The RADEN Report#30

Interest in this unfolding story is surprisingly high. It is a painful human tragedy that there is a RCC-homosexual/pedophile issue. And yes, make no mistake, there is a homosexual issue here. As you might expect, the secular media is focusing on the pedophile priest issue, but if you look at the statistics being reported, a very large percentage of the abuse is of male youth and not so much of small children.

This unholy scandal must be especially embarrassing to those evangelical leaders who are active in the ecumenical movement, such as those involved in the ECT Alliance. These so-called "evangelical" ecumenists have pleaded their case that we all must join together, cooperating with Roman Catholicism on the basis of contending against a corrupt and immoral culture.

[Aside... Incredibly, some of the ECT Alliance participants suggest that we need to join together with Muslims as well. ECT participant Peter Kreeft says, "Muslims and Christians preach and practice the same First Commandment... we serve the same divine Commander." (RCC "theologian" Peter Kreeft in his book Ecumenical Jihad; Ecumenism and the Culture War, 1996, Ignatius Press. And if that's not incredible enough, this heretical book is endorsed by both ECT co-founders, Southern Baptist Charles Colson and RCC priest Richard Neuhaus.)]

For many Roman Catholics the horrid reality of such gross immorality among their priests strikes at the heart of their whole belief system. Roman Catholic priests have projected themselves as the very representatives of God, separated by ordination and above the Catholic "laity." They have taught faithful Roman Catholics that they are empowered by God to transform bread and wine into the very body and blood of Christ. According to RCC dogma, the priests are the necessary arm of the Roman Church entrusted with the ability to remit sins and dispense divine grace to faithful Catholics. Obviously, these men are supposed to be the picture of morality. Instead, many priests are being exposed as utterly immoral.

And not only has a dark cloud of suspicion been cast upon local priests, but the entire Roman Catholic hierarchical system is shaken by the revelations that highly placed Roman Catholic leaders have been actively covering-up and harboring guilty pedophile and homosexual priests - known predators - and even paying the abused victims to keep quiet! (A student of history will find that immorality and abuse of trust are not at all new problems within the Roman hierarchy.)

Can you imagine the contradiction presented in the minds and hearts of faithful Roman Catholics who have given money to their church, being assured by their leaders that they are giving to support God's work... only to now discover that their church leaders have been using this money to pay for covering-up the sins of the very priests who are undermining the morality of their children and youth?

Here in Roman Catholic dominated south Louisiana there seem to be at least two basic reactions from Catholics. First, there are those who are shocked to find that such things could go on. Secondly, there are those who are not surprised at all. Individuals making up both groups have been taught that faithfulness to the Roman Catholic religion is THE genuine expression of true Christianity.

The first group have become personally skilled at a form of self-deception called "denial." These are very loyal Roman Catholics who for their entire lives have deflected rumors of scandalous behavior by priests. (In fact, a significant number of these individuals still do not accept the truth regarding the present scandal.)

Those in the second group are not surprised by this scandal because over the years they have come to accept the reality of the moral failures of various Roman priests. Growing up in a Roman Catholic culture, they have observed that there are homosexual priests, pedophile priests, and sometimes that there are children in the community who have been fathered by priests. They have repeatedly seen the efforts by their bishops to cover-up the immorality of individual priests, quickly moving an offending priest to another parish or another diocese. These loyal Catholics have come to see the Roman Catholic religion as something completely separated from the immorality of many of its priests, bishops, and other hierarchical leaders.

There are at least two observable reactions beginning to take form among various "evangelicals." (Personally, I use a much narrower definition of the term "evangelical" than do a lot of folks... but that's an issue for another day.)

First, there are those who have been ecumenically inclined, those who have shown by their actions that they accept Roman Catholicism as a valid form of Christianity. Understandably, most of these seem to be staying away from the limelight, quietly hoping that this will all pass over and not affect them at all.

The second group of evangelicals, a much smaller group, is not at all surprised by this scandal within Roman Catholicism. What they are surprised about is that this has finally gotten past the cover-up efforts of powerful RCC leaders and has now made front-page news. These evangelical believers have known that corruption and immorality is rampant within the Roman hierarchy. They know from personal experience that Roman Catholic leaders often wear various "masks" in order to hide the truth (in plain English that is called deception).

But for the majority of evangelicals, there is a quiet caution about all of this, because they know that there are similar problems that can be pointed to among evangelicals. I'll say more about this in another RADEN Report, but first...

We must be careful here and focus on the fundamental (do I dare use that word?) issue that divides evangelical belief from Catholic belief. The issue of eternal significance is the fact that the biblical Gospel and the Roman Catholic gospel are NOT the same gospel. The official gospel preached by Roman Catholicism is a system of merited grace dispensed by the RCC through its sacraments (religious works). The biblical Gospel is described in Scripture as by faith in Christ's already finished work, completely the gift of God and not in any way merited by the works of men. The Word of God is clear,

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The Roman Catholic false gospel of merited grace is a perversion of the Scriptures which is used by the RCC hierarchy to keep Catholic people faithful to the Roman Catholic Church as their only hope for salvation. Listen to what the Roman Catholic Church officially says about this...

"The Catholic faithful are required to profess that there is an historical continuity -- rooted in the apostolic succession -- between the Church founded by Christ and the Catholic Church... the Church of Christ, despite the divisions which exist among Christians, continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church....

"Therefore, there exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him.

"...it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation.

"Indeed, the Church... must be primarily committed to announcing the necessity of conversion to Jesus Christ and of adherence to the Church through Baptism and the other sacraments, in order to participate fully in communion with God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." (emphasis in original)

These quotations are not from some ancient document thought to have little significance today. They are taken from "Dominus Iesus," an official declaration made by the Roman Catholic hierarchy on August 6, 2000.

Such claims are not only deceptive; they are heretical. And yet, the evangelicals involved in the ECT Alliance have declared that Roman Catholic leaders - who "are required to profess" this perversion of the Word of God - are in fact "disciples together of the Lord Jesus Christ" (ECT-II, "The Gift of Salvation" 1997)

Which side of this Gospel issue contains the most deception... Catholic leaders who profess faith in Christ and then add religious works - a perversion condemned by Scripture - or "evangelical" leaders who tell these deceived and deceiving Roman Catholic leaders that they are true Christians, fellow disciples of Jesus Christ?

The greatest deception is to know the eternal truth of God and then add onto it something that negates that truth altogether. To add onto the truth of the Gospel is a dangerous, dangerous perversion. This present issue of immorality notwithstanding, can anything be worse than perverting the very way to eternal life? A perversion of morality can be forgiven, but a perversion of the Gospel can have far more eternal consequences for those responsible and for those who are subsequently deceived by such perversion.

According to Scripture, those who would add sacramental belief onto the Gospel (the Judiazers wanted to require circumcision) are in fact "perverting the Gospel." Faced with this heresy in the church at Antioch, the apostle Paul thundered,

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:6-9)

No doubt about it, sexual perversion is a horrible thing and is condemned as sinful by God's Word. Likewise, perversion of the Gospel is condemned in Scripture with the harshest of terms. Yet, isn't it odd that almost everyone looks on in horror at the revelation of the sexual perversions of so many Catholic priests, and yet little emotion is raised and little is done to confront the blatant coddling and cuddling up to another gospel by evangelicals involved in the ecumenical ECT Alliance?

"Those converted -- whether understood as having received the new birth for the first time or as having experienced the reawakening of the new birth originally bestowed in the sacrament of baptism -- must be given full freedom and respect as they discern and decide the community in which they will live their new life in Christ." ("EVANGELICALS AND CATHOLICS TOGETHER:The Christian Mission In The Third Millennium" 1994)

Again, you would think that the gross moral failings of so many Roman Catholic leaders and the purposeful cover-up of such wickedness by ranking RCC leaders would alert everyone to the deception and danger of the RCC's false gospel.