Concering your Grandparents and the Bible, unfortunately some local Catholic Parishes (though not the Church as a whole) have taught that reading the bible is not good. However, this is in the minority and is contrary to what JPII and the rest of the popes teach.[b said:Quote[/b] (CCGR @ Oct. 09 2003,8:25)]I apologize if I seem bitter toward catholicism. I do realize that salvation is based on the individual and not what denomination you go to. However if a person goes to mass everery Sunday and hear the same gospels but no message of salvation how are they to know they need to confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and make him Lord of their lives? Now my family is Catholic so they are my test base here.
My grandparents don't crack open the Bible because they are told that they may misinterperate it. I thought the Bible was written for everyone not a select few who need to be saved. God does not discriminate.
The church puts man-made doctrine above the Bible. Many Catholics believe in purgatory. Not even once is this mentioned in the Bible. There is no second chance no matter how much you pay the curch to offer masses for the deceased.
We believe in a personal relationship with God we don't need the priest to tell him our sins, we go straight through him. The same goes with mediators. 1Ti 2:5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; We don't ask Mary to run errands for us, straight to Jesus. We don't give power to the deceased, they are dead and gone. Hopefully we'll reuinite with them later.
I guess the main difference between us is our stance on the Bible. It's God's word and does not need any addendums. If you believe in something not listed in that, that's up to you but doesn't mean I'll buy into it.
When it comes to Christianity my church has a great motto
Agree on the Majors (Jesus died, rose, accept as savior)
Be tolerant on the minors (baptism, Bible versions)
In all things LOVE
We do not put Man made doctrines above the Bible (don't know where you got this idea), all of our doctrines are equal too and compatible with the Bible. Where does the Bible talk about the Trinity? Where does the Bible speak of abortion? Are you just going to ignore this stuff? That's impossible to do.
We Catholics also believe that we can go straight to Jesus, and we do every single day and every single Mass. Have you ever asked someone for prayers before? Of course you have! That's why there's a prayer forum here. So why not ask Mary and the Saints for prayers? They're closer to God than we are right now.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen (who was the first tele-evangilist and who had a much larger TV than Billy Grahm does) once said that there aren't 50 people in America who hate the Catholic Church; they only hate what THEY BELIEVE that Catholic Church is.