re: Attended Catholic Church for the first time in a while and it wasn't the same

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That's our failure as humanity, and the choice we were given. These sins are all minor compared to the big picture. Perhaps we should judge less and focus on ourselves.

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Agreed. I get my dander up when it comes to one denomination declaring all of the others heretical. I was raised a Baptist, being taught several untruths, one of them being that other denominations thought they were the only ones going to heaven, meaning I was going to hell, by implication. Imagine my surprise in finding out that many of those denominations teach the same about us Baptists!

So as an adult, I decided that there was a distinct possibility that none of the established churches were really about teaching the Gospel of Jesus, as much as teaching their self-serving version of that Gospel. And sadly, in my roughly 30 years of admittedly pitiful research into the word of God, I have found that to be true in every sense, and every case.

I find church doctrine and dogma to be the things that church hierarchy uses to divide the people, and therefore a perversion of the teachings of Jesus. Doctrine and dogma are a construct of man, as are the various and sundry religions themselves. Jesus ascribed to no such religion, and made no provision to a particular religion in order to receive His salvation. As such, I see doctrine, dogma, and the bureaucracy of the various religions themselves as a hindrance to my salvation. Catholicism is simply the all-time worst in that regard.