Lost in the crap

Great article by John Cooney in today's Irish Indo on a recent RTÉ radio phone-in where Wallace Thompson, chief aide to Nigel Dodds - but demeaning Ulster Prods purely in a personal capacity - called the Pope the anti-Christ.

<shaking head> Another blow for Jesus, eh? </shaking head>

I suggest Mr Wallace re-reads the book of Revelation! The Roman church may have bent some aspects of Biblical theology - and invented others - but that doesn't make its members unchristian, or its figurehead the anti-Christ.

Wallace slams the Church of Ireland for selling rosaries in St Patrick's cathedral. There's nothing unbibical about the idea of running beads through your fingers to help you remember what to pray for!

Just when he's getting right up our noses, though, Wallace - by now in full fury - says Catholics are wrong to pray to the Virgin Mary. Er, wait up!. Actually that's quite true by Biblical standards, and quite a few Anglicans - especially in England - should take note too. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Mary was anything other than a woman who found God's favour. She was not divine, she had no superhuman powers, and the idea - as put about by the Roman Catholic church - that she ascended into heaven like Jesus is not supported anywhere in scripture. She was a sinner loved and blessed by God, but nothing more, and praying to her is as pointless as praying to me will be in 100 years' time.

Being pointless, though, doesn't make something wrong. What makes praying to Mary or other saints wrong is that it takes our focus away from God - the one with the power, and to whom Jesus died to give us direct, unhindered access.

So praying to a dead human is (a) pointless, (b) unglorifying of God and (c) demeaning Jesus' ultimate sacrifice.

Excuse the blunt comparison, but when it comes to your life insurance would you not call the company direct rather than talk to a dead insurance broker with no qualifications other than being pally with the CEO?

Anyway, back to the subject. Whatever theological differences Protestants may have with RC doctrine, this Wally's outburst is just embarrassing because in an era where the Catholic church's vice-like grip on Éire politics has loosened and continues to slide into irrelevance, Protestants across Ireland need to be building bridges and seeking to influence, not repel.

We need to be conduits of God's love, gently pointing out the joys of Reformation theology (much of which mainland European Catholicism has now adopted anyway) rather than being some self-appointed punishment squad. Surely that's the work of the anti-Christ.