Misguided Co-operation with Roman Catholicism
At the time of writing, Mitt Romney, an ardent member of the Mormon sect, is in the lead to be chosen by the Republican Party to run for the USA presidency in November. Evangelicals in the Party are anxiously looking for another Republican to challenge Romney, but their only realistic options are Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich – both Roman Catholics.
One of America’s leading conservative spokesmen, Gary Bauer, the Protestant president of American Values (which is “committed to defending life, traditional marriage, and equipping our children with” conservative values), has openly endorsed Rick Santorum because of his “commitment to defending American families and defending the sanctity of life”. This apparent alliance of the “Christian Right” and Roman Catholics is surprising in view of, for instance, the strenuous endeavours of Protestants, just decades ago, to prevent the election of Roman Catholic John Kennedy as President.
It seems wise to many Protestants to work with Roman Catholics in challenging such evils as abortion, erosion of family values, euthanasia and same-sex marriage. But such Protestants have lost sight of other evils – evils inherent in Roman Catholicism, which are not only abominable to God but also indicate that separation from Rome, not co-operation with her, is what is called for.
Take, for example, what Rome calls “the holy sacrifice of the mass”, an evil which is the very core of the system. How unspeakably offensive to the blessed Saviour that the once-for-all atoning sacrifice He offered on Calvary is supposedly offered again in every mass. A Roman Catholic catechism states, “The Holy Mass is one and the same Sacrifice with that of the Cross, inasmuch as Christ, who offered himself, a bleeding victim, on the Cross to his heavenly Father, continues to offer himself in an unbloody manner on the altar, through the ministry of his priests”.
How right our Reformers were to describe the mass as “blasphemy”. To co-operate with Roman Catholicism in combatting moral evils is to give it a certain credence, which its false doctrines and unscriptural practices show is completely unwarranted. It is also disloyal to the Lord Jesus Christ, because, as the Confession of Faith says, the so-called sacrifice of the mass “is most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect”.
NMR