>>>A lot of the text sounds like a direct condemnation of the Catholic
>>>Church. Which is probably well-deserved. IMO, the Catholic Church may
>>>not be a true Christian religion - at least their past does not indicate so.
>>
>>Skip the insults, please.
>
>How on earth do you come up with a suggestion like that? The Church of
>England only exists because of King Henry VIII. Prior to that the Church of
>Rome (i.e. the Catholic Church) was paramount.
>
>Upon what basis do you make the statement that the Catholic Church may not
>be a true Christian religion?
...
First, I apologize for sounding so insulting in the initial message. My
statement was too glib and brief. I'll try to go a little further here but
still be brief.
Part of my problem with the Catholic Church is it's history of persecution
and violence (e.g. Spanish Inquisition, Crusades), manipulation of
governments, and long-running internal corruption. Nothing in the Bible
supports such behavior. I believe the worst action to be taken against
unbelievers is to '...dust off your shoes and move on...' But if don't
agree that the Catholic Church did all those things in the past, then we'd
just have to disagree in general. Note, I don't really 'blame' them - I
think it's been proven throughout history that every organization
created/run by man has corrupted itself.
In the centuries just before and during the formation of our country, many
people came to the US precisely to escape the persecution of the Catholic
Church. E.g. the Reformation movement (Luther's beliefs, and others). Why
were they being persecuted? Because many believed what the Catholic Church
practiced and forced on followers was in conflict with the Bible. And so
the Cathlolic Church didn't want challenges to their power. Around those
times, English (and other) translations Bible was finally getting to the
masses. If I recall correctly, the Catholic Church even declared any
'non-Catholic' Bible to be a '...book of Satan...' - since it did not
follow Catholic edicts to the letter. This, of course, was found to be
false later on as other historical texts were found to corroborate the
non-Catholic translations. I believe the Church of England (Protestant,
correct?) came about precisely because of disagreement with the Catholic
Church (aka, the 39 Articles from Elizabeth I). Of course, this is just my
opinion based on what I've researched.
Also, in present time, I've attended various Catholic Churches and have
studied what they teach. It's my opinion that what they generally say does
NOT reflect what Jesus Christ taught while He was physically here on Earth.
Some brief examples are requiring the eating of Eucharist to 'remove sin,'
or that confession has to be made to a priest, or that to be saved one has
to follow the sacraments defined by the Catholic Church. Again, I apologize
for being so brief, and I may not be using the best terms. I also have
noted that not all Catholic Churches are the same: out of the dozen or so I
attended several times, a couple of them seemed to teach almost exactly the
same thing I hear in Baptist services (e.g. salvation by Grace through
Jesus Christ).
What really saddens me is the Catholic Church is often considered
synonymous to the term Christianity. And when people examine the Catholic
Church from the outside, all they see is just another religion, like all
the other religions out there. So, they think Christianity is no different
than Judiasm, Buddism, Islam, etc. I.e. just follow a bunch of rules,
attend church, give money, do this/that, don't do this/that, etc. And from
my experience and opinion, that is definitely NOT the heart of
Christianity. So I'm probably over-critical of the Catholic Church because
of the damage I perceive it does (has done) to the message of Christianity.
Chet's message had a lot of quotes about "anti-Christian" sentiments of our
founding fathers. However, I think a lot of that was directed at the
Catholic Church specifically because of its practices and methods of that
day. So that's what I was trying to get at - but I messed up and it sounded
like I was blasting the Catholic Church in general. I should have tried to
clarify that at the of our county's origin, the Catholic Church was not
behaving in a Christian manner. IMO. Or, even that some of the 'Catholic'
founding fathers may have been expressing ill-will toward anything
non-Catholic (e.g. the allegation that the apostle Paul was a 'polluter' of
the Gospel).
For me, the same applies to current times. If the Catholic Church is still
holding to the edicts like they did hundreds of years ago, I think they are
wrong - and are not teaching true Christianity. The Catholic Church can
change, and as I've observed, some Catholic churches appear to teach what I
believe the Bible says. A few years ago, at a meeting between the Catholic
and Protestant Churches, the Catholic Church conceded that it is really by
God's Grace that anyone is saved. That was a big deal! Anyway, I shouldn't
cavalierly condemn all Catholics (as if what I said amounts to a hill of
beans anyway <g>).
Sorry for the length.
-Charlie
©2003 Charlie Coleman |
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