I Have Officially Left the RCC

[jokerman]

Witty as always, Joe.

[Joe Republic]

Why, thank you.  I do try.

[Storebought]

I've always found the Baptists -- particularly the Black Baptists -- the most eager to "pass-the-plate." Even as an eight year old, the sight of the collection plate passed around a congregation of otherwise poor people four times during a single service had convinced me of the "virtue" of atheism until I matured around age 17 or so.

And as far as social gospel is concerned, the Roman Catholic Church's propensity for it pales in comparison to the liberal Protestant sects.

But I can only agree with you about the exclusivity of the RCC. While the Church may be gaining converts in the Third World, here in the US, both the clergy and the laity conspire to keep potential converts out. I learned that the painful way back as a confused sophomore at LSU

[Virginian87]

If we wanted to be a serious religion we would let people know if you join another religion you go to hell and start excommunicating people for abortions and stuff

YEAH, that's a great idea!  Why don't you guys just go back to the Middle Ages, when you brutally tortured anyone who so much as tried to think for himself? 

I'm sure that will really boost the Church's worldwide membership.

[DownWithTheLeft]

If we wanted to be a serious religion we would let people know if you join another religion you go to hell and start excommunicating people for abortions and stuff

YEAH, that's a great idea!  Why don't you guys just go back to the Middle Ages, when you brutally tortured anyone who so much as tried to think for himself? 

I'm sure that will really boost the Church's worldwide membership.

That's my point exactly, a church should be about practicing what you believe.  It's not politics, you should not be pandering to attract new members.  So in my opinion that is a great idea.

[Jake]

I did the same thing about four months ago, albeit for different reasons.

One thing I learned as an adult in the Church is that the Diocese of Scranton and the Catholics living in the Diocese did not have each other's interests in mind at all. For that reason (which largely stems from economics), the future of the US Catholic Church is very bleak.

[Colin]

If we wanted to be a serious religion we would let people know if you join another religion you go to hell and start excommunicating people for abortions and stuff

YEAH, that's a great idea!  Why don't you guys just go back to the Middle Ages, when you brutally tortured anyone who so much as tried to think for himself? 

I'm sure that will really boost the Church's worldwide membership.

That's my point exactly, a church should be about practicing what you believe.  It's not politics, you should not be pandering to attract new members.  So in my opinion that is a great idea.

Join a Protestant Church then. I don't believe the Catholic Church has ever been truely about following a creed. It has been for most of its existance a grouping of people with quite diverse theological views that have come together under one roof, especially since the Renaissance and subsequent liberalizing of both the entire Western world and of the Church itself. While you might not consider this completely holy, or right in the sense of papal superiority and the superiority of cannon law, it is the truth. Even with Church organizations you have a wide variation between groups like the Jesuits and Opus Dei or the Franciscans. I doubt that you would not consider any of these groups not Catholic but they have widely varying beliefs about the mission of the Church and the goals of spreading the gospel.

The thing is the Catholic Church isn't pandering to anyone it has 1 billion people that it considers its members, that's one sixth of the world's population. If you try to create a Church that is as conservative or "theologically pure" as your fundamentalist or conservative Protestant sects then you have a major problem since I doubt since I doubt that Kwando Akembe in Nigeria is going to care about the same issues as an upper class conservative Catholic in New Jersey or a liberal Catholic in the Netherlands.

Also you have to consider that in many ways in many countries Catholicism has gone beyond just being a religious entity but has become a part of the culture in much the same way as Judaism connects the world's Jewish population both spiritually and as a cultural entity.

That's just my opinion I don't really think that you could start excommunicating people for abortion or not going to Church or whatever and unless you want to see all that great 19th century anti-Catholicism come back the Church shouldn't destroy the good relations it has forged with it's Protestant bretheren.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

If you try to create a Church that is as conservative or "theologically pure" as your fundamentalist or conservative Protestant sects then you have a major problem

I believe a church should only dictate salvational issues and allow everything else to be debatable.

[7,052,770]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

That is one of the funniest things I've ever read on the forum.  The Catholic church is pretty much the most conservative demonination of Christianity in Mississippi, other than maybe Church of Christ or the weird pentacostal sects.

[they don't love you like i love you]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

That is one of the funniest things I've ever read on the forum.  The Catholic church is pretty much the most conservative demonination of Christianity in Mississippi, other than maybe Church of Christ or the weird pentacostal sects.

more than the Southern Baptists?

[MaC]

I left religion, but I did realize that Catholicism is probably one of the craziest sects of Christianity-good move Soult.

[Virginian87]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

That is one of the funniest things I've ever read on the forum.  The Catholic church is pretty much the most conservative demonination of Christianity in Mississippi, other than maybe Church of Christ or the weird pentacostal sects.

Yeah, but how many Catholics are there in Mississippi?  That state, like most of the South, is nearly completely Protestant.

[Keystone Phil]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

In many ways it has, Harry.

[Keystone Phil]

I just hope that this doesn't turn into a Catholic bashing thread.

Ok, then we’ll save for another day a discussion on the fact the RCC claims Muslims who reject Jesus Christ’s deity and resurrection are still saved through worship of Allah.  We wouldn’t want to “bash” anyone by lifting up Jesus as the one and only path to God.

You know, I kind of feel bad for you when people attack you for religious reasons but then I think of the stuff you say about Catholics/myself and realize that you deserve everything they throw at you.

[??????????]

I just hope that this doesn't turn into a Catholic bashing thread.

Ok, then we’ll save for another day a discussion on the fact the RCC claims Muslims who reject Jesus Christ’s deity and resurrection are still saved through worship of Allah.  We wouldn’t want to “bash” anyone by lifting up Jesus as the one and only path to God.

You know, I kind of feel bad for you when people attack you for religious reasons but then I think of the stuff you say about Catholics/myself and realize that you deserve everything they throw at you.

If his claim is based in truth, I've personally not heard it but with the way JP 2 was it wouldn't suprise me, then the Churchs' stance is very deplorable on that matter.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

I just hope that this doesn't turn into a Catholic bashing thread.

Ok, then we’ll save for another day a discussion on the fact the RCC claims Muslims who reject Jesus Christ’s deity and resurrection are still saved through worship of Allah.  We wouldn’t want to “bash” anyone by lifting up Jesus as the one and only path to God.

You know, I kind of feel bad for you when people attack you for religious reasons but then I think of the stuff you say about Catholics/myself and realize that you deserve everything they throw at you.

My point, which you just proved, was simple:   Since you consider any disagreement with your church as "bashing", we'll have to save discussions over disagreements for another day.

But, in reality, disagreement is not bashing, even though YOU consider it bashing.

If you are too sensitive to accept those who are willing to discuss differences of opinion, then you need to take a break from not only this forum, but from democracy itself.

[they don't love you like i love you]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

In many ways it has, Harry.

Give some examples.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

In many ways it has, Harry.

Give some examples.

Claiming that Islam is a valid path to salvation.

[°Leprechaun]

how liberal the church has become

LOL!!!!

In many ways it has, Harry.

Give some examples.

Claiming that Islam is a valid path to salvation.

What is wrong with Islam? (not radical Islam, of course)

[°Leprechaun]

Is it not true that most Catholics don't accept all the doctrine of the Church anyway? That is what I have always heard.

[°Leprechaun]

I respect your decision to leave the church as I too am disheartened by how liberal the church has become.  If we wanted to be a serious religion we would let people know if you join another religion you go to hell and start excommunicating people for abortions and stuff

Uh? If the Roman Catholic Church is liberal, what does that make me?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

What is wrong with Islam? (not radical Islam, of course)

1) Islam denies that Jesus is the only begotten son of God.
2) Islam denies that Jesus was crucified.
3) Islam denies that Jesus was resurrected.

[minionofmidas]

What is wrong with Islam? (not radical Islam, of course)

1) Islam denies that Jesus is the only begotten son of God.
2) Islam denies that Jesus was crucified.
3) Islam denies that Jesus was resurrected.

False on the second charge. (And of course, Islam gets it 100% right on the first one. )

[minionofmidas]

Worship of God. If you want to be pedantic, Worship of the God.

[bible quotes]
Therefore, no one who rejects Jesus Christ will be saved.  Is that not what these verses say?

Not relevant to my point. Which was merely the misleading non-translation of the Arabic term "Allah" that has long irked me, at least in contexts like this.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

What is wrong with Islam? (not radical Islam, of course)

1) Islam denies that Jesus is the only begotten son of God.
2) Islam denies that Jesus was crucified.
3) Islam denies that Jesus was resurrected.

False on the second charge.

Islam clearly teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross and that they crucified an imposter poising as Jesus:

"That they rejected Faith; That they uttered against Mary A grave false charge;  That they said (in boast):  'We killed Christ Jesus The son of Mary, The Messenger of Allah.'  But they killed him not, Nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not.." Quran 4:156-158