Freedom, i don't dispute anything you said. i also don't claim that churches have bad people in them or that all church management teams are bad in every way.
i've met nice, sincere people in every church i've been to. that includes catholic (mother in law), methodist (parents), worldwide church of god (my former church) and some of their offshoots where some WWCOG members went. Some good people attend the JW church, too.
anyone in any of those human created organizational structures has anecdotal evidence similar to your experiences.
at the end of the day, though, the top management live like kings (you don't even want to know how much solid gold catholic management is sitting on (they have control billions, no?) while people starve to death - sometimes catholics) and the people live lesser lives, typically subservient to the organization. the same could be said of me on a smaller scale - i have wealth that i don't use (and the banksters want to steal now!) while others starve, so i don't put myself up as any kind of saint, but i won't support that kind of approach which was 100% contrary to jesus' and paul's approach. paul was in the ministry for many years and still claimed he only had clothes on his back.
then there is the issue of portraying god as a torturing sadist the likes that humanity has never seen. it simply isn't scriptural and does a grave disservice to a very good and kind god.
again, i don't judge catholics - some of them are surely better people than i am and that's the whole point - to be rational, good, kind, caring people. |
