"Jesus" on the toast?

[metalman]

Being raised a Catholic, I can tell you that sometimes it's difficult to weed thru some of the Catholic church's customs to reach to the real message. The majority of my family (on my mother's side) are still Catholic. I understand the basic message, but part of the reason for me joining another church that is not Catholic was because of their strict desire to circumvent the bible itself. In other words, a lot of the customs and beliefs have zero to do with the Bible and lots more to do with politics IMO.

Bingo! And I would add traditions, which take precedence over ANYTHING Biblical. I too have beloved family members that are catholic. My comments are not intended to be condemning of the membership, I am fully aware of the fact that many catholics are fine people and very sincere, and perhaps live up to every bit of knowledge they have which is all anyone can do, and they are true Christians in that context. My comments are directed to anyone who is a reasonable thinking person, although controversial perhaps, the intention is to spark some thought & study. Most catholics have no real understanding of truly what their own church stands for or have a full understanding of its teachings. Lack of Biblical knowledge by the lay members has been promoted in the church for centuries. At one time even it was punishable for anyone to read/study/possess the Bible other then priests and "authorized" personnel. Currently if you read carefully the message is STILL that a lay person needs the guidance of the church/priests/nuns etc to “properly understand” the Scripture. Most so-called “protestants” have no idea what the catholic church stands for either or what the word protestant even means other then “not a catholic”. It’s this ignorance and lack of info that I really try to address.

Another factor that I feel is of great importance to me as an American is to let others know that the vatican is not just a church...its a sovereign nation, with its OWN agenda, and that agenda is largely anti-American in its principles. The church has a history of supporting civil unrest in America and in not so distant past spoke rather openly about their desire for America to change its thinking or disintegrate if necessary and also its (vatican) desire to penetrate our very government with ITS people and policy’s.
I don’t say this as a joke or some sort of conspiracy theorist but as a history buff who has spend hundreds of hours studying that subject.