Who Are the Important Religious Authorities we Should REALLY Listen To


We all know that across the globe are Christians of all varieties. Their cultures are different and the versions of Christianity they glop onto differ accordingly. 

Once upon a time all these differences were put to bed. It happened at the Council of Nicene in the 300's. The Roman Emperor Constantine was weary of hearing about this very of "God the Father" and "Jesus the Son" and the various versions of what that meant. So the Emperor said Bishops from several countries were to convene and resolve their various differences. 

That they were to resolve differences was in itself a defeat of Christianity. If the "truth" was out there why would there be a need to sit around and argue about what it was? In the true spirit of Christianity, then and now, the wealthy 1% meant to negotiate compromises as to what was acceptable. That, from then on, was to be "Christianity." But, it was not. 

For the next thousand or so years practices of the faith morphed around until priests were collecting a lot of money acting as the go-between man and its god. Smart fellows were those priests. They had created a monster. The monster would do in the little guy unless he paid a ransom. Only the priest could talk to the god and make a deal. He would act on your behalf but you must pay.

While the Reformation created the Protestant Lutherans, it was later in America the Baptists stuck a real finger in the eye of old time Catholics. No authorities or institutions shall come between a man and his Bible were the fightin' words of Baptists. Of course, Baptist leaders immediately wanted to be Catholic Bishops and tell the unwashed what the Bible's actual message was supposed to be. To this day Southern Baptist leaders are all huffy in their certainty that they and they alone are authorities on Christianity. Still, at the core of Baptist belief in the autonomous standing of the individual Christian.  

So we're back to the question of who we should listen to, which branch of the faith is correct? Any of them are OK. Choosing to ignore all of them is OK too.

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