From the "pits of Hell!"

Has anyone ever told you that your faith and religion come from the "pits of Hell!"? Unfortunately, my answer to that question is "yes", and more than once. There is such venom directed at the Catholic Church and many times it's members. Why? I believe it's because people don't really know what Catholics believe or why we believe as we do. They assume they know it all and go off half cocked spreading their assumptions about the Catholic Church and the Catholic laity. Take a look at what someone wrote, and I tell you in all honesty, I do not make this stuff up. It comes from real people who have a real hatred for the Catholic Church and sometimes Catholic people.

Lin writes: The Catholic religion is straight out of the pits of Hell! Those who want to fellowship with the Roman Catholic Church and accept it as a true "church" are ignoring its blasphemous teachings concerning Mary & statues & the pope, they are an abomination to the Lord.

Now Catholics and many non-Catholics know that the Catholic Church certainly does not come from "the pits of hell". As I have shared several times on this blog, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ in Matthew 16:18. Jesus created her and promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against her. He did not say she came from "the pits of hell" but that the 'gates of hell would not prevail against her'. That is scripture. The Catholic Church is a "true church", as a matter of fact it is THE "true Church" because of what I just said. There are no blasphemous teachings taught concerning Mary, statues or the pope. Mary is the Mother of God incarnate and we call her such. She is our Mother too because Christ the King is our brother and God the Father is our Father. We are one family in God. Nothing blasphemous about that. We don't worship statues or the pope. Again, nothing blasphemous at all- only what some people THINK the Catholic faith is all about. They assume because we have religious icons and statues that we are worshipping them. We are not. I'd like to ask the people who feel this way if they set up nativity scenes during Advent with statues of the Holy Family and Wisemen? Or perhaps they wear a guardian angel pin on their coats. How about a cross on a wall in their home or hanging from their necks as jewelry? Why is it that these things are often overlooked by anti-Catholics while the point their fingers at a Catholic Church with a statue of Mary in front of it? Is that statue really any different than the ones they set up in their nativity scenes every Christmas? Catholics do not worship statues or Mary, we worship God. There is nothing in scripture that says anything the Catholic Church teaches is "an abomination to the Lord". That is a complete falsehood. What is "an abomination to Lord" in my opinion is hatred and spreading lies. These are the things some people should be more concerned about than what they perceive as "blasphemous" about a church or group of people. Reminds me of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7:3-5.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."