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Where once evangelicals had been united in a consistent critique of Roman Catholicism, today evangelical attitudes have become diverse in the extreme. These attitudes range from unilateral rejection through intense theological criticism to varieties of cautious acceptance and partnership. Some evangelicals have even responded to the contemporary Roman Catholic Church by converting. These positions—as antagonists, critics, partners, and converts—define a broad spectrum, yet each one also reveals something significant about strengths and weaknesses within evangelicalism itself.
AntagonistsEvangelicals who continue to reject Catholicism in toto feel that they have history on their side. They may not be fully informed about the details, but they are troubled about Catholic domination over civil affairs (as claimed, for example, in Unam Sanctam [1302], when Pope Boniface VIII asserted ultimate papal authority over both spiritual and temporal realms). They often know about the anathemas of the Council of Trent (1545—63), when Rome directly attacked key Reformation doctrines such as justification by faith alone through grace alone.1 They invariably know about the Catholic claim of papal infallibility from 1870, though they may not understand how that declaration was qualified.
In addition, all-out antagonists enjoy an immense reservoir of voices from the history of Protestantism on which they can draw for warnings about the dangers of Catholicism. The twenty-fifth chapter of the 1647 edition of the Westminster Confession, for example, describes the Roman pontiff as "that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition."2 A. J. Gordon (1836—95), a devout Baptist who founded institutions that became Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, declared, "It is Satan who is the real Pope and his subordinate demons who are the real cardinals."3 Though sometimes less vitriolic, evangelicals who espoused J. N. Darby's premillennial dispensationalism regularly saw the Roman Catholic Church as the ten-horned beast of Revelation 17. Harry Ironside, who became pastor of Chicago's Moody Church in 1930, assured his audience that the papacy would be revived and would once again clothe itself with royal purple and ecclesiastical scarlet, "riding the Beast."4 Bible teacher Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895—1960), in his commentary on Revelation (first published serially 1934—42), wrote that "in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation God speaks of religious Babylon and identifies it with the Roman ecclesiastical system."5 A few decades later, evangelicals registered their concern at the prospect of electing Catholics to American national office. Thus, evangelicals today who reject the Roman Catholic Church without qualification as a minion of Satan carry on a long tradition.
In the world of ordinary, nonlearned evangelicals, atavistic anti-Catholicism remains as colorful and unmistakable as ever. A representative is Jack Chick, a mysterious writer or team of writers responsible for some 400 million copies of cartoon booklets (Chicklets) in 70 languages.6 Typical is "Last Rites," where John, a hapless Catholic, is hit by a car, receives last rites, and dies. After several attempts to bargain his way into heaven, he asks of Jesus, "Don't you love the Roman Catholic Church?" A faceless Jesus replies, "How could I, John. Her false teachings are why you are going to the lake of fire."7 In the tract "Are Roman Catholics Christians?" Chick traces the life story of Helen, a devout Catholic. After her first Communion, Chick asks, "What does Jesus think of the Roman Catholic Institution?" Answer: "He calls her the great whore." Chick speaks of the Catholic mass as making Jesus a liar8 and the Communion wafer as the "death cookie."9 It would be easy to dismiss Chicklets as an aberration except for the reception of these booklets. Catholic scholar Mark S. Massa notes that one Chick comic touches more people than most theologians and preachers hope to reach in a lifetime.10
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