Marginalize yourself (A story from McDowell Intermediate High School)

Click to enlarge: The main entrance to McDowell Intermediate High School in Millcreek, PA, where I attended 9th and 10th grades.

I learned very early that when you associate with marginalized people, you become marginalized yourself.

I had transferred from Bethel Christian School (where I attended 7th-9th grades) back to the Millcreek school district (where I attended before and after).

It was my first day at McDowell Intermediate High School, which held about 1,500 kids in 9th and 10th grades.

I entered my homeroom.

In those days, many classrooms had round tables that seated 6 students or so. No rows. Just small groups.

In the few seconds I had to assess my new homeroom before choosing a table, I saw all the pretty girls together, all the jocks, all the geeks, all the dirt bags, etc, and in the middle, at the front of the class, a table with two lonely looking kids that didn't fit any clique - One spindly and sallow, the other chunky with tussled hair, both sleepy-eyed, withdrawn, lost-looking.

I sat down with them.

Partly because I didn't know anyone. Partly because they seemed to need a friend.

At some point the homeroom teacher, a coach or something or other that I never had for any other class, said "If you don't want to be a number, you don’t have to be, it’s up to you," almost angrily or indifferently; was quite strange for a first day of class. He never said anything else I remember the entire year, except my name when taking roll (and I don't really remember that, I just presume since the truancy officer never showed up at my house).

When we left homeroom that first day, a stocky, muscular boy walked out with me. He shook my hand and introduced himself. Tony, with an Italian last name I don't remember. He asked me if I knew those two kids I was sitting with. I said No, they just looked lonely.

Tony was popular and nice to me that day. I don't recall ever seeing him again, not even in homeroom.

We remember the exceptions, don't we? Maybe those two kids remember me.

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Click to enlarge: Left: Pope Francis. Right: Former Bishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) on a bus in Argentina, which he took every day to work.

When you associate with marginalized people, you may become marginalized yourself.

Or Pope.

Funny how that works.

[2013-07-25]

 

 

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When every house projected a rusting antenna like a ferny gypsy moth...

Top: The cast of the The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978). Bottom: The cast of The Love Boat (1977-1987). These two shows overlapped by a season, but looking back I see them as far apart as Nixon and Obama or WWII and Vietnam.

As adults we see connections at short distances that are opaque to children. A year in the mind of a child may as well be a lifetime.

There is probably no better example to my generation than TV: for me, the gap between The Bob Newhart Show and The Love Boat is as wide and deep as that between Flappers and Hippies, or Watergate and Travelgate, even though they actually overlapped for a broadcast season.[1]

But they might as well have been a generation apart. I associate The Bob Newhart Show with early bedtimes and fluoride pills and Vernondale Elementary PTA meetings, and The Love Boat with pretty girls and Bethel Christian School and adult innuendo that was finally making sense (sort of).


To this day I will watch old episodes of The Bob Newhart Show, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, etc, and at once am transported to an age when bedtime was 8pm and the opening strains of grownup shows meant I would immediately be hearing "Go brush your teeth."

Those were days when you had one big TV in the living room and maybe another on a TV cart that you wheeled from room to room, and every house projected a rusting antenna like a ferny gypsy moth and neighborhood skylines were cosmic pin cushions.

[2013-07-25]

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[1]
A TV season in those days was 30+ first-run episodes from fall to spring, after which they went into what we called "summer reruns," which ended the following fall with the new season and new shows. Today you're lucky to get 12 new episodes before they repeat, and the word "season" has become meaningless for reality shows.

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"If you're not acting like a Christian, you're not one" (Update on The Gospel According to Jesus)

Click to enlarge: The cover of The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Update on Authentic Faith? by John MacArthur

Update on The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith? by John MacArthur (that I mentioned on Wed 7/17/2013 in "Training a generation of human cogs."):

I stopped at audio chapter 56, where MacArthur says:

"The remedy Luther found was the doctrine of justification by faith. His discovery launched the Reformation that put an end to the Dark Ages."

A few problems.....

1. The "Dark Ages" weren't that dark; use of that term today instead of the "Middle Ages" is often to slant the ear toward a "brighter" period afterward.

2. The Fall of Rome is generally regarded as the beginning of the Middle Ages. Some historians end the Middle Ages at Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas (1492), the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453), the Italian Renaissance (14th century), or the Protestant Reformation (1517). Luther didn't usher in human re-enlightenment any more than the barbarians extinguished it.

3. And Luther didn't "discover" anything, he invented an alternative. (Some of it very interesting.)

4. And another thing: Just after MacArthur says you can't dissect parables to the last detail without damaging their intent, he goes on to dissect parables to the last detail until, if you listen for an extended time, you get the feeling that you're listening to a month of 3-point sermon on a deck of note cards laid end to end.

It may be because I have an evangelical background and have heard most of it before, but it grew overlong and old rather quickly.

Down every rabbit hole and throughout each warren, Macarthur's point remains "If you're not acting like a Christian you're not one," and every verse is interpreted to support that.

The whole book (well, up through Chapter 56) can be distilled down to "If it doesn't quack like a duck..."

There are, unfortunately, large groups of people that don't think ducks have to quack to be ducks, and this book is intended for them. The quackless ducks are Christians that go to church and claim the title but persist in acting very unlike Christians.

Most of the church is like so much Duck L'Orange - it looks great but tastes gamy and eventually goes on the list of "I'm glad I tried it but wouldn't order it again."

And that's too bad.

But I got the message, so I moved on to William Peter Blatty's Crazy, which is so far very good; a little like Catcher in the Rye.

Next up (after I find my mp3 player; it's boxed up somewhere after the move): Machiavelli in Context, or Einstein.

Hmmm... decisions decisions.

[2013-07-13]

From the Vulgar to the Sublime – The Rockettes, Santa, and D James Kennedy

Click to enlarge: Top: Santa Claus with the Rockettes. Bottom: Dr D James Kennedy

Why is it that those who wish to raise funds often arrange for events that involve golfing or expensive plates at a fancy restaurant? (Or faith-based cruises, at one time popular among evangelicals, eg, Dr D James Kennedy's "Bible Boat.")

Give me Putt Putt and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

I guess I'm not one of the folks they're talking to.

Some time back I got the Chase Amex card to obtain some perk or another. I kept getting emails with offers to see Santa Claus with the Rockettes.

Anyone with my bills and opinion of big cities knows that's like offering a hamburger to a vegetarian.

[2013-07-09]

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The most intriguing thing I ever saw as a child...

... (aside from the first time I saw a naked woman in a girly magazine) was a polished wooden ring holder shaped like a hand with its middle finger sticking up.

This was in Neil Chipoletti's older brother's bedroom.

I wasn't offended or surprised, just utterly fascinated. It embodied such a vulgar attitude in such a pretty form, at a time when most of the country thought as much about the war we were in (Vietnam) and the president we had (Nixon) and inflation and California grape boycotts and all that.

It was also in that bedroom I saw that first girly magazine. I had no idea what I was looking at.

This would have been 1970-ish.

[2013-03-21]

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Ike Godsey died on July 7, 2013

Click to enlarge: Ike Godsey (actor Joe Conley) from The Waltons.

Actor Joe Conley was 85. He played Ike Godsey on the TV show The Waltons in the 70's.

Each time someone passes on from the days of my youth, I think there is no one else who quite capture the innocence I feel I've lost along with the loss of that person; then sure enough, another will die that I've forgotten and that innocence is recalled again.

Today it was Ike Godsey. I know his store as sure as I know any other store from my boyhood, and his smile and demeanor and customers.

Ike Godsey's store was not one I shopped in as a child, it was one my grandparents shopped in, and why that generation was a major demographic for the show. It was their twenty-somethings that was being recreated each week with simple folks and simple messages.

My Grandma Grandy was very fond of the show.

G'night, Ike.

Actor Joe Conley, who played Ike Godsey on 'The Waltons,' dies at 85 >
 

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Say something else in that ear:

Sometimes an unhappy dream can be reassuring if only because something pleasant is still trying to get our attention, like the naughty boy dipping a girl’s pigtail in the inkwell.
--Clarence 0ddbody

 

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Beliefs and Promises of the Nostalgic Order of Junior Baptists

Click to enlarge: A picture of a baptism at a Baptist church. This one is at Bethel Baptist Church in Erie, PA when it was located at East 26th Street. That's Pastor Kenneth L Andrus doing the baptizing. I don't recognize the person being baptized. This would have been 1982.

In a Baptist baptism, as practiced when I was a boy, the pastor holds a small cloth over the baptizee's mouth and nose, says "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," and immerses him/her once.[1] There is also often a short sermon beforehand, and each baptizee makes a public profession of faith and may also give a short personal testimony. The ceremony is usually held on Sundays after the evening service and may last a half hour or so for a handful baptisms.

It's all very simple, conducted in a baptismal pool in the church. No big screen TVs or music. And even though participants view it as purely symbolic, it's also very reverent, and the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking the ceremony is part of the salvation process.

Baptists believe you must first believe before being baptized, and be old enough to understand it. Therefore, most Baptist churches will not elicit a profession of faith from anyone younger than 6 years old and will not baptize anyone under that age either. Most children being baptized are tweens or teens.

Junior Membership
Junior membership in the church is often included with the baptism of a young person. When the person reaches age 12 and demonstrates suitable maturity, they are allowed to apply for full church membership and be voted upon by the congregation at a church business meeting (which for Bethel was monthly on Wednesday nights after prayer meeting).

I'm not sure when voting privileges began at Bethel; that might have been age 18. I voted a few times before leaving for college.

Click to enlarge: This is Bethel Baptist Church (which was at that time at 737 E. 26th Street in Erie, PA - map >). It also housed Bethel Christian School for many years. I attended Bethel Christian School 7th-9th grade. I have very fond memories of that time and the friends I met there.

Membership is predicated on beliefs and promises.

Assenting to both is fairly straightforward. It comes in two parts (when I was a boy):

1. What the church teaches and what you must agree to in order to be a member (Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, a real Adam and Eve, global flood, etc). "What the church teaches" and "what the bible teaches" are considered synonymous.

2. Behavioral expectations (in Bethel's case, no drinking, smoking, card playing, dancing, etc). Tithing and Sunday attendance are encouraged but no one is asked to make promises regarding these.

Being a Baptist is cast largely in terms of what you should believe and what you should not do, sometimes with a subtext of "what we do not believe and what we should do." Which is not to say any of that is bad, only that Baptists prefer a faith painted with stark colors and simple patterns, and that is often easiest to model and teach.

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I don't mean to sound like I'm trivializing any of this. Quite the opposite. I have very fond memories of Bethel and my own conversion and baptism. I'm being rather clinical in order to document the memory for someone who may have no context.


[2013-07-10]

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[1]
I have no idea if "baptizee" is a word or not, but I couldn't find a suitable alternative.

Baptism in the name of the Trinity is important. It is often a qualifier among like-minded Christians - from Baptist to Catholic - for determining if you've really been baptized or not. There can be others, too. Catholics don't care if you've been immersed or sprinkled. Baptists do. And some (like the Brethren, I think), insist on three immersions, once for each Person of the Trinity.

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What kids believe (and my Calvin College Latin prof)

We all remember believing childish things and the moments we were educated away from them.[1]

Jeff Hull in 3rd grade at Vernondale Elementary School in Erie, PA believed alligators dug the Grand Canyon. No amount of disagreement would convince him otherwise, including Miss Anderson's, our teacher, who attempted to prevent that idea from sticking in our heads.

At about that same age, Steve Schloss and I rode our bikes all the way to the Gates of Heaven cemetery at the end of 10th Street. While we took a breather at the chained wrought-iron fence and watched a funeral off in the distance, Steve told me that everyone who was buried there was on fire. Their sides were burning.

I found this new information very curious and asked for more information, but that's all he knew.

I went home and told Mom what I learned and she promptly grounded me for riding my bike so far away from home without telling her.

She didn't answer my question about people on fire under the ground. She probably didn't understand it any better than I did.

I think now, looking back, Steve was referring to Purgatory, which typically has been portrayed as hellish and fiery, and in his 3rd grade mind, that place was just under our feet.

[2013-03-21]

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[1]
My Calvin College Latin professor once dismissed the folk etymology that 'education' comes from Latin 'educo,' to lead, which places educators more in a role of mentor or shepherd. It actually however comes from ēducātiō, meaning a breeding, bringing up, rearing. Wiktionary actually does include 'educo' in the etymology of 'education,' so there may be some debate on this.

My Latin prof thought I would have made a good lawyer with my English major and interest in Latin. But had that been so, I would likely have been a pro bono defense lawyer.

I don't remember what my Latin prof's name was. I liked him very much, but it's been many years. He was fond of making quips in class that were short enough to write down while taking class notes. I had a notebook full of them.

I spent some time looking through old Calvin faculty alumni, but had no luck finding him.

If you want an especially humbling experience, spend some time looking through lists of old college alumni and see what they’re up to today.

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Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard

Say something else in that ear:

We're all just names on grave stones that haven't been carved yet. The world will one day only know us by what others chose those words to be, and by who's buried around us, and if someone leaves flowers on special days and pulls weeds and trims back the grass.
--Clarence 0ddbody

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Click to enlarge: c0 First page of Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard with illustration by Richard Bentley

Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard

This was one of my favorite poems in college (especially suited to oil lamp or candle light). It's not ghostly or eerie in any way, but rather a reflection on unremarkable lives that might have been otherwise.

If it were written today, Gray might replace the pastoral images with ones of clerks and janitors and short order cooks, and though the sentiment would be the same, it would somehow be sadder.


Read Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard >
 

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A Baptist Joke about Golfing on Sunday

Click to enlarge: Pastor Kenneth L Andrus in 1982, then pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Erie, PA.

Pastor Andrus told this joke at the men's venison banquet back when I was a boy, perhaps 12 or 14 years old. This was at Bethel Baptist Church back when it was at 737 E 26th Street in Erie, PA. Pastor Andrus was not a joke teller; I recall watching him wait for the laughter and expressing relief with a small smile when those honest laughs came from Baptist men who enjoyed clean humor, good food, and fellowship.

This was in the basement of old Bethel East, a large cinder block room with high, small, barred windows (not to prevent break-ins but to prevent children from falling into the window wells outside).

Pastor Andrus stood on a wooden stairway in front of a solid metal pneumatic door that closed off a hallway where the boiler and water equipment was located.

(I think George Nicewonger was the janitor for a bit when I was at Bethel Christian School in that building; George looked a lot like William Bendix. I remember him taking me back to a room I wasn't allowed to be in and finding a replacement nut for my skate board).

Click to enlarge: Moon Mouse, by Adelaide Holl (Author) and Cyndy Szekeres (Illustrator), 1969

On the other side of that hallway, past the equipment rooms, was another metal door, and on the other side of that, rooms with windows where we held Sunday school and where, during the week, I had music and art classes, and where I drew a picture of Moon Mouse, the mouse who mistook a wheel of cheese for the moon.

That hallway could be very scary if both doors were closed. It had only one bare light bulb to illuminate it, and if the light was off and both doors closed, all you had for company was the hum of the electricity and water.

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This is the joke Pastor Andrus told that evening:

One Sunday a deacon decides to go golfing but tells everyone at church he's not feeling well. St Peter and Jesus are watching this unfold from Heaven and St Peter says, "Lord, are you going to let him get away with this?" Jesus just nods and says nothing.

The deacon gets a hole in one on his first hole. St Peter says, "Did you see that? A hole in one! And he's supposed to be in church." Jesus just nods and says nothing. The deacon gets another hole in one, and another, and another, until he's golfed a perfect game.

St Peter looks to Jesus and says, "Lord, I just don't understand it, he skipped church, lied about being sick, and you let him golf a perfect game. Why?"

Jesus looked at St Peter and said, "Who's he gonna tell?"

 

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It was traditional each year at the Men's Venison Banquet for the hunters to donate some of their take. The women also prepared beef for those that didn't like venison.

There was always an award each year for the youngest hunter to bag a buck, and that year it went to a girl, Peanut Bierer (real name Lynda, but everyone called her Peanut). I think she was 16 at the time.

It was no longer the "Men's" venison banquet.

I only attended one year. My dad was not a hunter and neither was I, but we were getting close to families that were, like the Bierers. Dana Bierer married my cousin, Susan Andrews.


[7/9/2013]

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Give me those old time lady preachers: Amy Lee Stockton and Rita Gould

Amy Lee Stockton is one of these women; the picture may in fact be of both Amy Lee Stockton and Rita Gould, who preached and sang together for many years. The Image is from http://www.seminary.edu/about/history/.

In my post "Ideas have DNA (give me those old time lady preachers)", I referred to a woman that my Grandpa Cairns credited with leading him to the Lord ("getting saved" in evangelical parlance).

My Mom, bless her heart, found the evangelist and even her musical accompanist: Amy Lee Stockton and Rita Gould. Mom says Grandma and Grandpa Cairns thought very highly of these ladies.

 

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Click to enlarge: Miss Amy Lee Stockton and Miss Rita Gould are mentioned in the June 5, 1940 edition of the San Jose Evening News.

At right is a short mention in the June 5, 1940 edition of the San Jose Evening News about Miss Rita Gould and Miss Amy Lee Stockton.

It reads:

Evangelist Pair At Baptist Church To Appear Tonight
Miss Rita Gould, singer, and Miss Amy Lee Stockton, evangelist, are to appear tonight and Friday evening in the First Baptist Church here. The two women, according to Rev. David M. Dawson, have gained international honors, and been invited for special meetings in many of the largest churches of the United States and Canada. They are in San Jose for a short visit with their families. Miss Stockton speaks tonight on "What Will Italy Do?" and Miss Gould sings and plays the vibra-harp. See the full page here >

Amy Lee Stockton and Rita Gould traveled together for decades. You can learn a little more from these links:

Northern Baptist Theological Seminary >

Amy Lee Stockton - evangelist and first student of Northern Seminary >

Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference History >

Northern Seminary History Page >

[2013-07-10]

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Life after Birth (Make friends with more atheists)

Click to enlarge: In this image, one in utero twin says to the other, "Hey brother, do you think there's life after birth? Do you believe in Mom?" The twin says "Nah, I don't believe these things, I'm an atheist. I mean, have you ever seen Mom?"

(No Internet at home; posting on the go.)

While scanning the radio dial, I recently heard some atheists commiserating over how religious people share their religious opinions in different social contexts. In this case, the atheist caller was emotional and hurt and the atheist host was tsk-tsk'ing with soft "oh, no"s, as though the caller had been confronted by a flasher, lost a child, or was diagnosed with cancer.

The host's advice: "Make friends with more atheists."

There are certainly contexts when religious talk is inappropriate, not, mind you, because it's wrong, but because there are places we talk about certain things and places we don't - from bathroom habits to how you get to heaven. Just as certain spices will ruin certain foods, and certain shoes will clash with certain outfits, so certain words hurt human relationships, and if we know where and when that will be, we should be careful.

I've been hurt by Christians who were unnecessarily harsh because they thought their inspired insight gave them liberty to be blunt.

[2013-07-07]

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Click to enlarge: Donnie Swaggart.

Flipping through cable channels today, I heard Donnie Swaggart comment on a man who approached his dad, Jimmy  Swaggart, after the service and said "I have a word for you." Jimmy Swaggart reportedly said "No you don't," and the pastoral panel all chuckled, because, of course, that privilege does not belong to laymen, or, if you prefer, old salts like Swaggart have veto power over others' "words."

Donnie wrapped up the hour with 50% off their CD/DVD collection, now only $15 each. Whoever was holding the cue cards should stand closer to the camera. Donnie looked like he was watching a tennis match.

A couple remote clicks up, through Rod Parsley selling a study series, was Mother Angelica on EWTN. She wasn't selling anything.  She was praying.

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For the uninitiated, "a word" in charismatic lingo means prophetic information from God that one normally would not have if God had not revealed it. Someone once shared a "word" with me. A sincere soul that was burning brightly but briefly told me I should be in church leadership.

I'd have made an adequate monk, especially in a monastery that made wine or brandy.

[2013-07-09]xx

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I'm full. I'm Fuller.

(No Internet at home; posting via Blogger on the go.)

My dad used to tell the story of a church dinner at which he sat next to Pastor Ed Fuller. After the big meal, Dad leaned back and patted his stomach and said, "Boy, I'm full." Pastor Ed leaned back and said, "I'm Fuller."

My dad told that story a lot, and we all groaned each time, but he was so tickled with it, he seemed to enjoy each retelling more than the last.

That was when Bethel Baptist Church was at at 737 E. 26th Street in Erie, PA.

You can hear Pastor Ed preaching recently at Bethel Baptist Church here >

Bethel is posting sermon podcasts here >

Bethel's sermon RSS feed is here >

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I learned recently that Pastor Fuller and his wife have been praying for me for years. I can't say I felt I needed prayer as much as it was offered, but it's welcome all the same. I suppose that says a lot about the image i projected and the love of those around me. I was very touched by this news, as I was very fond of Paster Fuller as a small child. He was a gentle man and as I recall connected well with children.


[2013-07-07 ]

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My opinion on the new Little Caesar's DEEP!DEEP! Dish Pizza...

It's not an 8-corner Jets, but it's close, falls short about $4 and tastes like it too.

I'll eat it again, but if I'm really treating myself, it'll be Jets.

Keep trying, Julius. You're on my way home from work and I want to like you.

[2013-07-09]

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Damn You, God Damn You All To Hell

(Reposted/edited from July 28, 2011 over at my OldTimeRadioDiner blog, no longer active. I started that back when I thought I could keep two going at the same time.)

As you probably know, I'm trying to treat myself to a new CBS Radio Mystery Theater (CBSRMT) episode each day. I am delighted by two things:

1
The appearance of stars that I know from other places. Agnes Moorhead (who was of course Endora[1] in Bewitched) appeared in Episode 1, "Old Ones are Hard to Kill," and the other night, I listened to Kim Hunter in Episode 4, "Lost Dog." Moorhead was a fitting star for the first outing, as she is best remembered in her radio days as the frightened housewife in "Sorry, Wrong Number." If you listen to enough OTR on late-night AM radio, you'll hear it, since it's a classic and deservedly gets replayed quite a bit.

d(-_-)b
Click here to Listen to Kim Hunter in "Lost Dog," from CBS Radio Mystery Theater >

2
The production values are magnificent; I'd forgotten just how carefully crafted these where. Footsteps recede or approach, doors creak in just the right ways, and outside sounds are left outside when doors close. It's a far cry from the organ-festooned episodes of radio's hay-day in which there was so much to choose from that it wasn't hard to find bad writing and worse sound effects, compensated by organ music that took the place of real drama (similar to how special effects are used in some movies today).


3
And if I can be indulged to list a third, #3 would be the nightly trip back to boyhood, a dark upstairs bedroom lit only by a radio dial, and the voice of EG Marshall and the descending strings. Those memories are so early that they are equally dim, but the experience is indelible.

I often fall asleep to my OTR mp3's, as it's the last thing I do at night, but an advantage to that is I just as often must restart the OTR episode about where I fell asleep, so I listen to some parts more than once.

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Oh, about "Lost Dog" – my introduction to Kim Hunter was as Dr Zira from Planet of the Apes, of course.

I can still remember me, my brother Tom, and our friends, Rich Nickel (my age) and Dave Nickel (Tom's age) lying upstairs in that same dark bedroom where I listened to CBSRMT, dissecting the end of Planet of the Apes. We couldn't figure out what it meant; why was there a Statue of Liberty on this planet, was it a parallel universe with a twin Earth? Rich figured it out and explained it to us. Rich was very bright and smarter than most kids I ever met, if not the smartest.

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What I still don't get (and you are welcome to enlighten me, Rich or anyone else) is why the female astronaut dies in the beginning. Her glass-encased sleep chamber is cracked, I get that, so something inside got out, or something outside got in. I can only guess that life support outside the chambers was turned off to conserve energy and only the chambers retained air and nutrients, so when hers cracked, she suffocated. Do I have that right?

She shouldn't have aged that much, though. The male astronauts had a month's beard growth or so, and any space travel that slowed down their beards would have slowed down her decomposition.

 

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Oh, and Nova was a babe. Any prepubescent boy that didn't yearn for pubescence upon seeing this beautiful creature wasn't paying attention.

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[1]
The pastor of my church at that time - Pastor Kenneth L Andrus - bless his heart, he was a very nice and spiritual man - preached against popular media portrayals of witches and other Satanic images. He called out Endora specifically, whose name was of course drawn from the biblical Witch of Endor. That was when Pastor Andrus was preaching at Bethel Baptist Church at 737 East 26th Street, in Erie, PA, before Bethel West was set up across town and he was preaching at both locations.

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Reconciliation starts with identifying what we have in common.

Click to enlarge: St Joseph and the child Jesus from an inside front cover illustration of a 1950's era St Joseph's Catholic Manual.

Tolerance starts with communication.

Reconciliation starts with identifying what we have in common.

I'll bet if you cataloged the top 100 things that Baptists and Catholics believe, less than 10% would define differences, and less than 1% would be irreconcilable, and then only because there'd be a few folks on both sides that wouldn't budge.

Many years ago in Grand Rapids I taught a Baptist adult Sunday school class from the St Joseph Manual, but I didn't tell them that until the end of class, pulling it from a bag and showing it to them.

You could have heard a pin drop.

I didn't make any friends that day, and I wasn't asked to teach again, but if one person got the message, it was worth it.

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On a more somber note... I'm amazed how few Catholics, especially formerly zealous ones, have clung to their faith and are interested in sharing it. In fact, I'm being charitable.

Baptists, on the other hand (at least the ones I know), grow more in love with the Lord the older they get and will drop what their doing to share Jesus with you if you ask them.

That might be because evangelicals focus on beliefs rather than actions, and beliefs are essentially emotional. Even though beliefs and actions are two sides to the same coin, when you flip it, it more often falls one way than the other.

[2013-06-03]

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