I will say this very carefully, and make a disclaimer that by saying this I am not coming against you personally. I have a Catholic cousin I love, that I would never think about converting her because she's doing well as a Catholic. And also I have Eastern Orthodox family and friends. My best friend is Eastern Orthodox and we never debate about that. Because it's not damaging to her, like it was to me.
Every religious denomination has its outward mannerism or religious form, and an unspoken worldview that builds up in believers over time through the church's religious form and also teachings (ideas about God, ideas about how salvation works, etc.) Let's not focus on the teaching here and let's make it a non issue for this particular post because there's another point I want to make. People do not learn only from teachings, but also from the religious form of a denomination non verbally impresses beliefs into them. Yes, there are some people who understand grace correctly in their spirit among both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. Of course. Spirit-filled people people exist in every denomination. There's something else I'm getting at.
Inner beliefs are also learned from religious practice, not only from teaching, in fact, unless someone is a heavy Bible reader, they will likely be influenced by daily religious practice a lot more than what they hear from the pulpit about various subjects once a week. Eastern Orthodox and Catholic church both have the teaching of transubstantiation, per example. Eucharist is traditionally packed together with the sacrament of confession in both churches. The practice is that you should ponder upon your sins, confess sins, and then take the Eucharist. Also, heavy emphasis is on fear about not receiving it, quote "unworthily". For the Protestants, this "not unworthily" means do not partake in the Lord's supper without reasonable godly reverence/fear. But for Catholics and Orthodox, the fear is taken to a higher level and has another meaning. Eucharist is traditionally tied with confession and received after "cleansing" one from daily sin after confession, as in preparation to receive the Lords supper. Even though people don't always stick to that, they know very well what is the underlying concept even when they try to avoid confession and ask for peer permission and encouragement online, exposing their own doubts ("thou sayest").
So what is the message that the believer may take from this? The underlying concept that results is that the believer doesn't have a pure enough status to face God unless when priest absolves them on special occasions. As opposed to being declared clean once and for all. (John 13:10, 1 Pet 3:21, and most importantly HEB 10:22). What really matters is not what people may confess by mouth or what catechisis is, but what people actually believe about their conscience in practice and chronic fears that many carry in their hearts, which will likely make them to call for a priest to confess and be assured once again that they are forgiven before dying.
This suggestion of chronic guilty conscience which is just sometimes shortly clean, is exactly why so many Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers do not feel bold to go before Jesus, outright refuse to pray to Father God or Jesus directly and seek human intercessors instead in saints and Mary. Many believe Jesus doesn't deem them worthy enough, so to be heard or effectively pray, they must resort to saints and Mary. Some also feel like they are unimportant, unworthy to go directly to God. (As if Mary and the saints would not delegate it to His table anyway.) I know this because I asked different people, why not pray to God directly, when I was divorcing denominations myself, and that's the responses I got.
Beliefs about Mary and the saints having pleased God and therefore being more adequate before Him, are shared between the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. This is suggested to believers non verbally, by focusing heavily on their veneration in daily religious practices and through established prayer formats dedicated to Mary and various saints. If you're daily elevating someone, they will ultimately be ideated as someone above a common believer, no matter what is taught. As opposed to Protestants where they are spoken of with respect, but only God is the focus in veneration, and - at least for the whopping majority - The Lord's Prayer is the only prayer format that is common or encouraged. This impression, facilitated by dedicated veneration, that Mary and the saints are some sort of special tier pure people (as opposed to having sinned like the Scripture says all have, but made clean by the Holy Spirit), further takes away the believers' confidence before Christ and despairs about measuring up to such a standard.
I am not saying that you personally have such beliefs. Teaching aside, I don't intend to debate about teaching right now, I am saying that the impact of Catholic or Orthodox religious format on different people may differ spiritually a lot more than you think. Some people might be unscathed and still thrive, but there are many many others for whom this isn't the case.
Every religious denomination has its outward mannerism or religious form, and an unspoken worldview that builds up in believers over time through the church's religious form and also teachings (ideas about God, ideas about how salvation works, etc.) Let's not focus on the teaching here and let's make it a non issue for this particular post because there's another point I want to make. People do not learn only from teachings, but also from the religious form of a denomination non verbally impresses beliefs into them. Yes, there are some people who understand grace correctly in their spirit among both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. Of course. Spirit-filled people people exist in every denomination. There's something else I'm getting at.
Inner beliefs are also learned from religious practice, not only from teaching, in fact, unless someone is a heavy Bible reader, they will likely be influenced by daily religious practice a lot more than what they hear from the pulpit about various subjects once a week. Eastern Orthodox and Catholic church both have the teaching of transubstantiation, per example. Eucharist is traditionally packed together with the sacrament of confession in both churches. The practice is that you should ponder upon your sins, confess sins, and then take the Eucharist. Also, heavy emphasis is on fear about not receiving it, quote "unworthily". For the Protestants, this "not unworthily" means do not partake in the Lord's supper without reasonable godly reverence/fear. But for Catholics and Orthodox, the fear is taken to a higher level and has another meaning. Eucharist is traditionally tied with confession and received after "cleansing" one from daily sin after confession, as in preparation to receive the Lords supper. Even though people don't always stick to that, they know very well what is the underlying concept even when they try to avoid confession and ask for peer permission and encouragement online, exposing their own doubts ("thou sayest").
So what is the message that the believer may take from this? The underlying concept that results is that the believer doesn't have a pure enough status to face God unless when priest absolves them on special occasions. As opposed to being declared clean once and for all. (John 13:10, 1 Pet 3:21, and most importantly HEB 10:22). What really matters is not what people may confess by mouth or what catechisis is, but what people actually believe about their conscience in practice and chronic fears that many carry in their hearts, which will likely make them to call for a priest to confess and be assured once again that they are forgiven before dying.
This suggestion of chronic guilty conscience which is just sometimes shortly clean, is exactly why so many Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers do not feel bold to go before Jesus, outright refuse to pray to Father God or Jesus directly and seek human intercessors instead in saints and Mary. Many believe Jesus doesn't deem them worthy enough, so to be heard or effectively pray, they must resort to saints and Mary. Some also feel like they are unimportant, unworthy to go directly to God. (As if Mary and the saints would not delegate it to His table anyway.) I know this because I asked different people, why not pray to God directly, when I was divorcing denominations myself, and that's the responses I got.
Beliefs about Mary and the saints having pleased God and therefore being more adequate before Him, are shared between the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. This is suggested to believers non verbally, by focusing heavily on their veneration in daily religious practices and through established prayer formats dedicated to Mary and various saints. If you're daily elevating someone, they will ultimately be ideated as someone above a common believer, no matter what is taught. As opposed to Protestants where they are spoken of with respect, but only God is the focus in veneration, and - at least for the whopping majority - The Lord's Prayer is the only prayer format that is common or encouraged. This impression, facilitated by dedicated veneration, that Mary and the saints are some sort of special tier pure people (as opposed to having sinned like the Scripture says all have, but made clean by the Holy Spirit), further takes away the believers' confidence before Christ and despairs about measuring up to such a standard.
I am not saying that you personally have such beliefs. Teaching aside, I don't intend to debate about teaching right now, I am saying that the impact of Catholic or Orthodox religious format on different people may differ spiritually a lot more than you think. Some people might be unscathed and still thrive, but there are many many others for whom this isn't the case.
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you have given out red X's I did not see anyone crying about LOL. I think I got a dozen of them or more and all of those people are still here and did not even cry about it. Maybe if just asked where do you disagree with the post I would have told you and guess what I could still be wrong. And you could still disagree. I do not control anyone here