Okay, okay, everybody - just CALM down.
They used to tell you never to discuss either religion or politics in polite company, like a dinner party. Of course, this is not a dinner party and not all of us are always polite. Plus, discussion of religion and politics is usually quite interesting and stimulating. It can also get quite heated and sometimes personal.
The thing to remember is that discussion of a religious organization (ie: the RCC or Nation of Islam) is NOT the same as discussion of the tenets of the faith itself and it is certainly NOT the same as discussing an individual's particular faith and beliefs.
Lurker. No one is holding you responsible for the failings of the RCC in the past or the present. And vison, I don't think Lurker should really be required (or even asked) to "explain" these failings. I mean,
honestly...
River is correct - this thread is about how religion became so powerful in the first place.
Organized religion, not personal faith. The rise of Christianity was in a large part due to a political move by Constantine in 313. If he had not decided that mass conversion to Christianity was good politics, the new religion may well have remained more of less on the fringe. Instead, the newly-powerful Roman Catholic Church became, as River said, the only game in town. Christians were no longer holding their meetings in secret and being persecuted by the Romans - now they WERE the Romans.
And - surprise! The newly-powerful Christian organization proved to be just as corrupt as the former one that had been persecuting them.
Not all Christians appreciated this turn of events and this is when some split off and started living as monks and so on - they did not believe a Christian should be so concerned with earthly things.
The Reformation didn't begin to happen until the mid-1500s...more than a thousand years after Constantine made his political move. That gave the RCC a LOT of time to become one of the most powerful organizations in the world. If you visit the Vatican, you will see some of the spoils of this victory...almost everything in the Vatican was basically stolen. Beautiful stuff. But stolen nonetheless.
Islam is the only other major world religion that believes its major mission is world-wide conversion (by any means.) I think one of the reasons we have not seen more Islamic-based atrocities as Islam rises in popularity and power is that there is no real "seat" of Islam...no one person in charge, so to speak. They are very disorganized, compared to the RCC, which has, literally, its own country. And although the RCC certainly is less powerful as an organization than it was 500 years ago, it still hold considerable power and sway over its adherents. As recently as 50 years ago (and maybe still!) children in Catholic Schools (in the US at least!) were taught that non-Catholics were destined for hell. Not non-Christians, mind...non-
Catholics.
As an organization, they are incredibly myopic and even cruel. Two recent individual examples:
A 9 year old girl in Brazil was raped by her step-father and found to be pregnant with twins. The doctors feared that her uterus was too small and she would die from the pregnancy. Her mother secured her an abortion on advice of the doctor. (This met both criteria for a legal abortion in Brazil - incest and possible death of the mother.) The Catholic Church
excommunicated both the mother and the doctor. (Not the step-father rapist, mind.) They said that "those twins should have been given a chance!"
And a smaller, less painful example, but still pertinent. A child in the US was making her first communion. She had a severe wheat allergy and the parents applied for a special dispensation from the Church for her to have a wafer made of rice. The answer? No. The family has now left the church; I think they became Episcopalians.
The RCC today seems to have very little connection to or understanding of the very people to whom it is supposed to be ministering. It seems to be more concerned with itself as an organization (a powerful organization) than with doing Jesus' work.
Yes, there are plenty of individual Catholics who ARE trying to do the work of Jesus and ARE trying to follow the tenets of the faith. But to be honest, I think their church is hindering them, not helping them.