yes, but they are taught that they are often wrong about their understanding and that the church will provide them the correct interpretation. They are taught to not make a move without approval of the church. They are taught to subordinate themselves to the heirarchical chain of power.
Catholicism is antithetical to rugged individualism and the development of a personal relationship with God. The church insists on being an authority over the lives of adherents.
Any bitterness I feel for catholicism is that they hid Christ from me when i was growing up in the church. They wanted me to worship the Pope, subordinate my beliefs to the priest and that the reason I was just a peon is because christ said so. They told me that Christ gave them the authority and power over my life, and that I could not have a relationship with christ directly but only through them.
I never found Christ in the Catholic church. He was held back for the priests use only.
I floundered for the next 34 years as an agnostic and skeptic. I too used to think christianity and catholicism were the same thing and thus Christianity was nothing but a system of superstitions and dogmas used to enslave the insecure masses.
I thought Baptists were some tyrannical sect who sought to tie the masses up in chains and flog them if they didn't believe in Christ. That they wanted to create a State religion that would force people to become Christians.
I really thought that. My impressions came from the schools and media.
I was 180 degrees wrong.
Most people do nto even realize that a fundamental tenet of the Baptist faith is that governments and church should not mix.
It was a Baptist lay preacher who was singularly most responsiblee for the 1st amendment, particularly the anti-establishment clause. (History textbooks prior to WWII often considered him one of the 5 most important founding fathers, John Leland.)
No Catholic nation was ever responsible for the creation of a free government.
You mention Poland. They were empowered and encouraged by the Protestant Americans. They followed the lead of the Americans. yes, the Catholic church endorsed and participated, as an exception, but were it not for the Protestants it never would have happened.
I am not singing the praises of Protestants. I am stating the importance of a personal, one-on-one, exclusive relationship withe Bible and Jesus Christ.
No man who has a personal relationship with Christ can ever be enslaved spiritually, and will always be fighting for liberty of all brothers and sisters of any faith.
I’m sorry that your experience with Catholicism was so negative. Mine has been quite to the contrary. Especially the part about “worshipping” the Pope. If you were taught that, it was an error.
Regarding Poland, what you say is true regarding American encouragement. I wasn’t referring to the participation of the Church, per se, as critical as it was, but to the fact that the overwhelmingly Catholic population of Poland achieved a revolution.
I expect that we are just going to have to agree to disagree.
What is this? The Ayn Rand version of Christianity?