I understand the innate resistance a lot of people have to a hierarchy but it's established in the New Testament and clearly so, unless someone sits down and reads the Scripture in a way that ignores the Apostles anointing some roles and just appointing others, making sure each new church had an anointed head and so on.
That isn't the issue although the majority of non-Catholics want to focus on that. The issue is whether Christ and Christ alone is in charge and we follow Him or we are in charge, filter what He says to suit our agenda, then claim to follow Him.
In fact, I heard Evangelicals and Fundamentalists preach for years that they would include as their Christian brothers anyone who believes in Salvation by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone, but when Catholics say and spell out that exact same thing, Oh, well, then they can't be accepted as fellow Christians. Unity in Christ is focusing on Christ rather than the hierarchy or lack thereof and I dare say it's not Catholics who can't accept and welcome fellow Christians nearly as often as the reverse is true.
Mark 9:37 John answered him, saying : Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, who followeth not us, and we forbade him.
Mark 9:38 But Jesus said : Do not forbid him. * For there is no man that doth a miracle in my name, and can soon speak ill of me.
Mark 9:39 For he that is not against you, is for you.
Regards.
You’re right, it centers on the concept of authority. I have read the Bible thoroughly and all the apostolic fathers multiple times, and find no evidence of the the hierarchy you describe in biblical or post-apostolic times, nor the primacy of Rome.
Regarding the evangelicals and fundamentalists, they fall prey to the human tendency of all Christian religionists of all stripes: having once faced heresy, all their theology inexorably becomes exclusionist, rather than inclusionist. It is the story of Rome and of every other long-lasting Christian movement that I have studied.
It’s all about Jesus. I just want to make the Jesus I see in the Bible tangible to people around me. Because of him I have hope for now and eternity, and I suspect you do, too.
Catholics do not say and spell that out...That's why there can be no unity between Catholics and Christians...