate.”

Let me interpret that for your average brainwashed Protestant: Pastor Pete will play nice in the divorce and pay up with all of the money he has earned from the serf laity or the wife will go public with what really happened. And apparently, the church leadership never saw the divorce coming at all! Right.

For years Protestants bemoaned the refusal of Catholics to draw conclusions about Catholic orthodoxy based on its behavior, but now it is obvious that the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. While touting a supposedly truer belief, it is merely a different orthodoxy predicated on the same old song and dance…

…additional mediators other than Christ, and the individual’s inability to know truth and comprehend realty.  

paul