[Banjoguy]

Ditto on that.
One need not attend a church, or be part of a formal religious sect to establish a personal union with God and the Holy Spirit. Religion is simply put, a means by which we socially ritualise our belief system, but the fact is, despite what they want you to believe, churches do not exist in order to tell you what God thinks. The church is neither the guardian nor the dispenser of God's presence or of God's thoughts.

[grey_whiskers]

The church is neither the guardian nor the dispenser of God's presence or of God's thoughts

The best way I've heard it was a Protestant assistant pastor giving a talk and saying, "Have you ever noticed how older single people get kind of weird? I mean, no disrespect, but they sometimes think very odd things. But I know what that doesn't happen to married people. The other day, I was getting dressed, and I leaned on the dresser, looking into space, and my wife says to me, very sharply, 'STOP IT. You're thinking something weird.' And I came to, and realized, yes it *had* been something weird. But single people don't have any spouse to call them on it.

The Church can act like a watchful spouse in areas of Theology.

Cheers!

[Mr. Silverback]

Why would you want to argue with Jesus and the writer to the Hebrews?

Matthew 16:13-20

Hebrews 10:25