Spiritualism is used in all kinds of areas from Haiti to downtown NYC by all kinds of people professing all kinds of religions or none. The thing that sets them apart is that they try to communicate with spirits.
that separates you and I is that I don't think God is the God of the dead, but the living
Yes, the living. But there are saints who alive here and there are saints who have passed from this earth.
Death is not the end of love as you seem to think
You infer much about what I think. 1 Cor 13 makes your point obvious and I never thought otherwise. However, there is nothing to indicate that those who have passed on are able to communicate with those in this temporal realm. One can love and not communicate. The catholics have invented that story, but that doesn't make it true.
Spiritualism is used in all kinds of areas from Haiti to downtown NYC by all kinds of people professing all kinds of religions or none. The thing that sets them apart is that they try to communicate with spirits.
We cannot, for the sake of accuracy, turn comparisons into identification. Some people do things like spiritualists, but that doesn't necessarily make them spiritualists. Not unless they hold all the peculiarities of that view. And comparisons should not be pushed too far. Women who think their recently departed husband can hear them speak to them at their funeral are hardly spiritualists.
Yes, the living. But there are saints who alive here and there are saints who have passed from this earth.
Having passed from this earth is nothing. Christ defeated death, and to be apart from the body is to be with Christ. And that certainly does not mean being less Christian or no longer being a member of his body. We on earth are members of his body, and so are the saints who are not dead but with him right now.
However, there is nothing to indicate that those who have passed on are able to communicate with those in this temporal realm. One can love and not communicate. The catholics have invented that story, but that doesn't make it true.
You insist on talking about "communicating" in some manner akin to necromancy. Catholics do nothing of the kind, which is why why your constant references to spiritualism are so wrong. Spiritualists believe, among other ridiculous things, in making physical contact with the dead and asking them questions and getting answers. Occult silliness which invites demonic activity. The Church and the Lord forbid it. Christians pray for one another, and ask each other for their prayers. That is the Christian way, and it is a part of life in the Church, the mystical Body of Christ. In your view, death severs that body and one half does not pray for the other half and cannot be asked for prayers by them.
Your view of what constitutes death is wholly unchristian and inadequate. It infects how you view everything else. If I ask a fellow believer to pray for me you would evince no shock at all. That is what Christians do. But, if that person passes onto the next life you suddenly think he cannot do this or I cannot ask him. Not only that, but the mere request becomes "worship." Asking other believers for prayers is certainly not an act of worship, as surely you do it yourself. Prayers for one another also are not any kind of mediation or intercession which infringes on the role of Christ.
The only thing which changes such requests for prayer from a virtue to an evil is "death," which doesn't even exist. Christ defeated it, and his Body cannot be divided. Your point of view destroys the integrity of Christ's Body and lifts what Christ destroyed to something stronger than he is himself. Are you not a member of Christ? Are the saints who have passed not also members of Christ? If Christ himself is divided by death, then death is not destroyed, and you are not saved. Your view is distorted and does not reflect a proper Christian understanding. We should not allow fear of things like "spiritualism," which has nothing to do with Christian faith and hope, eat away our confidence in the victory of Christ.