In article , Roger says...
>
>Lots. To start with, they call their priests and the pope "Father."

Nothing wrong with that, as long as the priests and pope follow the teachings of
Christ and teach them. If this condition does not hold, then it is a problem;)

> The word "pope" really means "Father" in Latin.

True...

> Jesus Christ said we are
>not to call any man on earth father, but only to call Him father.

No, that is not what He said. You are quoting Him out of context -- as is all
too common on this issue.

> I've
>attended several services lately and there is never any ecouragement to
>read the Bible. Jesus Christ again said "Search the scriptures, for in
>them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of
>me."

Ah, not so fast! Did he say "search" (as a command), or "you
search" (a
statement of fact)? Don't forget: the verb is in the form ERAYNATE, which can
mean either one. I claim the former (your claim) does not fit the context.

Besides: they _do_ encourage it. That is why in recent centuries, they have
finally not only translated Scripture into the vernacular tongues, but even
participated in multi-denominational translation efforts and assembled a heap of
reference material to help people understand the Scriptures in their own
language.

For that matter, the offer of an indulgence of 300 days for daily Scripture
reading still holds, although this persuades few people these days to knuckle
down and start reading. Indulgences have been _so_ unpopular ever since Martin
Luther criticized them;)

>So how come if this religion was really established, as they claim, by
>the Apostle Peter,

No, that is not the claim. The claim is, of course, that it is founded by
Christ.

> do they call their leaders "father" and not
>encourage their members to study the Bible when the scriptures say the
>exact opposite? In the last Catholic service I listened to, on EWTN,
>the priest, in his prayers, prayed something like "especially the
>unborn."

And what is wrong with that?

>Again, this sounds alright at first until you think about it in line
>with the scriptures. They are really claiming that the unborn are more
>special, or showing partiality, toward the unborn over those of us who
>already have been born.

Neither. They are claiming that they are in an especially great need of our
prayers, since they are totally helpless, and their right to life is so
regularly trampled on by modern day society.

> One thing is this is really a backhanded
>endosement of George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans because they,
>at least technically, are a little more anti-abortion than most
>Democrats.

Well, it is certainly not just the RCC that is guilty of this;)

>Why the involvement in politics when Jesus didn't encourage
>this? He said "My kingdom is not of this world."

True, He did. But what IS your point? There are a lot of other 'churches' that
are far more guilty of this than Rome is.

What is more, various voices tried to warn the Democratic Party NOT to run
someone like Kerry, precisely because this would align so many Catholics against
the Democratic Party. But the Democratic Party really has been hijacked by a
gang of militant anti-religious 'liberals', so they ignored the warning and got
their comeuppance.

>So is it alright then to kill hundreds of innocent civilians in
>Fallujah, as the Bush administration recently did, to torture dozens of
>prisoners of war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, etc., as
>long as you support the rights of the unborn, because they're more
>"special" than those of us who already have been born?

In case you did not notice, the Pope spoke out quite clearly against the war in
Iraq. There is even a claim circulating out there (I don't know if it is true)
that the Pope thinks that Bush is the anti-christ.

>If partiality is alright then it's alright to show show partiality
>toward the Jews over the Palestinians and other Arabs.

No, it is not. Because by showing this 'partiality' they support the clear
enemies of Christianity against the Palestinians, who include Christians.

Perhaps you did not know that many Palestinians (though not a majority) are
Christian. And their rights are just as trampled on by Israel as the Moslems's.

> The Bible,
>however, teaches us that "God is no respecter of persons" and tells
>that if we show partiality we "commit sin" and those who commit sin are
>"of the devil." Of course, the average Catholic doesn't know this
>because they aren't encouraged to read the Bible.
>
>Friend, get a King James Version of the Bible at a Dollar Store,

The KJV is hardly the best translation into English available today...

[snip]


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