...okay, so? He's been dead for 160-170 years. What does this have to do with what the church actually teaches, and the church today?

People who base their religious believes only on men are nothing but fools. If people want to reject the message of a church based on stories of the actions of men who have been dead for the better part of two centuries, and who themselves are not the subject of worship, then that doesn't say much for their understanding of the religion in the first place, it only speaks for their lack of it.