Hi A Christian,
>>Concerning the subject of scholarly bias. I can't help but think that the conclusions you have reached, regarding the Roman Catholic Church's highly questionable doctrine of "apostolic succession" and its related claims to divine authority>>
The belief of apostolic succession is not a distinctly Roman one. The Orthodox as well as the Anglicans hold to it. In point of fact, so did just about all of the gnostics. That is to say, it was the universal teaching of the Church. One cannot find anyone seriously questioning it for the first 3/4 of Christian history.
To believe in it, therefore, does not require a bias. Contrarily, to disbelieve in it requires a conspiracy theory of Watchtower proportions since all of the evidence (i.e the Universal testimony and praxis of the Church) militates against it. I'm not that cynical of the Church or historic data to fly in the face of evidence or to impute imbecility or infidelity to the entire body of Christ.
When Eusebius sets out to write the first classic history of the Church (outside that of the Acts of the apostles found in holy writ) he starts his work with the words:
"The cheif matters to be dealt with in this work are the following: a)The lines of succession from the holy apostles, and the periods that have elapsed from our savior's time to our own."
>>may have been biased by your being regularly paid by Catholic churches for performing in them and by the praise that is, no doubt, regularly heaped upon you therein by members of both the RCC's clergy and laity>>
The Catholic Church does not necessitate that those in her employ be Catholic. I sang as a cantor in the Church for five years before I was baptized a Catholic. During those years I had many obstacles that I worked out in my faith through study and prayer. Sad to say, almost no one (and that includes priests) encouraged me to become Catholic. I did so on my own.
I have many other cantor friends who sing in the Catholic Church and are Evangelicals. Plus, I very rarely get anything close to praise heaped on me. The liturgy is geared toward praising the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Most of the music I sing is highly subdued and even chant-like. Besides a few altar boys and girls, the priests and the organist, I don't so much as exchange a word with parishioners after mass, much less receive their praise. Singing in Evangelical Churches, however, was a different story.
http://www.catholicxjw.com/jamescaputo.html
Peace,
James P. Caputo
