“Couldn’t one do that as a Catholic, a Baptist, a Mormon, or no church at all?”
All but Mormons. Mormons lie when they say things because they say words you and I know to be defined in the English language but they knowingly use the words with different meanings. They then claim we didn’t understand what they said but they will then lie straight to your face and repeat what they know to be a deception.
I see Catholics as Christians as they accept Jesus as their savior. The Catholic Church is their means to express and practice that faith. I disagree with the Catholic Church as nothing but a continuation of the Roman Empire but I wouldn’t for a second doubt their faith in Jesus or their desire to be faithful Christians. My wife is a Catholic by upbringing but even she doesn’t see the need for the organized church for the faithful. I know many Catholics that are practicing Catholics. Their faith is not changed by the church; the church is their means to practice their faith.
No church at all? You bet. I think I said so. It doesn’t take an organized religion to have faith. In fact, the majority of organized religions are not for the faithful but for the greed of the organizer.
I was raised Southern Baptist. The one thing I respect of them is that their churches were community churches, not of greed, but of parishioners that usually built the church and ran it. The preacher was an educated theologian in most cases whose job it was to educate and consul the community. I am all for local community churches and hold in contempt large national and global churches. Those aren’t churches; they are businesses.