Yet, I do not respect the religion for the following reasons:
-It installs one man on earth as above all other men. I do not find that in “my” Bible.
-It handles its masses in Latin - knowing that the people do not understand.
-It creates saints that the members pray to. I only pray to God.
-It creates Mary as a sacred being worthy of being prayed to. I find nothing in my Bible that tells us to pray to saints or Mary.
-It appears immersed in a love of wealth, pageantry, with the power in the hands of exalted men ruling over the lives of the ordinary. This emphasis on opulence and wealth is foreign to me when trying to follow Jesus. I did not see Jesus involved in any obsession of wealth.
I do not deny that there are some wonderful people in the history and members. And there are many decisions and statements that I respect. Overall, I feel the people are praying to idols, praying to men as “saints” and seeking forgiveness for their sins from men - not God.
So many things that I cannot overlook as I do not find a basis for the practices in the Bible.
Why not? You asked some very interesting questions, to which I graciously provided answers. The answers may or may not be to your liking (I cannot know, as I cannot read your mind), but the answers are nevertheless true. Questions posed on a public discussion forum will invariably provoke discussion.
secret documents
are not sold for six bucks on Amazon dot com, nor are they given away for FREE on the internet.
Does this serve our purposes at Free Republic?
Would you mind closing this infantile discussion down, maybe they can move it to some other board.
There is no edcuation purpose here, just “conservatives” tearing each other down.