Verified answer

Marty is correct. No one was forced and it was not a Church-wide practice and never an official teaching of the Church.

You "assume" people are told daily stories about everlasting punishment, this was not true and is not true. And the idea of indulgences is not paying your way out of everlasting punishment. You misunderstand the entire teaching on indulgences, couple that with assumption about Church practice and you end up with a bunch of nothing.

<<Do you think people today have no idea how arrogantly powerful the Roman Catholic Church was during the Middle Ages?>>

No, I don't.

Indulgences were sold by some corrupt priests, with the knowledge of the current pope at the time. He allowed it. It was wrong, it was never a sanctioned Church practice and many parishes did not sell indulgences. It was just a few priests who saw it as a way to gain money so they could build a cathedral.

When Martin Luther called them on the practice, the Church responded by stopping it. The Church agreed with Martin Luther that it was a corrupt practice and they issued an edict to have all priests and parishes stop doing so.

But what is an indulgence? All believers will go to Purgatory when they die, unless they die in a perfect state of grace with no sin on their soul. But for most of us we will not die in a state of sinlessness, so we will be in Purgatory where sin will be purged. This is the temporal punishment due our sin, and this is where indulgences come in. An indulgence can lessen the time a person spends in Purgatory.

Purgatory is not hell. Purgatory is only for the saved, yet still unclean, souls. All those in Purgatory will be in heaven eventually. So no one is in there fore "everlasting punishment" only temporarily. And better to be in Purgatory than hell any day.

So to sum it up, the Roman Catholic Church did not officially sell indulgences. It was a corrupt practice by some priests and bishops. It was stopped and denounced as such.

Those who bought indulgences did so in hopes of shortening their own time in Purgatory or the time a loved one spent. It had nothing to do with getting someone out of everlasting punishment. Nothing can get a person out of hell.

So, you have only a few facts right, and a whole lot of assumption built in here. No one was forced to buy indulgences and it was not a Church wide practice.

Explain brainwashing on a daily basis...like going to public school brainwashing?

The Catholic Church was not arrogantly powerful because simply there was not any other organization that could help people...using this logic would imply any successful community is arrogant. That is simply not true.

Although admittedly I'm not a fan of the Catholic Church, I do not see that practice as 'forcing' per se, because I guess they always had a choice. Plus, you are only brainwashed if you allow yourself to be brainwashed and refuse to think independently.

Working on Catholics now are you? This why there was a reformation. The Catholic church of today doesn't do that. But there are still allot of jerks out there trying to put down other people's beliefs. Your example proves that.

No, there may have been some BSDM types in the Middle Ages who might have found the idea of eternal brimstone to be appealing. Between the torture of hell and the torture of the Church, it was probably a toss up.

Jesus died so that you would not be under persecution of the law. Paying the Church is not required to get into heaven. Having your faith in the soul saving death, burial and ressurection of Jesus Christ is all you need and it is great!