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I'd rather not do something which is of dubious origin, than do it and hope it might be true.

All matters of faith are dubious. We just have different criteria and information as to what we accept as believable. I am often very amused when people of faith attack other believers so vehemently. In essence, it is one lunatic calling another lunatic a lunatic. A neverending source of mirth for me.

All matters of faith are dubious.

Absolutely astounding. Is that what the RCC teaches you?

Dubious: "causing doubt; ambiguous; vague; skeptical; with the outcome undecided; arousing suspicioun; shady."

Which of those defintions fits your Christian faith, LB? Thank God, none of them apply to mine. I know whom I have believed.

Too true, and I applaud your well thought out and articulate response to both of my posts. In the end, I suspect you're right. It all comes down to what we can accept. Thus far, I am just not ready to accept the doctrine of intercessory prayer, or of the other Marian doctrines in general. It's a matter of faith, for me, too.

The best thing I love about the LCMS (and this cannot be said for all Lutheran churches, because the ELCA is off the liberal deep end and is just about to descend into full blown heresy with the homosexual thing...but I digress) is that the focus is fully and completely on Jesus Christ. The Theology of the Cross is first and foremost in Lutheran teaching. Jesus is front and center. We aren't putting things in his way, like doctrines of "election", or Marianism, or any other distractions. It's about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that is reflected in our liturgy, which is virtually the same as the Catholic Mass (according to some Catholics I know who have attended our church for baptisms, etc, the Lutheran liturgy is identical to the Catholic Mass).

So, I guess, I'm getting the good parts of Catholicism - the "Mass" and the Eucharist. We believe in the real presence (for the Catholics here, don't tell me it's not the Eucharist - it most definitely is) without what I call "the made-up stuff" - the man made teachings with no basis in scripture or tradition (that's my opinion and that's how I see it).