Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube
It does seem a little silly to judge this. Why do you think there are so many versions of christianity out there? Every priest is given the authority to judge the bible's message, and given the authority to tell you, the ever-devout christian, what it means. If this branch of the religion has decided that it means exactly what is in this condensed version, then there is no problem. Just like catholics saying that contraception is wrong is "no problem".
You're not a Christian, are you GC? It shows, because you're mixing dogma. Either you believe in a heirarchacal church structure (RC, Orthodox) and you take your orders from the pope/arch-patriarch of Constantinople, who take their orders from history and tradition. Or you don't, and you assume the mantle of 'priesthood of all believers' Martin Luther discussed. Either way, nobody just makes up the rules as they go. Not by design anyway. Sure, there are people that do that, just as there are the fools that allow them to and follow them. But they are not doing as Christ commanded them to.