jlf1961
Posts: 14840
Joined: 6/10/2008 From: Somewhere Texas Status: offline
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As I said, I have not been to mass in years for various reasons. And my problem is with organized religion as a whole. As for personal experience, I have met priests that lived the way they should and followed the teachings of Jesus faithfully, and I have met priests who left a lot to be desired. But I was also told by a Baptist preacher I was going to hell for not being born again. I even went to a Mormon Church for awhile and really that really turned me off of organized religion. The problem is simple, ANY church puts priests and preachers on a pedestal. And there are some mega churches that are so ornate they make the average Catholic church look like a dump. There are also some mega churches that have preachers living in million dollar homes and driving luxury cars that their average church goer could not even afford to test drive. I have lived in Europe and seen both Catholic and Non Catholic churches decorated with gold leaf and exquisite stained glass that cost a fortune in the middle ages when they were built while the average church goer was so poor that they could barely afford to eat. I have seen reports of some big charismatic churches that always ask their followers for money where 75 cents of every dollar raised goes into the pockets of church leaders. So you may have your reasons for hating and condemning the Catholic Church, but I suggest you take that indignation and spread it out. In the early days of the church, before Constantine made Christianity a main stream church of the Roman Empire AND the establishment of the Catholic church, church leaders had to have jobs to pay their daily expenses, they were not paid to preach. Often christians met in members houses to worship. Once the Catholic church was established in around 314 BCE, church leaders and priests got greedy. The history of the Catholic church has a few examples where one order of the church fought against the gathering of wealth by the church, and were either excommunicated or forced into silence. Let us not forget Pope Alexander VI, who had the surname Borgia. The man had a wife, mistresses, had at least one son in law murdered, plundered the coffers of the church for his own use, and according to some, owned a few brothels in Rome. The Catholic church has a long history of corruption and abuse. What do you expect from a Religious Organization that is over a thousand years old? It is time for all Christian denominations to return to the true roots of the faith.
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Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think? You cannot control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you throw them out of. Paranoid Paramilitary Gun Loving Conspiracy Theorist AND EQUAL OPPORTUNI
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