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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