Brother, I've seen the same thing in the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church, the Orthodox Church. For some people the Church buildings MIGHT take their focus away from Christ, and I can't tell you why, just like for some people, the teachings of the Protestant Church tell them its ok to sleep around, and you can't tell me why. But I promise you, brother, the ceremony, incense, candles and fine buildings do nothing like take our concentration off Christ. Again, you're speculating on maybe a few cases, I don't know, but if I were to start speculating on the Protestant Church, then we could do this for days. The ceremonies started way back in the early church. Simple as that. And don't forget, not everything we inherited from the Jews is a bad thing. Like the Commandments for example. I'll continue answering your questions tomorrow on that survey you asked me to complete. God bless.
BTW, who said this, "Someone once said that religion is what man does for his god, while Christianity is what God has done for man.?" Was it anyone of any significance?
I forget who said it. I started to write a paper for you but it is far from finished, this is the first page:
An example of the Popes power can be seen in the reign of King John. The Pope placed England under an interdict, he suspended all religious services including baptisms, marriages and burials and King John was excommunicated. When the Pope threatened King John with deposition and ruin the king had no choice but to submit to the Pope whose army was already in England and ready to take over the throne.
John agreed to receive Stephen Langton as Archbishop, he agreed to reinstate the exiled clergy and to compensate the church in full for its losses and he agreed to hold the kingdom as a fief of the papacy.
King John resigned the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope and received them back under a bond of fealty and homage in return for a tribute of 1,000 marks to be paid to the Catholic church every year. As a result for the next 150 years successive English Monarchs had to pay an annual monetary tribute to the Pope. This momentous concession was solemnly ratified in St Paul's Cathedral in the presence of Nicholas Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum on the 3rd October and sealed with a Golden Bull.
Shortly after the Pope gained supremacy over King John the first friars entered England in 1221 and forty-three English houses of the Dominicans alone were soon established. Their black cloak and hood caused them to be dubbed the Black Friars. They soon became powerful and began to attack the constitutions of Oxford University, claiming independence from its jurisdiction through the Pope.
Almost immediately it became apparent that some of the friars were acting contrary to their vow of poverty. They made use of their position for “purposes of filthy gain” and as early as 1233 we find Gregory IX sharply reminding the Dominican chapter-general that the poverty professed by the Order should be genuine and not fictitious.
John Wycliffe who was living at the same time as the Peasants Revolt, emerged from obscurity and commenced his opposition to the Mendicants that same year in 1360. Beginning at Oxford he gave a series of public lectures to correct the abuses of the clergy and their open wickedness. King Edward III supported him and remained a most valiant champion of the truth among the tyrants of Sodom.” He began by challenging the pardon-mongers of Rome and the heresy of “the power of the keys” which gave the Pope the power to pardon sin so that evil men could enter heaven on the basis of small pieces of paper carried by the Mendicant (begging) Friars which they sold for a piece of silver, thereby robbing people with worthless promises
As early as 1233 there were many mendicant (begging) Friars roaming around in disorderly fashion, brazen and shameless beggars of scandalous fame. The monks were frequently guilty of forgery and violence they were guilty of brawling, frequenting taverns, indulging in licentious pleasures and upholding unlawful games. In 1257 St. Bonaventura admitted the contempt and dislike felt universally for the Order, caused by its greedy self-seeking after money, the idleness of so many of its vagabond friars who entered into all manner of vices and excesses leaving behind them the memory of scandals rather than examples of virtue. The persistent beggary of the friar rendered him more terrible than any robber was to the wayfarer.
When challenged the Pope remained unmoved for the friars were indispensable to him. They had been created by him, they were dependent upon him, they lived for him and they were his obsequious tools. Weighed against the services they were rendering to the Papal throne, what was happening in England was “as dust in the balance.” Not a finger must be lifted to curtail the privileges or check the abuses of the Mendicants.
