no more Pope.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by ziggytrix

My point is simply this: I don't like moral absolutism. It's the reason my my grandmother is afraid my uncle is going to hell, because he goes to the wrong Church every Sunday.

Actually, that's the big chip on my shoulder about religion in general. I wish to God I could resolve that - I'd walk around with a beatific smile on my face every day.

Well that sounds like your problem, but if you think Roman Catholics are the only ones who believe that they are on the right path, you're mistaken. And the situation isn't as dire as you seem to make it out to be. Pope John Paul II, for example, was particularly concerned about the divide amongst Christians. American churches have formed all sorts of alliances and conferences where they pray together and try to bond on their common Christian interests.

If anything, it's the Southern Baptist Church that rarely wants to interact with the other denominations. Heck, they won't even work with their international body anymore. They are what you might call "Bible Christians," and they seem about as "absolutist" as you can get to me. :/

I believe you listed those in the wrong order. It seems to me, and this is just an opinion, that the Catholic Church has historically had a problem with valuing tradition and papal edicts over scripture, and THAT is what makes parishoners vulnerable to Protestant conversion and apostatism.

I think there are a whole lot of reasons why someone might leave the seemingly rigid structure of the Church for something a little more decentralized and scripture oriented (or obsessive). I'll once again refer you to the excellent point Seth made.

I'd also like you to provide me with a few examples of papal "edicts" or whatever that conflict entirely with the scriptures, and would thus drive people to a protestant church (where the scriptural conflict presumably doesn't exist).

Yep, you get to go to Heaven and they're all screwed, cuz they picked the WRONG CHURCH! Stupid Unitarians!

It's not because they are wrong, it's because they aren't the Roman Catholic Church. But it's also because they are wrong. Have you ever been to a universalist church....?

Why not women priests? Because of tradition?

Partly, yes. And I won't allow you to make me ashamed of that tradition. It's a rich tradition with roots back to Christ, and for a Catholic like myself, that's very important. Almost as important as the translated words in whatever Bible you're citing.

There's also a contradiction in your argument. You believe that the problem with the Church is that they mess around too much with the scriptures, that they create their own edicts and blah blah, whatever.

Where in the scriptures is there any support for ordaining women? Did Christ ever ordain a woman....? If the Church allowed women to become priests, wouldn't they thus be breaking from scripture?