If you were not LDS what religion would you be?


omegaseamaster75
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It is sooooo convenient to be catholic. You can attend mass almost any time of day - even Saturday night. I went to a conference with a catholic and we both wanted to attend church. My service was held once a week, a long way away in the suburbs while there were many convenient locations for the Catholic Church and many churches all over the city. The priest was very nice too!

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If it came from family influence? Probably Catholic, since that's basically the only other religion in my family tree. My father's family are American Mormons, and my mother's family are Belgian Catholics. No in between, more or less.

 

I hate saying that, since I view the Roman Catholic Church as a borderline criminal organization (let me stress that this is a criticism of the church's governance, not the followers), but there you have it.

 

If it was not family influence but personal study, possibly Methodist or Presbyterian.

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I hope I would find a good Christian church that teaches of Him and how to follow Him, not just a feel-good, stay as you are kind of religion. But I don't think it's in my nature to be satisfied with stagnancy. 

 

Outside of Christianity, I'm sure I'd be Buddhist. I'm not sure how I'd get there from my Anglo/Catholic/S.Baptist roots, but I like a lot of the truths about love and peaceful living that I've read about Buddhist dogma. 

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Roman Catholic for sure.

I don't see what's borderline criminal about its governance.

 

For me, it's mostly the sexual abuse scandals. Like I said, my mom was raised in Belgium, and the Archdiocese of Mechelen (the country's only archdiocese) is knee-deep in these scandals. Combine that with the other sex abuse scandals they've had around the world, and I have a hard time believing that it's not something systemic.

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For me, it's mostly the sexual abuse scandals. Like I said, my mom was raised in Belgium, and the Archdiocese of Mechelen (the country's only archdiocese) is knee-deep in these scandals. Combine that with the other sex abuse scandals they've had around the world, and I have a hard time believing that it's not something systemic.

I once saw a study that suggested sex scandals among priests was, populations considered, less than sex scandals among other careers. Nothing more than the media - driven drama of shock value.

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For me, it's mostly the sexual abuse scandals. Like I said, my mom was raised in Belgium, and the Archdiocese of Mechelen (the country's only archdiocese) is knee-deep in these scandals. Combine that with the other sex abuse scandals they've had around the world, and I have a hard time believing that it's not something systemic.

 

Catholicism is the biggest Christian denomination.  The number of sexual scandals in the faith is a much lesser number than any other big demographic.  LDS have their own sexual abuse scandals if you care to look it up.

 

The difference is - the Vatican has its own policing arm for its ordained priests.  This arm is structured in the pattern of Christian belief in the process of Repentance.  The Catholic Church's first and foremost priority regarding a priest committing a grievous sin (sexual abuse is just one of them) is the salvation of his soul.  The Catholic belief in "where much is given, much is required" is the same as the LDS belief.  A priest is considered one that holds the keys to heaven... a priest committing a mortal sin, therefore, is in grave danger of the deepest fires of hell, more so than your run-of-the-mill Catholic.  His repentance process will be very painful, very deep, very arduous, and very treacherous.  When you throw a priest who has been cloistered in a lifetime of spiritual service into the the secular legal system, that priest will be lost forever and God will lose a soul to Satan.  But, at the same time, the Church has to protect humankind from the sin.  To balance the two, the Vatican brings the priest into isolation to spend his days and nights in prayer, study, and reflection to start the difficult process of repentance, give him a chance to come back to Christ, and give him spiritual strength before he is thrown to the wolves.

 

Of course, as people who don't understand the calling to Catholic Priesthood and the lives of priests, our gut reaction is for immediate justice, reparation, and even vengeance.  To hell with redemption of his black soul, sexual abuse demands that he be legally prosecuted, publicly hanged if it was still the norm, or getting stabbed to death in prison will do in a pinch.  Serves him right for the monster that he is.  People have a long way to go in learning the lesson of the casting of the first stones.

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