The Roman Catholic Church

I asked myself today what right does a church have to decide what I deserve for health insurance?? What right do they have to tell me how I should live?? If some people want to follow this church that is fine with me but stay out of my life. It is my life and far as I can tell they should be only concerned with my soul. If they want my soul then they better be ready to show me what they have to offer.

I have always been fond of the word why. I would ask why all the time. I again ask why do they feel they have the right to meddle in things that have nothing to do with their church. It can not be my soul that they are after because I have questioned the Roman Catholic Church for over forty years. In the questioning and search I have determined that my soul is worth more than they have to offer. So they will never have my soul, but still they want to control my life. I say no.

The first time that I can remember really questioning church was when, I believe, I was in junior high. I was playing card games with a catholic family in the neighborhood. I had nothing against them as people nor as what they had for church. I was told during the course of card play that I would have to leave because a nun was coming over and she did not like protestants. I could not understand the reasoning behind this request. I had never met the nun, never hurt the family to my knowledge, and never had hurt the nun. So this was my first introduction into intolerance when it came to church.

I was brought up in a Lutheran Missouri Synod household. I came to understand that this one was a more stringent Synod than most. Looking back the message I got from church was more in what we were to believe than than how we were suppose to be. Soon after confirmation I really have had much to do with organized church. Since that time I have been in a search for what worked for me.

I have come to believe that religion and church are two different things. Religion is a very private and individual thing. Each person has their very own religion. No one has the same religion as another. They may have things in common, but not all things. Religion is made up of many beliefs. These beliefs come from many different areas. Some come from church, some come from community, some come from family, some come from the whole universe.

How one can decide if a belief is correct for them is if it feels right. You ever have the feeling that something just does not feel right?? You get this feeling of off center, things are not in balance. This is your beliefs coming up against something that goes against your beliefs. When things are in balance you can feel it. Some times someone will ask you to do something and at the time it may not feel right. That is your soul talking to you, telling you that this might not be a good idea.

Church to me is a governing body that is usually rigid and has a set of rules for belief. If one finds comfort in their church then, to me, that is okay. I may not believe in that church, but who am I to interfere with their comfort?? Churches are to save souls and nothing more. They have no business in telling others how to live their lives. If they want to tell their people how to live, fine. As long as they stay out of my beliefs.

The Roman Catholic Church would have me believe that they know the right way and they are the only way. It just does not feel right to me. My beliefs are feeling a huge uproar about those statements.

We will assume from this point on that I have a simple mind and that I have trouble grasping the larger picture. That I need things explained to me in a very simple manner.

The Roman Catholic Church tells me that they have been around since the birth of Christ. I know that there were churches and religions before them. That God chose them to be the true way to him. I have to ask if this is the case then why did so many churches over the years splinter off from them. Did people find something lacking in the Roman Catholic Church?? It just seems to me that if they had the only way it would be so obvious that no one could miss it.

From this point on we will assume that this is the case, that they know the true and only way to everlasting salvation.

One of the first questions that comes to mind is why they found it necessary to kill so many people along the way to bring their church to so people?? The have been killing so many people throughout their long existence. If I had the true way I would find it unnecessary to kill anyone. I would work hard to convince everyone that my way was the way to everlasting salvation. I would feel badly that they would not believe, but I would not force anyone to believe. I would pray to God to help me and to ask him to talk to them so they could be saved. I would not kill.

I ran across a Catholic website explaining the Bible. On this website they said that the reason the Roman Catholic Church could know what the Bible said was because they wrote it. That they knew the true meaning of the Bible. That it was written by them but inspired by God. All the other religions could only interrupt it because they did not write it. I found this interesting. I did not know that they wrote the Old Testament. I thought the Jews or Jewish church wrote that part.

I wonder then about the conference they had in the 300's AD on deciding which books to have in the Bible. During that conference some were called heretics. Seems there was a little disagreement among the ranks. If I do not believe as you believe why get all worked up about it?? If I do not want to believe as you, isn't that my choice?? Am I not going to pay the price if I am wrong?? I am not taking your beliefs away from you, I am just deciding on my own beliefs. Threat of being called a heretic or threat of excommunication has long been a standard practice of the Roman Catholic Church. Instead of that why not just tell them they are not welcome in your church and tell them to leave, why make such a big deal of it??

They had a number of books to choose from and some of them did not get into the Bible. I wonder what those had to say?? I hope nothing important. I hope they did not have things in them that would help me in my beliefs.

Throughout the history of the Roman Catholic Church they have been involved in governments for mutual benefit. They have used the military power of the governments to further their saving of souls. I believe many people have dies over the course of 2000 years in the name of the church. I was on a website Catholic Answers asking questions. I asked one about the church killing people. I was told that they church never killed anyone. I told them that when the church aligns themselves with an army and that army kills someone then the church is as guilty as the army. They never had an answer for me.

That brings me up to the Crusades. A lot of people died during those wars, on both sides, in the name of God. Not sure if I would want to have that kind of god that promoted war and killing. History books are full of killing, torture, threats , all in the name of God. Many of these things are because the Roman Catholic Church did them. Inquisition, killing people and then making them saints.

We will assume that God choose the Roman Catholic Church to spread his word. That he is everything they say he is. He created everything, he is all powerful, he knows everything. If I have this god on my side then what am I afraid of?? If he has chosen them then he would not let them be destroyed. To my simple mind this makes sense.

They state that they have been persecuted for ever and everyone wants to take their church away. I believe the Jews have you beat there. I do not believe they have started wars for a very, very, long time. I think they are still around. Oh, you might have even tried to destroy them at one time or another.

Going back to the Bible I believe that Jesus Christ had the message of love, love for everything and everyone. He preached more about helping the poor, the needy more than anything else. I don't remember reading that he ever put a limit on love. He never said what or how much you could love.

The Roman Catholic Church does. They have no problem telling people who they can love. They tell people how much they can love another person. In my mind this is just plain garbage. Who do they think they are to tell me who and who not to love. If I find more love in the arms of a man that is my right, my choice. Perhaps they just have another definition of love. If they do I would surly love to hear it. I think God is smart enough to know what love is, he does not need the Roman Catholic Church to tell him what it is.

They state that their God created everything in the beginning, today and for ever. If that is the case then why do they find that they have to attack some of God's creations?? I talk of gays. The Roman Catholic Church finds the love of gays immoral, un-natural, a great sin. I do not know if it is or not. Do I have the right to tell someone who they can love?? NO!! Do they have the right to tell me who to love?? NO!! Sounds simple to me. The Roman Catholic Church does not think so.

The Roman Catholic Church thinks that it is un-natural for two men or two women to love each other. I guess in their eyes it may be. In their eyes it is okay for a priest to have sex with a young boy. The reason I can say this is because it happens and has happened many, many, many times. Just look in the newspapers, listen to the news,visit the internet. In their eyes it must be okay because they just covered it up, moved the person to a different church and let him do it again without telling the people of the church. That just makes me sick.

People make mistakes, it is bad that a priest would have sex with a young boy. It is very, very, very, sick that the Roman Catholic Church would try to cover it up. These people are sicker than the person that did the crime. In my mind all of these people that were involved in the cover ups should be thrown in jail, stripped of any right to preach again, or hold any kind of leadership rule in any organized church and have to registrar as a sex offender.

In the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church it is okay to have same sex just do not love them. Ummm. Within this they also admit that people have sexual urges. In my mind sexual urges are natural and a very big part of us. One thing I can not figure out then is why they find it necessary for their priest to be celibate. It always was not like this. Some of the 12 Apostles were married. Over the course of time the Roman Catholic Church has changed their views on the sex habits of their priests. If they had it right from the start why change??

Christ in his travels delivering his message to the people lived among communities. He knew that man could not live church beliefs alone. Some beliefs would have to come from community. This is where community beliefs come in. You have the church beliefs and you also have the community beliefs. Community is where you live your church beliefs. You develop the works of your belief as you live in the community. You find more of yourself there, you find what feels right.

I find within the Roman Catholic Church that some people are more equal than others. They feel that woman are not as worthy as men. They need to only be allowed certain places within the church. I can not ever remember Jesus treating women any different than men. I never heard him speak down to them. He never told them they had a place and they could go no higher. The Roman Catholic Church would have you believe that women are less than men and they can not have their own beliefs and to follow their soul.

The Roman Catholic Church would tell you that tradition tells them that Jesus had no women Apostles. I do not know. So that is why nuns serve priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes. Okay we will go with tradition then. I do not believe that Jesus lived as a king. He had a crown, but it was a crown of thorns. He did not have so much money, jewels, paintings, idols, more money than most countries. He was a carpenter. A blue collar worker. So if you are going to use tradition then use for everything.

The Roman Catholic Church would have you believe that they know best what is best for women. I do not think so. All these men telling women how to live. They do not even have women in their lives. That to me sounds un-natural. Thats sounds perverted. They might say that they have nuns in their lives. Okay. About the facts that priests have had sex with nuns. Is that okay with the church?? The nuns are suppose to be celibate also. How can nuns and priests go forth and multiply if they are not suppose to have sex?? I would think the church would want their best to multiply.

He also said if you wanted to be perfect you needed to sell everything and help the needy. I still see a lot of money in your coffers. I find the Roman Catholic Church to be a big bully. They have lied, they have killed, they have destroyed people all over the world in the name of their God.

The Roman Catholic Church has turned everything that Jesus Christ did into a ritual. It was not a ritual to him. He just lived his life. He just lived. The Roman Catholic Church has built magnificent buildings, acquired the largest art collection in the world, amassed a huge fortune equal or greater than most countries, have huge land holdings, run businesses, have a huge library that for the most part they keep to themselves.

Through the process of tradition and rituals and gaining such a huge wealth they have lost their soul. They have along the way stepped from the path that they set out on. They are so afraid of losing their church that it has become more important to them than the people that they claim they are trying to save. It is time for them to worry about their own soul than saving other souls. It has been 2 over 2000 years since the birth of Christ, the world has changed. The Roman Catholic Church has refused to change. Without change things die. I wonder if the Roman Catholic Church has died.

To my way of thinking that would be a bad thing. I do not know if all the message that they first carried was correct or not. I know it carried love, tolerance, and compassion. These are good things. These are things that should never be lost.