Sometimes God works overtime to clue us in to what is important
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Repeated warnings against 'watered down' teachings
By David Jones
You may have noticed them: odd moments where themes are repeated around you. Perhaps in the news articles you read, or in the daily scriptures, or in an anecdote relayed through a friend. As we grow into spiritual maturity we more often notice these moments. A worldly person might say that it’s all just coincidence. The individual of faith knows that there is no such thing.
So it was this week as we began to notice several repeats of a common theme, the watering down of Church teaching so as not to offend others. There were even secular variations of this theme being played out.
For us it started with a conversation we had with an assistant catechist after teaching a 10th grade class on Sunday. Our assistant said she was having trouble with the concept of purgatory -- a friend or a family member had planted a very Protestant no-
tion that the Doctrine of Purgatory cannot be proved with scripture -- and when she had taken her question of doubt to a religion teacher at her school, she was assured that it wasn’t necessary for her to believe everything the Church teaches.
This is dangerous advice. It is much better to say that the Church has been given authority to define doctrine and our natural presumption should be to give the Church the benefit of any doubt. To say otherwise encourages second-guessing, which leads to more doubt.
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