The week of October 31, the traditional time to remember the Reformation, is also the annual moment when I like to reflect on why I am a Protestant.
As the years go by, being a Protestant becomes easier and easier for me. Pope Francis is, after all, the gift that keeps on giving. What with his apparent desire to turn the Roman Catholic Church into a standard form of liberal Protestantism (but with a bit more color), his program is less than compelling to anyone who, to borrow a phrase from Newman, is deep in history. While we may never know the truth about his recent alleged denial of Christ's divinity, the fact that the story was plausible witnesses to the lack of theological understanding that has characterized his pontificate from the start. Not since the glory days of the Renaissance has the Catholic Church had a pope who makes orthodox Protestantism so attractive.
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