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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 8:12 pm
by Darth Zenemij
Well the catholics have a planned out leader via having a pope lead then they should really listen to him.My mom has a very strong backround of catholisism btw,I have no idea how to spell that.
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:28 am
by fable
[QUOTE=Darth Zenemij]Well the catholics have a planned out leader via having a pope lead then they should really listen to him.[/quote]
Those who disagree I expect would say they had no choice in his leadership. That's true about most religions, of course: you don't do who your priest, rabbi or spiritual head is. So are you bound to follow everything he says, do you think, if you accept membership in his Church? Or can you pick and choose?
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:19 pm
by Darth Zenemij
Well I think that You should be bound to the one who is choosen for you.If the family has a stong connection to what they belive is god or have s very good understanding then they should choose him.I think it would be weird:
Today's plan for church,Vote for your'e onw rabbi,priest e.t.c
Tommarow's plan fo church,Pray and serve god with our new spiritual leader.
I think that,That would be a weird thing on a bored in front of a church.
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:46 pm
by fable
[QUOTE=Darth Zenemij]Well I think that You should be bound to the one who is choosen for you.If the family has a stong connection to what they belive is god or have s very good understanding then they should choose him.I think it would be weird:
Today's plan for church,Vote for your'e onw rabbi,priest e.t.c
Tommarow's plan fo church,Pray and serve god with our new spiritual leader.
I think that,That would be a weird thing on a bored in front of a church.[/QUOTE]
Would it be weird, though? In the early Christian Church, there were numerous examples of congregations whose leaders/priests were chosen by them. There were even examples of female leaders, on occasion. All this vanished when the Orthodox Church (which later split into several divisions, of which the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox are the largest today by far) triumphed thanks to being chosen as the "official" church of the Byzantine Empire, and got to dictate how things would go. Of course, congregations that chose their own priests would make any hierarchy logistically impossible: how would Church leaders pass along decisions, if these decisions were constantly being questioned by priests they didn't control? And how would the Church ensure a continuous theology, one that wasn't open to change by any given community? The obvious answer was to have high-ranking Church officials choose priests who were theologically "correct," and put them in place. They also reinforced cultural prejudices of the period--so the women who had important roles were kicked out, and community churches that refused the official selection of priests were kicked out, as well. The liturgy was taken out of the hands of the worshippers, and the Church reserved for itself the right to collect and distribute tithes.
I'm not saying this is a good thing, or a bad thing. I am suggesting that to establish a single religion with a coherent theology and dogma, you need a hierarchy. But given that need, I strongly question many of the additional decisions that the Orthodox, and later Roman Catholic Church made along the way at various times: priestly celibacy, the exclusion of women from the priesthood, the curiously bipolar biblical canon, the exclusion of the congregation from any decisions that involve more than raising money, etc.