[Brother Temperance]

Re: Things we share in common

Of course celibacy is important, and is preferable to marriage as St Paul says.

So married priests are not as good as celibate priests, that's what you're saying. BTW, who do you think Paul was addressing in Phil. 4:3?

You can't just make anything up as you please. Sacred oral tradition evolves gradually over centuries among the popes.

Right. Gotcha. I have to put on a silly hat, then I can make up anything I please. BTW, did evolution happen or not? Was Galileo right, or were his persecutors right?

Let us look then at the question of bishops. In the early years of the Church, there was a great scarcity of single men who were eligible for ordination, so that is why men who were already married were accepted for the priesthood and the bishopric. When St Paul said that a bishop must be the husband of one wife, he did not mean that bishops must marry. That would be plainly a wrong interpretation since Paul would have then contravened his own rule! The rule means that a bishop must not have more than one wife, and this include remarriage in the event of widowing. We see then that a man who never marries does not violate this rule.

1 Timothy 3:4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

How on earth could anyone interpret that in any way other than what it clearly says - that having a family is a positive asset for a bishop?

[Johny Joe Hold]

Re: Things we share in common

Was Galileo right, or were his persecutors right?

One could not write anything funnier or more rediculous that the contemporary response by the Vatican to "the Galileo problem".

The Vatican spent ten years trying to figure out what to say about the fact the Galileo was right and the Pope was wrong. But after ten years of study, you will not find these words in the final report, "The Pope was wrong, Galileo was right."

Instead, there is some indirect references to "mistakes". The lie that the Pope is infallible must be preserved at all costs because cash flow is more important than truth.

We can be proud that at Landover Baptist, unlike the Catholic Church, only the truth prevails.