A New Church Movement

Growing up Baptist I heard my fair share of criticism against people who belonged to the Catholic Church. “They are not like us,” I was told. “Catholics are not encouraged to read the Bible,” it was claimed.

Even as a young child, something about those statements didn’t set well with me. This was especially true when I read what Jesus had to say about loving others and not judging people. The Catholic kids I knew at school talked about their confirmation experience, prayer, Eucharist, (“What was that?” I wondered), and Jesus dying on the cross. We seemed to have a lot in common, very much unlike what I had been told.

Then something else happened. I noticed that people who were part of my church didn’t always live up to what they professed. They had their own set of problems. After all the hollering from the pulpit about how “We are right and everyone else is wrong,” I came to the conclusion that knowing right and being right are two different things.

Over the years, I have accumulated many Catholic friends and discovered that most of them are very much like me. Sometimes they are on track with their lives and sometimes not. The vast majority, however, are very sincere about their beliefs and actively involved in trying to be “salt and light” in a dark and tasteless world.

I love the fact that Catholics take a strong stance on the value of life. I’m equally impressed with their devotion to helping the poor and ministering to people in crisis. I would also agree that “Confession” is good for the soul and having someone there when you are about to pass from life to death is a very beautiful thing.

My Catholic friends talk about their personal faith and Scripture. Like many non-Catholics I know, they don’t always agree with everything they’re told, but that’s OK too. I believe the Bible teaches that each person should examine what is being taught for themselves in order to discover what is from the Spirit and what is not.

There is a great freedom in life that arrives when a person decides to talk to someone and not just about them. This might be one of the biggest problems with Christianity today. We are more concerned about what we believe than how we behave towards one another. But isn’t behavior the test of what we believe? I would rather love someone who thinks differently on most matters than to condemn them for it. Love helps us see another perspective in life.

So I’m on a mission now. I would like to create an environment where my Catholic friends feel comfortable sharing their faith with me and vice versa. I love hearing about your new Pope. He’s a good man. I believe he will make a lot of difference in the world. He inspires me to want to do the same.

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