Is it ever permissible to leave the Catholic Religion and join
another church?
The Second Vatican Council, teaching what the Catholic Faith has always held, declared: "whoever, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by God through Jesus Christ, would refuse to enter her or to remain in her cannot be saved". St. Cyprian said, "No one can have God for Father unless he also has the Church for his Mother". The situation is different, of course, for those people who, through no fault of their own, do not know the truth or the full truth about the Catholic Religion. So long as their ignorance is truly invincible, it is possible for them to be connected with the Catholic Church, even though they did not this, and thus salvation could be possible for them.
Reprinted from October 11, 1996
What goes on in Mormon temples?
Mormon temples are closed to non-Mormons, whom the Mormons call "Gentiles." The three main things they do inside with their secret rites are proxy baptism, marrying for eternity, and endowment. Joseph Smith who invented the Mormon Religion was a Freemason and many of their rites mimic masonic rituals. Mormons get baptized again and again for their ancestors (this is why they do so much genealogical work) and for famous people (such as Lincoln, Washington, etc.). Also, Mormon couples can undergo a ritual which gets their marriage (and children) sealed for eternity in the temple, but this is only if both are practicing Mormons. Also, all young Mormon teens are supposed to get endowed, which involves their putting on special clothing, such as a kind of white shirt, trousers, moccasins, girdle, white robe, tall hat, and a masonic apron with fig leaves painted on it. There is much going from one room to another and the giving of secret names and handshakes, etc. They watch a playlet ridiculing Catholics. Their rooms are called creation, eden, world, terrestial, and celestial. They then have to bathe and be rubbed with oil. Then they put on Mormon (LDS approved) long underwear, which they must wear all their lives. This underwear has symbols painted on it that signify that if they reveal the temple secrets they will allow their legs to be amputated, their intestines pulled out, and their heart cut away. Devout Mormons always wear this underwear and are buried in it.
Reprinted from August 13, 1999
What
is the religion called Deism?
Rather than a "religion," Deism is a philosophical out look that was popular in the Enlightenment Period in history with Voltaire and some of his followers. It claimed that God exists but that He merely made the universe and its laws and then "withdrew"... much as a dock-maker makes a watch and then has nothing more to do with it. Deism denies God's continuing creation, His providence, and His sustaining all things. It denies all divine revelation, miracles, the super natural order, the incarnation, the redemption, etc. It repudiates all churches (or simply tolerates them for "cultural reasons"), and, of course, repudiates all obligations in morality that may derive from Christian or even Jewish Religion. Some Deists believe in a personal God and in some ethical obligations, but some do not. Deism, as a formal philosophy, is not too popular today and is rather easily refuted. However, its general outlook often infiltrates and forms the attitudes of many people even now. Some of the founding Fathers of our country were Deists, even when they also might have belonged to some Church or another for social or family or political reasons.
Reprinted from August 27, 1999
Are
the Volunteers of America a religion?
The Reverend William Booth, originally a Methodist minister who invented the Salvation Army Religion, had two major schisms from his sect. In 1880 a group broke off and called themselves "American Rescue Workers." They formed a religion with the same goals and objectives as the Salvation Army, but one that was more democratic in structure. Then in 1896, the wife and son of "General" Booth quit his religion and started their own and called it "Volunteers of America." It is somewhat like the Salvation Army but not so authoritarian. Both of these other religions are much smaller churches than the Salvation Army.
Reprinted from July 2, 1999
What is the Unity School of Christianity?
This is a sort of a Protestant Religion which was invented by Myrtle and Charles Fillmore near Kansas City, where their sons still carry on their faith. This Church has some resemblances to the Christian Science Religion and may have been influenced initially by the same man who influenced Mary Eddy Baker to invent that denomination, Phineas Quimby. Myrtle claimed to have experienced a "spiritual cure." The Unity School Church, unlike the Christian Science Church, believes in the reality of sin, sickness and death, but believes that right thinking, as their cult teaches it, can overcome these things. Like other Protestant churches, it claims to be based on the Bible. it is a sort of amalgam of New England Transcendentalism and New Age Thought, with some Gnostic and Hindu over tones. People who belong to the Unity School Church are not required, by that membership, to sever their connection with other churches or religions. Charles and Myrtle are dead, but their sect believes in reincarnation, so they think they may still be on earth here somewhere. The sect is propagated by extensive literature, radio programs and other media activity.
Reprinted June 18, 1999