Changeable Truths?

I sure don't share *all* the strange things I come across on the internet (before you say it, shut up LOL!), but I thought this might make for an interesting discussion. A Catholic website discussing the idea that it's the Protestants, not the Catholics, who have distorted and changed the One True Faith:

"A Protestant elder of the 17th century looking at many protestant churches today would be astounded and appalled. He would see "Signs", "wonders", and "miracles" supposedly manifesting at nearly every service. He would see big-name evangelists rating themselves by the number of miraculous healings that took place at their meetings. He would see people "baptised in the Holy Spirit" and "talking in tongues". All these things would be entirely foreign to him. Not only would they be foreign to his view of Protestant religion, he would probably see them as deceits and abominations!

"If the Reformers preached one thing consistently, it was that the time of miracles was long past. The Reformers considered that the age of miracles had ended with the Age of the Apostles, and that in the current dispensation miracles simply did not happen. All miracles and healings that took place at Catholic services and Holy Sites were obviously feigned and deceitful - a sign of ignorant catholic "superstition." In England, orders were issued to, "utterly extinct and destroy all shrines... and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry and superstition, so that there remain no memory of the same". People were punished for claiming that miracles had taken place. The greatest miracle of all - the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the mass, was denied.

..."it is they, not the Catholics or Orthodox, who are continually changing and rejigging their beliefs."

I would imagine that if I read Scripture, or realized something from Scripture in a new way, that I would have to "rejig" my beliefs accordingly, no matter how stupid it might make me appear to others. But I have to admit one of the advantages the Catholic church would have over the Protestants would be name-brand recognition. I don't mean to be trite in that statement, but don't know how else to put it. Under Catholicism, to my understanding, you either are or you aren't. You're either in the "Church" or you are not. With Protestants, it's a bit more tricky. Does Protestantism include Mormons? Maybe some Mormons would say "yes," but there isn't a central Protestant church to tell them to go take a hike.

Do you count the likes of Benny Hinn as being Protestant? Who gets to decide?

I find it interesting, however, that the Catholics I know personally are not very strong in the area of reading the Bible for themselves. In fact, one called me not too long ago to ask how to look up stuff in the Bible. Another person from this family came to borrow a Bible and D asked, "Which version?" and the fellow had no clue there were different ones, let alone which version his church teaches as being the truth. And these are very nice, kind-hearted folks. I was the same way before learning how to read the Bible myself. Except I was worse off... I didn't even realize there were separate "books" within the Bible. That's a public school education for ya.

But like Protestants, I've noticed something about Catholics. The ones who attend Mass regularly seem to be more conservative than the ones who do not. I could not tell you *why* that would be, whether it is because conservative people like going to church more or because churches ARE more conservative and only the conservative ones seem to stick around because they feel welcomed.

Thoughts?