"liturgical inferiority complex"

[ecclesiastes]

Evangelical Protestants are (once more) debating Lent. Is it something they should follow? Is the desire to observe it a sign of a "liturgical inferiority complex"?

Here is an example:

The primary objection to our current rush to re-instate Lent is this: too many evangelical Christians are considering this (and some related questions) with what might be called a “liturgical inferiority complex.” While we do not shout this from the roof tops, we quietly admit to ourselves that our evangelical Protestant tradition as it now exists is somewhat homespun, even threadbare and that it stands in need of being augmented by resources taken from the past. While the Christian past has plenty of riches which may be drawn upon, the point is this: these are not best “tried on for size” from the standpoint of felt inferiority. What is needed (and, I contend is currently in short supply) is healthy critical judgment towards a whole host of things (of which Lent is but one) that might be thought to be “just the thing” to rectify our evangelical Protestant deficiencies.

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[winoblue1]

I work at a protestant sponsored institituion and they feel the same way, they sense they need some traditions and so they are beginning to borrow from the Catholics.
Having worked here and in a Catholic environment, the protestants seems more Catholic friendly than the Novus Ordo Catholics I met.

[Tim]

We have a pal of Obama's here and Operation Push, that was a community organizer up in Uptown, his name is Slim Coleman. He's got a Methodist Church now in Pilsen (a Mexican neighborhood). He's on tv sometimes with Operation Push (Jesse Jackson's gang). They used to have a sort of Sunday school for Sunday school teachers televised. The upshot is that Rev. Coleman being raised in the Methodist has the Stations of the Cross on Fridays during Lent. All of the AME Baptists on the program are mesmerized by that, and fumble all over them selves saying that everyone must go see this "service". The other novelty is the emcee is a woman preacher and she and Slim both wear roman collars and priest's suits. It gives new meaning to the phrase"anything they have has been stolen from the Catholics."
On the flip side these preachers were telling the straight skinny to those watching, concerning the way of the Cross, and the other is it takes courage to wear a priest suit and roman collar when the sex scandal was raging. There is hope there.

tim