[Talisker]

When Henry VIII took over the Church in England, he presumed that since he was the spiritual leader of the country that all the people owed him their spiritual allegiance, so by executive action he became the final arbiter of everyone's consciences and he took charge of all their souls. And, if you didn't think exactly the way he wanted he could charge you with treason where you were tried without legal representation and the only result would be execution. Just ask Thomas More how that all worked out.

True. But to be fair, he was just a challenger in that game, because the Catholic Church was already doing the same thing.

Whether Pope, Henry or Obama, human beings claiming ownership of the souls of others tends to piss off God.

[marsh2]

Yeh, my ancestor was the first Archbishop of the Church of England and was burned at the stake as a heretic when Catholic Mary took the throne years later. It was a revolving door. Ironically, it was the reason his descendants formed an Anglican colony in Maine in 1624.