Well, that depends on which church you mean – the Protestant one doesn’t, and hasn’t for centuries.

Nope , go read a little history on Wikipedia .

and apart from a lot of other matters that make me struggle to remain so!
Branded at birth but not gullible or obsessed with it being above all and sundry

You’re quite au courant, Daphne. One major conspiracy theory claims that US marines first conspired to execute Bin Laden then disposed of his body at sea. Another theory says he had conspired to perpetrate the 9/11 attacks, and yet another one says we should fear a terrorist backlash now that Goldstein, as he is affectionatley known, is dead.

Now that the bogeyman is dead, be very afraid. But trust our Western governments to keep us safe. It’s not like Al-Qaeda Inc.’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is not a CIA asset as was Obama bin Laden.

Incidentally, isn’t Barack Osama a great hero?

These people choose to vote PN because they have no other option, they do not have the will or courage to start their ideologically run party, and they cannot be bothered because the PN serves the country well. This does not mean that the PN should change to their ideologies. So I would rather a country run by a Traditional Conservative Catholic who at the end gets things done and represents the country with dignity, than…

Shortsighted to those who think it did not have an impact on a very large proportion of the people in the world. You might not have been interested, but it does not mean that a large proportion of people in the world were not!

Yes, Bob. Robert Mugabe, Bin Laden, Gaddafi…and me, too.

However, without being judgemental, repentance also is reguired of everyone. And, in free will and in the rejection of grace and its requirements, not everyone is saved.

Christ also warned the Pharisees and scribes, hypocrites and murderers about the alternatives to the kingdom of heaven. Salvation would not come to everyone.

Why were the events at the Vatican more important? John Paul II’s beatification has absolutely no impact on my life – does that mean I’m short-sighted?

Daphne, if one is dragged into the net of religion at a young age it is virtually impossible to leave , the indoctrination sees to that, so no obligation to stay is a hollow choice.

[Daphne – Oh that'[s rubbish. Everyone grows up and everyone goes to school nowadays, so it follows that everyone can work out for themselves whether they believe or not. And that’s all it boils down to. I’m not talking about those who see Catholicism as a badge of identity. Those are a case apart, and it’s usually they who want to change the rules, so that they can do as they please and still belong to their club.]

During the time of Christ / Romans the Roman rulers were to put it mildly cruel/ ruthless to any opposing force . When it came to dealing with Christ the Romans were more or less uninterested in Jesus. This shows that they reasoned that he was creating trouble for the Jewish religion, yet was no threat to Rome.

Jesus from within changed the Jewish religion to Christian, so on an equal understanding of this event our Church can still be subjected to change from within , all that is needed is a charismatic voice coupled with a significant number of faithful and changes can take place .

[Daphne – Yes, right, another Messiah. I think you forget that we live in very different times. Any Messiah who comes along now will end up with a few hundred crackpots living in some jungle settlement, and possibly, if he’s lucky, Tom Cruise and John Travolta.]