Re: Ultimately, you bet it matters....

42781, FWIW, I just found this thread and therefore just found one particular train of thought of yours that really resonated with me.

"Jesus never asked for churches to have a hierachy of priests. In HIS eyes, we were all equal."

About 4 years ago or so, I was having a nice substantive convsersation with one of the relative few close friends I have who are good for such conversations. For the record, she is a devout Catholic and I am a devout no-denominationist, but neither of us have ever held this agaisnt the other..... we've managed to become good friends despite our given orientation in this context :) Prior to having first met her, which was about 8 years ago, I'd already been trying to form in my mind a question I'd been wanting to ask but could never even form the thoughts in my mind sufficient for asking the question. Then I met this person and we became good friends often given to deep and substantive conversations. I learned a lot things about life, to include things religion and many other things non. About 2 or 3 years into this relationship, during a long friendly in person conversation, it (the thoughts) of this question long growing in my mind finally coalesced to the point that I was able to get it out of my mind in the form of words and a question to her: "from where did the Catholic Church originally get (and or take and or assume as the case was) it's charter/authority to become over the eons all that it has become (for instance the hierarchy you so well enumerated in previous posts in this thread). Without hesitation or even a blink my friend quoted chapter and verse, for which I remember the spirit of but cannont myself at this moment remember the exact chapter and verse; "upon this rock, Peter.... ". With all respect to my friend then and any/all other such believers today, I could not restrain my utter amazement (and voicing therein) how much grand, elaborate and ever-sprawling to-do the Catholic Church has since made and harvested (worldwide hierarchy, infrastructure and control) from such an otherwise and seemingly breif, simple and innocent quote of he-said-she-said from New Testament scripture. Tweet