[Quix]

I have never given it a lot of thought one way or the other, why does it matter whether Peter was the founder, or Bishop, of the Roman Church? Is it tied to the idea that they have supreme leader, who was above all other Apostles?

Gets to be the issue of AUTHORITY, POWER, CONTROL over all Christendom . . . EXTRAPOLATED, shoehorned into existence from that vague metaphorical passage about Peter. Then, they have to jury-rig and mangle history to support all THAT! Gets to be a monstrous house of cards encrusted with lots of fossilized junk purporting to be parading about in robes of righteousness that smell much the opposite. But that's normal for instutitions of man Roman AND Protestant.

[wmfights]

"Gets to be the issue of AUTHORITY, POWER, CONTROL over all Christendom . . . EXTRAPOLATED, shoehorned into existence from that vague metaphorical passage about Peter."
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I have been reading about the early years of Christianity and one of the things that is so clearly a myth is this idea that Rome had authority and control. Prior to the emergence of Rome as the preeminent power Christianity was congregational in structure and religious services were very different.