[Conservative til I die]

Nope, I am not saying cults or heretics never existed. What I am saying, is that the Catholic Church moved quickly to refute, excommunicate, and declare these groups anathema. Almost none of them exist in any form today, and if they do, they are universally laughed at. This is because of the authority of the Church.

Under Protestantism, these groups have managed to flourish and multiply exponentially, spiritually harming people by the millions. This is directly due to Protestantism having no final arbiter. One lunatic's (like Mary Baker Eddy) ideas are as valid as another's (Martin Luther), since both of them have appealed to the Scriptures, meditated, prayed, and decided that their beliefs are the TRUTH .

That was my point all along.

[CHQmacer]

You have a point about a final arbiter. Many protestent secs have strayed an unbeliebable distance from the teachings of Christ (orgaining lesbian preists and all ) in order to be politically correct.

having a Pope that is a decent man is a really big plus for Catholics.

of course there have been Popes that were mass murderers but that hasn't been the case for quite some time. Now the Pope is a stregnth to all of us who want to keep Christian values not just Catholics.