>Many of the fundamentalist religions believe that the catholic church is the "whore of all earth" spoken of in the bible. Therefore, regardless of belief in Christ, they are doomed purely by association with the church.

Those that believe this supposedly get this idea from Revelation 17, thinking the 'great prostitute' mentioned therein refers to the Catholic church. I know that someone in the Baptist church I grew up in believed this, yet I have not heard it taught by a pastor or teacher. A footnote in my Bible indicates that this might refer to the early Roman empire. Another interpretation I'm aware of is this refers to a 'one world religion' that will arise during the time of the antichrist. The book of Revelation is especially difficult for Christians to understand, as you might be aware. I would be curious as to which group supposedly teaches the belief you mention.

>2nd, the 10 Commandments has one that says, "Thou shalt not have any other God before me" or something to that effect. Yet, the catholics worship statues, gold, paintings, the pope, saints, idols, figurines. Most of their prayers are to Mary, not God. They pray to the Saints for intervention, not God. So, again, by definition of the fundamentalists like Howard, they are not true believers and are not accepted into the realm of the saved.

I won't defend Catholic practices, but FWIW the same book I referred to earler indicates praying to Mary, etc. is not to be misunderstood as worship. If I were ever to become Catholic (not likely but I don't think I'd be doomed if I did), I would not pray to Mary nor to the Saints. For that matter, I know that I don't agree with everything taught in my church (Southern Baptist), either. Acts 17:11 described the Bereans as being 'noble' because they received the good news with joy/eagerness, but searched the scriptures daily to see if the Apostle Paul's words were accurate. That's probably a good practice for any Christian as they hear various teachings, as long as they do it prayerfully and carefully. IAC, we're straying from the fundamental belief on salvation here, which my point was that it appears to be essentially the same.

>You make the point of corrupt popes. How can a church be led by God, inspired by God, if God's annointed is truly corrupt. It boggles my mind that people can justify that along with the likes of Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker. It seems to me that God would never allow his children to be led astray religiously by a leader he appointed, one who professes to receive divine revelation and pass this along to the general population. For those led astray by such teaching, God extracts a penalty and thus we are back to square one.

God holds those in position of teaching and authority in the Church to be accountable for their actions. The fact is, where mankind and sin are involved, you have imperfection. When one is saved, he does not become perfect. Consider the fact that the Apostle Paul rebuked Peter in Galations 2 for hypocrisy, yet Peter was supposedly the first Pope of the Catholic Church. For that matter, why not ask me about Judas Iscariot as well? Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and God himself, yet he chose Judas Iscariot as one of the original Twelve. Jesus, as sovreign God, wouldn't necessarily need a betrayer to get himself crucified. In fact, Jesus taught that there would be false teachers and counterfeits among us. He said we will know them by their fruit. So, it all seems to go be consistent with it being a good idea to search the scriptures as the Bereans did.