why are protestants so eager to weigh in on the pope???

Well the second ammendment deals with the "right to bear arms..." not sure what you meant...

Don't know who you're speaking to. Hope it's not me. A religion that becomes a corporation has no constitutionally protected rights. They become a product of the state.

The second commandment? I typed it right in the post you quoted, please stop dodging and be sincere.

Please be specific... what are you referring to?

That may have been misdirected at you, I wasnt sure if you were referring to the Catholic Church as without graven images. Please disregard.

Have you ever heard of the 10 commandments? If not, I suggest you pick up the Bible you claim to support.

If a catholic prays to a Saint or Mary it is Intercessory prayer... All prayers are to Jesus... Intercessory prayer is the same as you asking people to pray for you...

Exodus 20: 1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

But someone looking to a priest to 'absolve' their sins is not looking to Jesus, and Jesus alone.

James talks about "confessing your sins to one another"... That is confession!

I know what the ten commandments are!

Thou shall have no other God besides me! Because we have a statue of a saint honoring their service to God is not a sin!

But its not out place to 'absolve' these sins. Only Jesus can do that, and did so. Confession is fine, being honest is fine, not bearing false witness is fine.

What about all the graven images? Why is this so hard for you to grasp?

We go directly to Jesus for absolution... But it is also important to confess your sins to another human being... It helps your healing process and to hopefully keep you from doing it again... One thing Protestants dont understand is that a Priest can actually give you good advice on avoiding that sin in the future-especially if its a habitual sin..

No one is worshiping the images, what is your point?

You are correct, only Jesus can absolve sins!

Maybe those priests can just work as counselors or therapists then. There are professions for that. However, you dodge the fact that at the end of these confessions, the priest ABSOLVES the person of their sin.. Getting this yet?

So what church do you belong to?

Then you agree that what the priests do at the end of confessions is heresy! Thank you.

Because eventually the churches will combine, as they should, and many from both sides agree.

We non-Catholic TRUE BELIEVER Christians are watching the Catholic church to see when we will need to come to her rescue.

I am a Christian, Catholics are also Christians.

The separation and divisions between us need to stop.

My Mother was a Baptist, my Father a Catholic. I am a hybrid.

We all love Jesus.

This isnt an ad hominem attack on you. Its just about what you believe. You keep dodging the point about graven images, which isnt very honest and straightforward of you.

But the churches of full of them, thats the obvious point. Its in direct violation of the second commandment. If you dont care thats fine, but dont make threads asking why people question the pope.

So why not come forth and tell us your church?

So if you have a dollar bill in your wallet is that a violation of the second commandment? Of course you will say its not... but if you follow your logic, any gravin image you have should not be used...

Being a buttinsky here, but probably the part about not bowing down to idols and graven images.

Statues of anything or anyone. Even crucifixes are a no-no.

Thank you! Someone who understands!

So when it says "every knee shall bow..." thats a no-no???

It will only serve to segregate.

Matthew 18: 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Your question only allows you to dodge mine. Again, if you're ok with graven images in your church, so be it, but dont turn around and question why people weigh in on the pope. That doesnt make any sense.

It's not just the graven images. It's almost everything about the Catholic Church. There's just so much its' hard to limit it to just one, but how about Holy Water.

Holy water. How does it get "Holy". The Catholic church erroneously believes that the priest is the embodiment of God therefore he can "bless" the water and make it HOLY. There is no such thing as blessed or holy water with any special properties.

Max, you can say that praying to Mary is just praying to Mary to ask her to pray to Jesus...but that's just rediculous. And, WHY? WHY have an intermediary?

Go to yahoo or google and type in "kneel to the pope" or "kissing the pope" etc. You'll likely find hundreds of photos of men within the church bowing down to, kneeling to, and kissing the hand, feet, etc of the Pope. While he stands there limp wristed allowing men to get a good smooch in to VENERATE him...

For those with eyes to see, the abomination of desolation is Judeo-Christianity [as opposed to simply Christianity]. Paul, I believe, spoke to the judaizing of the church in Jerusalem. [see the Book of Acts]. He cursed it..saying it was "a different gospel and another Jesus. A few years later that church was destroyed and the "nation" of Israel scattered..essentially ceasing to exist. (the beast was and was not [70 A.D.] and now is [post 1968]. )

Catholicism is a creation of Judaic Babylonian continuance. It was created to undo the good works of Paul in Rome. (and to commit endless evil acts throughout the centuries and have it blamed on "Christianity") The book "Two Babylons" by Alexander Hislop is a good place to start when trying to determine this for yourself.

Babylon is then the actual mother of harlots..it's Cabala the centuries old poison. Judaism is referred to as "mystery Babylon"..as I said, most of them don't know this. Or the Catholicism linkage..the only "Simon Peter" in ancient Rome was Simon the Jewish sorcerer..father of gnosticism and chief sorcerer to Nero. He was known in Rome as Father Simon or in Latin, Simon "Pater". Since so many born into Catholicism have nevertheless been devout believers in Christ. They know little truth about why their church was founded and even the source of their doctrines

Because of the Scofield poison spread primarily from his disciples at the Dallas Theological Seminary, the "rapture cult Christians" have become lost. Hirelings have led them astray "and hell hath opened it's mouth"

Organized religion " is as a loaf..fully leavened.