Faith Alone vs. Good Works

When I moved to the South I was soon confronted with the continuing battle of the Reformation as fought in its rural reaches, by Southern Baptists obsessed with "faith alone" as a means to salvation, as opposed to the "good works" of the doomed, servile and superstitious Catholic idolators. 

Understand these attitudes as an adjunct to the oppression and persecution of black people--pure bigotry--and another straw man for southern racists to fight. Their fear and hatred require multiple targets, they so overflow. Now they are after Mexicans and Muslims.

Their "Christian" hearts explode with hate. That is their witness. 

They scour the world for targets. Catholics, of course, believe salvation is both personal and the result of a transformation of one's soul by grace. But Catholics believe it is a lifetime of work, never finally accomplished and so requiring commitment and discipline.

Southern Baptists believe you have a meltdown in a revival tent and nothing matters thereafter. They have encountered God like a guy in a bar. If they kill and enslave people it must be the will of God, de facto, since their salvation was certain and preordained.

Anyway, good works are about that discipline--having the principles, perseverance and determination to do what is right even when your heart isn't in it, as an offering to God, an expression of humility and an attempt to get back to a place of grace in spite of human weakness, imperfection and distraction.

Notice how humble Baptists are, presuming salvation and persecuting anyone who doesn't agree with them. I think they are working for the other guy. They think God is on their side. What kind of crazy people presume to know the mind of God? Apostates and losers.