Prope

Admittedly, I'm a Protestant with a Reformed bent. However, a little over a year ago I became a semi-convert to Roman Catholicism...for a day. I was required to read an article by a Russian historian. The article was basically a synopsis of why Roman Catholics and Protestants were clearly in error and Orthodox Christians had it right.

The main critique of Protestants was that they (we) have no authority. We have nothing infallible. Sure, we have the Bible, but that clearly requires interpretation. Of course the Holy Spirit aids us in interpreting the Bible, but we have no one true interpretation. The more I thought about this lack of authoritative interpretation the more I wanted it. I wanted to know whether I should be dunked or sprinkled. I wanted someone to tell me that Spiritual Gifts are more than just the gift of "helping." I wanted answers.

It started to make me angry that all of these silly Protestants were running around preaching whatever they felt like. It made so much sense to set up an authority structure who could decide once and for all that God's call is irresistible and that "once saved, always saved" was an unnecessary cliche developed by short sighted Wesleyans. We needed a Protestant Pope (Prope?) to rule over the dissenting divisions. A Prope unite all Protestants. It'd keep disgruntled parishioners from starting a church across the street.

A friend of mine helped me come to my senses. He helped me realize two things: 1)I don't want a Prope so much as I want to be Prope. I think a Prope would be awesome so long as it was me. A Prope that wasn't me would be fine too, he (or she) just couldn't make me believe anything I didn't want to believe. 2)We're all fallible. This foundation of Protestantism keeps us from having infallible authority.

A Prope really doesn't work if he (or she) is fallible. No body listens to a fallible guy in a funny hat. If anyone's got ideas on where authority can be found, I'd love to read it.