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...think of how many people you would bring to Chirs!!

Look, all I was saying is that the Catholic church is not a fit institution for providing spiritual guidance, that's all. Yes, it does a decent job with social outreach programs, but it should leave spiritual instruction to the Holy Spirit and quit trying to invent doctrine from thin air.

As for the hucksters and halfwits within the ranks of the Protestant denominations, you will get no argument from me that they should be neutered.

If you want us to walk together as brothers and sisters under the same banner, let that banner be of the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I serve no other and I recognize no other church, save the one established by His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. If you and I can agree that it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness and that alone, then we are of the same family. No works are required, only faith in Jesus' infinite grace can save us from eternal separation from God.

Listen, the Church can be accused of a lot of things, but it does not create doctrine out of thin air. You obviously have no understanding about how difficult and long the process is that the Catholic Church undertakes before pronouncing that a teaching is a doctrine of the Church. Sometimes it takes literally centuries of open debate, scholarship and most importantly, prayer. A perfect example is the fact that the Nicean Creed (or Apostle's Creed)was not finalized until the 4th century.

Furthermore, as cogently illustrated by the statements in this thread, alleged doctrines are often attribted to the the Catholic Church which are not, in fact, Church doctrine.

In fact, there are a surprisingly limited number of actual teachings that are considered essential doctrine of the Church, and most of those are set forth in the Apostle's' Creed.

I consider your statement that the Catholic Church is a good social organization, but not a proper standard bearer for the Christian Faith, Ito be offensive at worst and ignorant at best.

The Church is an institution created by God but occupied by falliable men. Like any institution that has human influence, it will make mistakes and it often has. But, as Christ stated when he annointed Peter as the first Pope, the "Gates of Hell will not Prevail Against It."

You may be able to point to current problems in the Church, such as the sex abuse problem in the U.S., but these errors are fleeting, and cannot be used to indict the entire Church and its role as the principal teacher of the Christian Faith in the World for 21 centuries -- 900+ million Catholics cannot all be wrong.

May you find peace. In Christ, CWW