Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
They constantly promoted the instruction to their people that the laity could not read the scriptures alone without the proper and official interpretations.
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While that is beyond what either the RCC or the LCM should claim concerning their interpretations of scripture, there actually is some level of safety in the idea that I should generally remain within standard interpretations and understandings except when there are a number of people truly willing and able to take on hashing through ideas that might not square with what was otherwise held. In other words, I am much better off sticking to what I know rather than what I think that is different from anything I knew before.
Besides, while the claim of 33,000 truly different sects is far from real, at some level, the opening of the idea of personal study and revelation over the past 100 to 200 year has resulted in a plethora of novel ideas. In some arenas you can find that the number of different opinions on certain subjects is as great as the number of people there. I'm not talking about minor nuances, but significant differences. Of course, as long as it is just about the peripheral stuff, it really doesn't matter — at least until someone speaks from their idea and it somehow insults someone with a different idea and a sort of small schism erupts.