> it always feels paradoxical when leaders wax poetic about the mystery of God and then say 'so here is what God thinks you should do.' How could they know?
Perhaps we were told it:
> "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He [Jesus] said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Yes, I recognize that these are articles of deeply-held faith. I am open to the idea of God, I am open to the idea that God is fundamentally mysterious and beyond our mortal understanding. I simply feel that I always have to exercise skepticism regarding the words of religious institutions, though, because it seems to me that power-hungry individuals could use legitimate teachings as a camouflage for their immoral selfish impulses. Though maybe some institutions can effectively guard themselves against this, selecting people truly committed to God for leadership (I find myself likely to believe, for instance, that Pope Francis in particular is truly committed to God via the humans around him).
I guess all of the doubts are a reminder for me to focus on other humans with love. That is the part of the Bible's teachings (or the teachings of other religions) that are accessible to my experience.
I too am wary of "power-hungry individuals" who could use legitimate teachings for illegitimate ends.
I think the types of people you speak of are all too real. But I have recently decided I will not let a fear of them keep me from those legitimate teachings or from anything else good in this world. At least I will not anymore. I did for a long time.
As someone (I forget who), "God is not something you believe in. God is something you experience". In my view, any given religion is just the accumulated ways in which a specific group of people found to handle the aftermath of that experience.
Of course, the problem is that you get indoctrinated into a religion before you have a chance to experience It in the first place and end up mistaking the aftermath of the experience
If established religion actually stuck to the spiritual side of things and stopped fighting for the control of the population, it would definitely be able to do more good.
Proceeding to link to Wikipedia while claiming the Vatican took their opinions from the Torah especially since their references are an actual bibliography is very reductive.
Of course the Vatican took many of their opinions from the Torah! The Pentateuch is holy to Christians as well as Jews. (Although the comment you replied to says they took this opinion via Jesus, and was quoting a book of the New Testament often called Matthew.)
One of the principles of Christianity, is understanding things. That requires context. Most preachers and priests will attempt to teach the underlying frameworks that they use (hermaneutics), and this absolutely fits with that. The Vatican has published many, many, many treatises on the idea that a quote should never stand on its own, but be seen through the context of the culture and time where it was produced.
> The problem of interpretation is fundamental to mankind from the beginning. As men, we try to understand the world and ourselves. Now, when faced with the question of truth and reality, we never begin at an absolute beginning, a zero point. The real in question meets us in preexisting interpretations, in the system of symbols of a given culture, and, most of all, in language.
> Human understanding then is always in symbiosis with human community. Therefore, interpretation must make its own of, and understand, the witness of tradition already existing.
It is Jesus' statement, which the Vatican, as followers of Jesus, would be interested in.
But Jesus himself is quoting the Torah:
> “Hear, O Israel: [a]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Perhaps we were told it:
> "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He [Jesus] said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Commandment
Which is taken from the Torah. See also:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep_and_the_Goats
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan
The leaders are probably just reiterating/reminding people.