02-23-2007, 07:00 PM
Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth & good will to all.
Quote:"Your judgements are purely subjective (aspects you disapprove of). I'm starting to think you had a bad experience with the Church & are now holding a grudge."
If that can be said of me, then the same can be said of you.
In regards to Islam? Most definitely! But when it comes to objectivity, at least I have the Natural Moral Law to back me up. With all due respect, you on the other hand have circular reasoning (we have to follow the Qur'an because it's Allah's revelation; we know the Qur'an is Allah's revelation because Allah has revealed it to us in the Qur'an). Sorry, I know I'm being harsh but I don't know how else to put it.
At the end of the day, Catholic doctrines aren't hurting anybody, so please just let it be.
Quote:"There's a difference between ecclesiastical tradition (more examples include: Communion in the hand, altar servers, extraordinary ministers, fasting obligations, etc) & Sacred Tradition (the revealed teachings of Christ handed on in the Church from the time of the Apostles & proclaimed to the fullest extent by the Church's authority). The former can be modified, the latter are set in stone until the end."
That's the thing... these changes all are involved in worship. If the church sees no problem in altering worship, that is it's prerogative. In Islam, the only one who can change acts of wroship is Allah. You will not see some muslims coming together and deciding that since Hajj is so big that going around the Kaba' seven times is too much so now only three times is okay.
Hmmm... I don't know about that...
Communion in the hand - Catholics are still receiving the Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Altar servers - the priest is still exercising his ministry & the servers are still participating in Mass.
Extraordinary ministers - the bread & wine are still being consecrated & Communion is still being distributed to the faithful.
Fasting obligations - never prevents believers to express interior penance should they freely chose to.
The essential part of worship remains the same before & after changes are made to liturgical/devotional/local practices.
The Church has no desire whatsoever to compete with Islam. According to the Qur'an Christians are commanded to obey the revelations handed down to them. If that's the case, I pray Allah's (SWT) will be done.
Assalam alykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu.