And this is why we go in circles. You can not compare apples to oranges. Baptists (1) do not claim infallibility and (2) do not mandate what other baptists must believe.Originally posted by Glen Seeker:
I believe it was posted to show that individuals in a church don't necessarily represent that church just as up to six million KKK members in the "Bible Belt" don't necessarily represent the Bible believing churches in the South.
If a church mandates what you must believe and claims to be infallibile in those mandates, then they must be held accountable and be able to prove that infallibility. Sins committed and/or covered-up by those who claim infallibilty or by those who were appointed by the pope (therefore appointed by God according to your doctrine) are relevant to questioning whether or not their infallibilty did indeed come from God.
To say they are infallible in doctrine alone is merely a convenient ploy that has no basis scripturally. There is no credible reason for anyone to believe such doctrine save the fact that the church who made the doctrine states it to be true. Those of us not willing to take their word for it have no other means of testing that doctrine as the Bereans tested Pauls.
So you see, when we question the infallibility of your church leadership based off of the fact that the leaders in your church, sometimes the pope himself are committing such crimes, we are not looking for the "well they are sinners just like everyone else" excuse. We want proof that they are infallibile, some other proof then the fact that "they said so."
So here we go in circles, because irrational people who are not allowed to question the pope's infallibility must defend that stand. Turning the conversation to "see you do it too" is the ONLY argument they can make because they do not believe it based upon proof but based upon the fact that "the church said so." Never did any of the apostles claim that this would be the case. Paul showed us what church leaders must be like and to allow men who violate those standards to still claim infallibilty goes against the very word of God they claim to profess. It makes no scriptural or logical sense.
So continue to bash the KKK and we will continue to agree that the KKK is evil. In doing so we show the world that the leadership of the RCC has committed crimes just as vile as those of the KKK and therefore is not infallible.
~Lorelei