Matt. Stark traces the experiments and ideas that led to this discovery from Robert Grosseteste (1168 – 1253) to Roger Bacon (1214 – 1294) to William of Ockham (1295 – 1349). "Though there areprobably more than forty anti-Catholic myths, at least a thorough consideration of forty of the most dangerous and often silly ones is most needed. The Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Judas are just three of the more well-known pseudo gospels which some authors today hail as proof that what we now know as orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism was really just one interpretation of the faith, and a less attractive one at that. At the National Prayer Breakfast last year, Obama declared that we should “remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”. Greg Daly September 22, 2016. In Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History, Stark rebuts 10 historical myths that reflect badly on the Catholic church. The ancient Greeks thought the universe eternal, the gods incapable of creating it, and all of nature imbued with desires and “affections.” Early Islam taught that natural laws are a blasphemy to Allah, as they deny his freedom to act. Posted on December 31, 2018 by Bryan Mercier. Anti Catholic Myths Debunked. This is what Gerard Verschuuren has provided in this useful book. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2113, cf. Arguments Against the Catholic Church (Answering Anti-Catholic myths on Salvation!) While Jewish attacks were the biggest threat to the early Church, Christians valued Jews in their communities because of the “theological doctrine that the Second Coming would be ushered in by the conversion of the Jews.” Stark notes that “no pope in the Middle Ages ever undertook a campaign to convert the Jews,” and that monks and bishops like Bernard of Clairvaux sheltered Jews when renegade knights tried to kill them. Lurid myths about Catholic sexual slavery and infanticide spread through pamphlets and books such as Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, an 1834 supposed memoir about a Canadian convent. After all, Catholics believe that God was born of a woman, an extraordinary … Purgatory is a hoax. . Reality: Actually the Catholic Church holds women in high esteem. This view changed as monasteries grew and became more specialized. Ironically, when Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) got in trouble, he was mistaken about the science he insisted on! Paul said, “Let the presbyters [priests] who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching; for the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Tim. Did Constantine start the Catholic Church? Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. There are myths of persecution and myths of a lack of persecution. The Chinese taught that the universe was subtle and complex, not to be subjected to human reason. As a reader of this book, I find myself in a bit of a strange position. Are anti-Catholic Myths the original "Fake News"? The church emphasized the secular nature of kingship, allowing a more robust debate about the basis of worldly power. Stop teaching our children lazy anti-Catholic myths . Are anti-Catholic Myths the original "Fake News"? In 1999, hundreds of Protestants took a “Reconciliation Walk” to apologize for the Crusades. Five Anti-Catholic Myths . Anti-Catholics like to paint Church teachings in a way that makes them seem vain, backward, or superstitious, all in the hope of drawing people out of the Faith and into sects or unbelief. permission to publish this work is hereby granted. In fact, they pioneered the practice of human dissection, which made a real understanding of anatomy finally possible. In fact, the Catholic Church forbids Mariolatry because it forbids us to worship anyone other than God himself: “Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. It is enough that it leaves behind a bad impression. From game shows to comedy sketches, from allegedly serious scholarship to anti-Catholic tracts stuck under windshield wipers in the parish parking lot, Catholic urban legends are the myths of history that everyone—including many Catholics—assumes to be true. No effort is made to be conciliatory, as the first line demonstrates: “Pope Paul VI, archpriest of Satan, a deceiver and an anti-Christ, has, like Judas, gone to his own place.” It goes downhill from there. The Inquisition actually listened to these people, and unlike other courts at the time, they made a distinction between “the implicit and explicit invocation of demons.” In Barcelona in 1549, a local branch of the Inquisition ordered 7 suspected witches be burned, but the overarching authority, the Suprema, sent an investigator who ended up pardoning the women and executing those who conducted the witch hunting! They have a few major themes: These themes are more Neoplatonist than Christian. The Roman Catholic Church didn’t extinguish paganism, it assimilated most of it. Eleanor Parker. Catholic Christianity is rotten to the core and cannot cease being anti-Semitic unless it ceases existing altogether. Five Anti-Catholic Myths book. There are many other anti-Catholic myths. Most importantly, these gospels are forgeries. Another reason for Nast’s anti-Catholic drawings was a fear that Catholics were attacking the public school system, which Nast saw as integral to the foundation of the United States. Here are 7 of the best. Luckily, the actual Inquisition kept meticulous records for hundreds of years. Furthermore, the “divine right of kings” originated with Protestants! Stark is not a Catholic, and neither am I, but these truths are very important for everyone to know. In Five Anti-Catholic Myths, Gerard Verschuuren provides a clear, forceful, and eminently factual refutation of some of the foundational … Whether they come from anti‐Catholic sources or just poor catechesis, Catholic myths are as much a part of Catholic life as attending weekly Mass or going to a parish picnic. The Conversion Center of Havertown, Pennsylvania, puts out some of the more amusing anti-Catholic leaflets, though none is supposed to be taken humorously. The myth began with “Montanus,” the pen name of a renegade Spanish monk who became a Lutheran and fled to the Netherlands. A popular account of the archaeological excavations conducted from 1939 to 1968, at which time Pope Paul VI confirmed that Peter’s bones had been scientifically and historically identified, may be found in John E. Walsh’s book The Bones of St. Peter. Many examples of positive Baptist-Catholic relationships built over the last generation happily disprove the myth that all Baptists are anti-Catholic or that all Catholics are anti-Baptist. This evil “God” is worshipped by the Jews, who are an accursed people, and orthodox Christians have bought the same lies. The Jesuits did this in order to promote peace between the Spaniards and the Guarani, but the European powers struck back. On the Holocaust, it is noted that Nazism was a deeply anti-Catholic movement leading to the slaughter of thousands of priests. Even after Copernicus developed his heliocentric theory, his calculations did not work better than the earlier ones — until Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) discovered that planets moved in ellipses, not circles. Not long after Pope Paul VI died in 1978, Bob Jones, chancellor of Bob Jones University in... A Snare and a Delusion. The great Catholic authority Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) opposed slavery, as did nearly every Roman Catholic pope. “3. Extreme asceticism, including celibacy, is the only way to free yourself from evil. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God. Anti-Catholic and anti-clerical sentiments, some spurred by an anti-clerical conspiracy theory which was circulating in Colombia during the mid-twentieth century led to persecution of Catholics and killings, … Nonsense — Catholics have a complex history with the state and usually oppose unlimited power. Myth No. Stop teaching our children lazy anti-Catholic myths . Medieval scholars focused on empiricism — testing theories with tangible experiments. Dr. Rodney Stark has written … Catholic apologists fight … Recently, a new idea is in vogue — that the Crusades were the first example of European colonialism, the oppressive and exploitative rule over other nations that allegedly held back progress in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Far from being "Hitler's Pope", Pius XII saved many Jewish lives. These estimates are based on malicious lies. The system of uncoerced labor, free markets, and secure property rights which we today call capitalism developed in medieval monasteries. 5:17–18; cf. The myths analyzed in this book claim to lay bare the "dirty history" of the Catholic Church. “Is anti-Catholicism the last acceptable prejudice in America? Paganism still survives today among rural and small-town Europeans, who preserve the mentality of spirits in nature. Copernicus made a wonderful discovery, but he did not reach that conclusion on his own. All Rights Reserved. The total number of Russians executed for their religion is now estimated to be in excess of twenty million. Five Anti-Catholic Myths, by Gerard M. Verschuuren It is telling what an author considers to be a myth worth countering. Monks even hired laborers, as the monks themselves spent all their time saying masses for wealthy patrons and their relatives in purgatory. The First Crusade was launched in 1095, centuries after Muslims defeated Christians in Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Sicily, Spain, and even southern France. What Rivera did not tell us is why the monks and nuns would have gone to all the trouble to dig a tunnel. The Catholics responded to such prejudices by repeatedly asserting their rights as American citizens and by arguing that they, not the nativists (anti-Catholics), … The ancients invented it — the Egyptians and (better documented) the Romans. Peter never claimed to be pope. This … Sep 7, 2020 - Explore Joe Aboumoussa's board "Anti-Catholic History, Myths, & Legends", followed by 479 people on Pinterest. Medieval artists first used oil paint, and the architectural inventions of the age made the great cathedrals of Europe possible. In the Middle Ages, the church was the largest landowner in Europe, and this made the church extremely wealthy. Rivera claimed that in the 1930s, the Spanish government, then in the hands of anticlerical parliamentarians, discovered graves of newborn children beneath monasteries and convents. In fact, the greatest massacre of the entire period came in 1266, when the sultan Baibars killed and enslaved all inhabitants of Antioch, even after it surrendered! The diagram includes a little arrow pointing to the tunnel and captioned “bodies of babies.” Rivera claimed the children were the result of illicit unions between monks and nuns. Nevertheless, even Christian emperors after Julian did not persecute pagans. Anti Catholic Myths Debunked. The Catholic Church holds that there is a natural order of things which is accessible to our reason. presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors. Furthermore, where was all the excavated dirt put, and why didn’t the neighbors inquire what all the picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows were for? +Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004. Anti-Catholicism was widespread in the 1920s; anti-Catholics, including the Ku Klux Klan, believed that Catholicism was incompatible with democracy and that parochial schools encouraged separatism and kept Catholics from becoming loyal Americans. The beginning years were poorly documented, and historians agree those were the bloodiest — about 1,500 people were executed (by the Spanish authorities — the Inquisition never executed anyone). Catholics … Even under Christian emperors, many pagans were appointed to the highest positions in Roman government: consuls and prefects. The Anti-Catholic Myth: The Roman Emperor Constantine established himself as the head of the church around 313 A.D., which made this new “Christianity” the official religion of the Roman Empire. As Clement of Alexandria wrote during the third century, “He who has received these things fortified by reason, can never lose them; whereas he who receives them without proofs, by an assent to a simple statement of them, can neither keep them safely, nor is certain if they are true; because he who easily believes, also easily yields.”. The problem is not just that Jones did not report the words accurately or that he attributed the story to the pope’s physician or that he was repeating material that he got at least third-hand. They’re anti-science, anti-Semites, and anti-freedom. Nevertheless, this was an impressive achievement, and a testament to the values of the Roman Catholic Church. "Though there areprobably more than forty anti-Catholic myths, at least a thorough consideration of forty of the most dangerous and often silly ones is most needed. He made no reference to a specific monastery or convent or to corroborating sources, because there are none. Download and Read online Anti Catholic Myths Debunked ebooks in PDF, epub, Tuebl Mobi, Kindle Book. Another reason for Nast’s anti-Catholic drawings was a fear that Catholics were attacking the public school system, which Nast saw as integral to the foundation of the United States. For example: that we added books to the Bible! The results of these codes speak for themselves. Here are a few of the reasons given by the anonymous author. Catholics had no choice but to support Hitler’s ally Franco. 1. New records from the Soviet regime showed that about two hundred thousand clergy, monks, and nuns — Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic — had been executed by the regime, many of them in gruesome ways. And Saladin, hailed as a true knight, only allowed the inhabitants of Jerusalem to live because they did surrender without resistance. The following are three examples of the myths, exaggerations, and false implications found in the writings of professional anti-Catholics. As Pope Leo XIII once said, the Catholic Church has no … Certainly there are men in the Church’s history who may have been misogynistic, but the Church itself has never been. Top 10 Modern Myths About the Catholic Church. In the first comic book in the series, Rivera included a diagram showing a monastery and convent some distance apart, with steps descending from each into a connecting tunnel, along which are the graves. 7 min read 8744 views Comments Off on Common Myths About Catholics and the Bible. Few days ago one of my protestant friends told me that catholicism was created by Constantine the great by merging Paganism into Catholicism. But learning about the Catholic Church is harder than it sounds thanks to a slew of anti-Catholic myths floating around. The Conversion Center of Havertown, … Anti-Catholic Myths The Joke’s on Jones. The Inquisition didn’t support witch hunting, instead “it was their influence, and especially their discrediting of evidence gained by torture, that brought witch-burning to an end in Catholic areas–an effect that soon seeped into the Protestant areas as well.”, Next Page: Hitler’s Pope and the myth of anti-Semitism, Is Roman Catholicism the author of anti-Semitism? Finally, the Jesuit Republic of Paraguay will forever stand as a testament to the ability of Roman Catholics to help indigenous populations against colonial powers. You should know about the Catholic faith, too. When they came to give him the last rites, the pope ordered the priest and acolytes from the room, crying, ‘Get out of here. Yes, serfdom persisted, but serfs had important rights and were never viewed as chattels. Some even attribute the idea of the “divine right of kings” to this tendency among Catholics. Next Page: The discredited myth of the “Dark Ages.”. Eleanor Parker. His essentialism is the obverse of the anti-Semitism that fails to distinguish between the actions of specific … Next Page: How the Catholic Church fostered learning and science. 7 Common Catholic Church Myths That Critics Believe. . His essentialism is the obverse of the anti-Semitism … 10 – The Catholic Church is anti-woman and misogynistic. 10:10; Luke 10:7). In each of these cases, however, the Catholic Church waited a long time to oppose the movements, and revolutionaries demanded too much, driving the church into opposition. “1. This is a travesty, but nothing close to the horrific myths we know and love. That's what makes Dr. Christopher Kaczor's book so timely. Furthermore, Christians adopted large pagan festivals — most famously the Saturnalia became the season of Christmas to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Finally, many historians focus on the “scientific revolution” pioneered by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543), the man who first posited the theory that the world revolves around the sun. Since Catholics justifiably give her greater honor than they give other saints, but less than they give to God (and not just less, but a fundamentally different kind of honor), Mariolatry does not exist in Catholic piety. Professor Moss has chosen to write a new chapter in the latter mold. It is a money-making scheme.”. In recent years, “lost gospels” have caused a real scandal. Next Page: Roman Catholics fostered, rather than opposing, democratic government. Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History might seem an unlikely book to be written by a man raised Lutheran and temperamentally agnostic who now describes himself as an “independent Christian”, and certainly no Catholic… 190 pages, $16.95. Little do many of us know, Catholics actually pioneered capitalism, laid the foundations for science, abolished slavery, and denounced witch hunts. Myth #1: Catholics Aren’t Christians. Are you not a Catholic, but have an opinion about Catholics? There was no early writer who claimed that Peter never went to Rome and died elsewhere, and no other ancient city ever claimed to be the place of his death or to have his remains—which makes sense, since in this century it has been demonstrated that his bones lay beneath the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica. Skip to comments. SERIES ON THE ANTI-CATHOLIC MYTHS: Anti-Catholic Myth #1 Emperor Constantine Founded the Catholic Church; Anti-Catholic Myth #2 The Pope is the Antichrist; Anti-Catholic Myth #3 Jesus, … If a city refused to surrender, it cost the conquering army heavy losses, and it was considered just to pillage it afterward. July 22, 2020, 3:58am #1. In fact, when the nobles forced Magna Carta on King John in 1215, limiting the power of the king in England, all the bishops and the master of the Knights Templar sided against the tyrannical ruler! (Neither does the Bible claim to be “the Bible,” for that term had not been invented yet; it simply claimed to be God’s inspired word.) The problem is that he did not know (or care) what the pope meant by “la commedia e finita.”. Although the Bible has no unmistakable evidence that he was there (though 1 Peter 5:13 does imply it), early Christian writers such as Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Lactantius are unanimous in saying that he went to Rome, presided over the Church there, and was martyred during the emperor Nero’s persecution. In 1768, they finally defeated the Guarani and ended the civilization. To order: angelicopress.com Debunking anti-Catholic myths. Some are so far off that it is hard to take them seriously. 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