There's No Fire-and-Brimstone...

…like Catholic fire-and-brimstone.

Father was talking about the nature of sin and what it does to us and what it means to us. The beginning was a rather typical dissertation on sin when he moved on to mortal sin. Softly, he explained how mortal sin, by our own choice, cuts us off from God. Almost in a whisper, he reminded that God longs for us to return to Him and be reconciled with Him. But if we don't "WE WILL SPEND AN ETERNITY IN HELL. ETERNITY! BEING TORTURED BY DEMONS. YES, DEMONS! I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! THIS IS WHAT THE SCRIPTURES SAY. THIS IS WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. HELL IS REAL AND IT IS FOREVER!" Then Father returned to a near whisper, "But this is not what God wants."

I didn’t know this kind of stuff would come from a Catholic pulpit. Of course the last time that I was in a Catholic church was at the wedding of the Nightfly and the Ladybug, and that was a much more joyous subject on which to preach.

This subject also rarely comes up in evangelical pulpits. Does anyone think that the above would ever come out of Rick Warren’s mouth? Joel Osteen’s?

My pastor preached a message very similar to the padre’s two weeks ago. He picks a book of the Bible and spends about two years preaching on it, a few verses at a time. When the time came to preach on Luke 16:23-31, he did not ignore it. Like this priest, he knows that it would be pastoral malpractice if he did not warn people of the disastrous consequences of ignoring Christ.

Notice I didn’t say “rejecting Christ”, I said “ignoring Christ”.

H/T to the Creative Minority Report. Yeah, I’m reading Catholic blogs. I’m in so much trouble if my pastor finds out.