Once again I forgot to put in links before I posted this. All the appropriate links are now in place. LEK 11/09/2006
Alvin Kimel over at Pontifications has posted on a bad reason not to become Catholic. If you want to see what other people are saying about his point go here and here.
On the face of it I agree, the claim he puts forward at the beginning and is the #1 bad reason for not being a Catholic, is a bad reason, primarily because it isn't true. I am not Roman Catholic and I don't need to be told that in fact that sound historical scholarship can't settle the question as to whether or not Catholic claims for the papal office are inovations, and thus a departure from the apostolic faith. And for the most part I agree with Kimel's reasons for why this is a bad reason.
However, while Meyendorf and other Orthodox theologians will give historical arguments about the development of the papacy and Roman claims, I do not see them as argueing that it is historical scholarship. But I might have misunderstood his brief critique of Meyndorf and Hopko here.
Really though it is his conclusion that gets me as a Protestant who actually wouldn't mind if either the Orthodoxy or Catholicsm. Really it doesn't help when there are two claimants to being the True Church. Who am I to believe!
