Why are current Protestant institutions generally more degenerate than Roman and Eastern institutions?


Mainline Protestant churches have female priests and bishops, whereas Rome and the East have none. Mainline Protestants have more openly embraced LGBT immorality, the major exception being Evangelicals, but that is beginning to change. Of course, there is liberalism and degeneracy in the Roman and Eastern realm, but it doesn’t seem as bad as Protestants. This perhaps can be debated, but let’s grant the point. There are faithful Protestant remnants, but they are just that, remnants.
Two thoughts.

  1. In the Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis speaks of natural affections and natural appetites. He says that natural affection can be more easily led on to eternal love than natural appetite can. But it can also more easily stop short of that end, which can make it more dangerous. He says, “It is a stronger angel, and therefore, when it falls, a fiercer devil.” I think this can be applied to Protestantism. It is a stronger angel. God graced Protestants with First World blessings, wealth, and power, for example. Something we see as the result of covenant faithfulness in Deuteronomy 28. But we have broken covenant, and so are given over to curses, and have become fiercer devils as a result.
  2. When St. Peter sees Jesus walking on water and hears our Savior beckon him, St. Peter walks on water to the call of Jesus. He follows Christ in a miraculous moment. This, to my mind, is like Protestants, willing to follow Christ no matter what. And when St. Peter took his eyes off of Christ and gave in to fear and doubt, he began to sink into the raging sea. This is Protestantism now. Having given in to fear and unbelief, we are being overcome by the waves of the world. The rest of the disciples, representing Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, never pursued Christ in that manner and so remained dry and safe in the boat. St. Peter cried out to Christ to save him, and He did. If Protestants cry out to Christ once again, repent of their fear and doubt, we will once again walk on water.

Book Reviews 2023

I won’t have time to do an in depth review of each book this year, but here is the list.

25 Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin (Audio)
24 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin (Audio)
23 Mansfield Park by Jane Austin (Audio)
22 The Illiad by Homer, Robert Fitzgerald translation (Audio)
21 The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fitzgerald translation (Audio)
20 Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Audio)
19 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Audio)
18 Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Mechen (Audio)
17 The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall (Abridged)
16 The Language of Creation by Matthieu Pageau
15 The Waste Land and Other Poems by T. S. Eliot
14 Reflections on the Psalm by C. S. Lewis
13 Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky
12 Roman Catholic Theology & Practice: An Evangelical Assessment
11 A Reformed Catholic by William Perkins
10 That You May Prosper by Ray Sutton
9 The Second Apology of Justin Martyr
8 The First Apology of Justin Martyr
7 The Cure of Souls by William Webb
6 Apostolic Succession by Francis Sullivan
5 Saint Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton
4 The Four by Peter Leithart
3 Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood by John Bergsma
2 Charles Chapman Grafton: Selected Writings
1 The One Offering by M. F. Sadler