I should probably hear him out, I’ll give you that. On the other hand, I stand by my contention that catholic doctrine is biblically wrong. Because it is. Anyone who reads the Bible themselves can see it..which is probably a big reason why the Catholic Church has historically been against the parishioners actually reading the Bible themselves. Also, calling out bullshit where it exists doesn’t make me “bitter”. However, your knee jerk reaction to go straight to name calling - as opposed to debating the actual issue(s) at hand - is quite telling. It’s the same tactic that liberals use when they can’t actually logically prove a conservative wrong, just a slightly different flavor of the same thing. IE, instead of debating the idea that unencumbered immigration - including illegal immigration - is a bad thing, it’s easier to just call someone a “racist”. However it doesn’t serve to prove anything or buttress the argument of the liberal. If anything, it shows that he/she has an emotional attachment to a position rather than a logical one. Also, there are plenty of people who actually are “bitter” at the Catholic Church, and they have good reason to be..most boys who are raped by priests and live with it are fairly damaged, and yes, bitter. I’m not implying that you condone such a thing, I’m sure you don’t. But to imply that the only possible reason one could be “bitter” at that denomination is because of theological differences is frankly, quite silly, given what we all know about them at this point in history. In any case, moving on… The issues that Martin Luther had with the Catholic Church as the same issues that Jesus had with the pharisees. The parallels between the two groups are actually pretty stunning if you take the time to think it through. One of those issues being that both the pharisees and Catholic Church positioned themselves as the mediator between the masses and God. This is undeniable and anyone with an IQ over 80 can see it. But according to biblical truth, there is only one mediator between man and God, and his name is Jesus Christ. It’s not the pope, it’s not a bishop, it’s not a pharisee, and it’s not a sadducee. Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just telling you what the Bible says. If you don’t like it, you should take it up the the Holy Spirit and/or the men who put it in print. And yet another issue was that both groups (Catholic Church and pharisees) had put greater value on their own man-made religious traditions than the actual will or commands of God. Christ made this abundantly clear when he called out the pharisees for “putting chains on the people when you’re supposed to be removing chains off the people.” Catholics clearly have taken rituals waaaaayy too far in importance at the expense of the actual message and power of the gospel. Again, this is obvious to anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention and knows just a little bit about the Bible. And then perhaps one of the most despicable things both groups did was to turn the house of God into a money making scheme. The Catholics did this through the whole “sin tax”/allowances scheme, and the pharisees did it though selling people “offerings” at the temple doors. Jesus actually chased those bastards out of the temple with a whip and flipped over their tables. He was (and is) not the passive, free spirited hippy that many have made him out to be. And then the whole praying to “mother Mary” and saints thing is just straight out occult bullshit. Dead people can’t hear you and they certainly can’t answer your prayers..nor can they be your mediator with the father. This is idolatry. And again, there is only one mediator between man and God, and Mary and the saints ain’t it..(notice a trend here?) And then there’s the blatantly pagan origins of the Catholic Church, and their many surviving pagan symbologies which still exist to this day. I could go on and on. But that’s probably enough for you to chew on for now, if you even actually dare to chew on any of it at all. I don’t mean to be rude or crass or imply that you are somehow my enemy. Nor am I seeking to create an enemy by posting this. I’m just telling you where I’m coming from in the clearest possible terms. I don’t believe that the average catholic parishioner is a bad person, either. I have friends who are catholic. I do however, think they are deceived, and from my perspective it’s a very powerful deception. It actually makes me sad for them. I also have some friends who are Mormons and I feel the same way towards them. Nice people, but terribly deceived. And to be fully transparent, I do regret that the non-Christian world at large tends to judge all of Christendom based on the actions and tendencies of the Catholic Church in particular. I mean, I understand the reason it happens (it’s because the Catholics are by far the largest denomination), but I find it terrible that I’m unofficially represented by a group of people with whom I so strongly disagree on so many fundamental points of theology.