Maybe you need to look up the meaning of the word disciple.
dis·ci·ple (d-spl)
n.
1.
a. One who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another.
b. An active adherent, as of a movement or philosophy.
Everyone who claims to be Christian is claiming to be a follower of Christ.
When I speak of influence, I am saying that each of us have heard the gospel from someone else and each of us has heard interpretations that we accept or reject.
It is a fallacy for anyone to claim otherwise.
I only embrace the teachings of Christ. No matter what another person says, I check it with Scripture. If it matches, that’s good. If it doesn’t, I reject it.
But I don’t accept another’s teachings because they said it. It just turns out that my belief matches theirs because they’re both based on the same Bible. If their teaching is from Scripture, I would have got there anyway. Hearing it may have speeded up the process but I don’t accept stuff just because of who said it.
So, no, I am not any man’s disciple. I am Christ’s disciple, His follower.
Catholics need to get their eyes off man and following men, and a good start would be to realize that not everybody thinks like they’ve been conditioned to think. Just because Catholics have been trained to follow men, doesn’t mean that everyone else does.