Our Nature?

We went to a service yesterday - it was the Wisconsin Synod Lutheran - and I was somewhat perplexed (a kind word to use). In the order of the service found in the hymnal, the prayers included a statement that we are "sinful by our nature". Now, I realize that this is a frequent position of Protestant traditions which put us in the position of starting at the bottom and working our way to the top. But I got to thinking this way: It is a basic starting point in all Christianity that we are created in "the image and likeness of God." And, yes, I do realize that this applies to our soul and not to our physical bodies. But our soul is the place wherein our real natures reside. So, this statement I found in the Lutheran prayer suggests very clearly that our souls must be sinful in nature. What else can "in nature" mean? But if we are created in the "image and likeness of God", what is this really trying to tell us? If our nature is sinful, then either we are not in the image and likeness of God or God is sinful. I find myself being quite certain that the statement that we are sinful in our very nature is simply wrong.

What ever happened to Genesis where God created it all and saw that it was "very good"?

First Shot

I/we have been taught a great many things by Holy Mother Church. Much is good and useful (What! church teachings can be useful???). But some of it is - well - open to question. For one thing, any book of Church teachings carries the usual Latin pronouncements of freedom from errancy. But, who says that the words are free from errancy? Why, the Church does! For that matter, one of the rare infallible papal statements concerned the infallibility of the Pope. Oddly, I have never seen this one questioned. Sometimes we speak of trinity and talk in circles. In this modern world the Vatican and all that flows from it has been open to question (not the same as doubt) since the publication of Humanae Vitae. Humbly I join with the numbers of Catholics who now question. After all, we are merely looking with new eyes upon the same institution that brought us the Inquisition, the Reformation, and limbo.

And so, this blog is dedicated to anyone who wishes to expresses his or her concerns regarding Catholic teaching and/or Sacred Scripture.

Dear Lord: let it not be only me.