Questioning Catholicism

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Coder said:
In addition to the OPs reference to Timothy about bishops being married, St Paul also referred to his right to have a wife. 1 Corinthians 9:5.

Yes it’s a discipline, but when a discipline is strictly held for centuries, is it really differentiated from a doctrine for all practical purposes? Given that and the Bible’s allowance of marriage for apostles/bishops, one might ask whether the Church has the authority to make a discipline more restrictive than what Scripture allows.

For example, could the Church make a discipline that all Catholics must be vegetarian permanently? Wouldn’t the first question be that eating meat is allowed in Scripture (to the OP’s point)?
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Saint Paul speaks of the right to travel with a sister-woman, where woman and wife are the same word in koine. Saint Clement of Alexandria confirmed in the second century that he understood Paul’s words to mean that the apostles traveled with women companions so the women could bring the gospel to women in areas men could not go, and Clement affirms that it was understood that the women did not travel as romantic companions in any way, another the apostles did not have relations with them, as was fitting for their chosen ministry.

With wife and woman being the same word in koine, the fact that Paul prefaced it with “sister” should affirm the way he meant the word (as in women, not wives, at least not in the romantic sense of wives).

Timothy is a more solid argument.

As for discipline, sexual continence is ancient in tradition and apostolic in origin and, while not dogma, can still be supported as beneficial on a scriptural basis, too. Vegetarianism would just be out of the blue.
 
Wesrock said:
As for discipline, sexual continence is ancient in tradition and apostolic in origin and, while not dogma, can still be supported as beneficial on a scriptural basis, too. Vegetarianism would just be out of the blue.
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Hi Wesrock, yes, but the crux of my question is a.) It’s a centuries-old discipline that is hardly distinguished from a doctrine for all practical purposes and b.) Even if it can be supported as beneficial (for those who willingly choose it IMHO) does the Church have the authority to make a more restrictive discipline than what Scripture clearly allows?
 
I don’t know if I have all the ins and outs to that, but what do you mean “allows”? It certainly can go beyond what’s stipulated in scripture, and if it’s roots are apostolic in origin (such as sexual continence) then it has significant support.
 
Wesrock said:
I don’t know if I have all the ins and outs to that, but what do you mean “allows”? It certainly can go beyond what’s stipulated in scripture, and if it’s roots are apostolic in origin (such as sexual continence) then it has significant support.
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I look at it this way. The Bible clearly demonstrates XYZ is OK. Can a Church say “it’s not OK” (even as a discipline but when the discipline is for centuries)?.

Even my example of vegetarianism is not “out of the blue” - if I’m not mistaken allowance of man to eat meat was a concession to man by God and/or vegetarianism was considered an ideal.

At any rate, Wesrock. 🙂 I can see we may not line up on this one and that’s fine. I respect and enjoy your opinion on the topic 🙂

My honest opinion is that I respectfully think it’s going a bit too far for any church to be strict about non-marriage for certain of its members. I think the spirit of the law evident in Scripture is that some can be eunuchs but this would be their decision and there is no basis for strictly requiring non-marriage for some. I respectfully think that it has affected the joy and freedom of Christianity by putting more emphasis on a “law” rather than allowing some to decide whether being a eunuch is right for them and not tightly binding whether one is a eunuch or not with whether they are in a certain role in a church or not. That’s my respectful opinion and I think that opinion is supported by Scripture. 🙂
 
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