So I wanted to blog somewhere people I know won't read it. So this blog is for all your strangers out there.
I'm Catholic. That's what much of this will be about. You're welcome to read. You're welcome not too.
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An exercise in intellectual honesty.
I believe in thing a.
You believe in thing a.
I believe that thing a, means thing b.
You believe that thing a, means thing c.
We can both be right about thing a, or we can both be wrong.
But when it comes to the next level, assuming we are correct about thing a, we STILL cannot both be correct. This doesn't change because of previous agreement.
I believe in God. So does Joe the Muslim. I believe that God wants us Catholic, Joe believes God wants us Muslim.
Taking that another level within Christianity.
I believe Jesus is God. Joe the non-denominationalist believes Jesus is God.
I believe that God commands us in the Bible to receive his Real Presence in the Eucharist. Joe believes that the occasional (or weekly) symbolic communion service fills that requirement, and more importantly that accepting Jesus is the basis of salvation, making communion less relevant.
We both acknowledge that Jesus is God, and we both acknowledge John 6:53-58:
"So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me."
We can both be wrong, we cannot both be right.
Taking that issue to heart, I believe that Christians have taken a good thing in ecumenical friendliness to far.
We are brothers and sisters in God, all of us. Among Christians, we share a heritage and many beliefs. This should lend itself to our being co-belligerents in the cultural ideas war and should lend itself to treating each other with the spirit of Christian charity.
However, being nice is not the end good. The end good is the Truth.
Let's be friends. Let's sing Christmas carols together and have bake sales. Let's learn to understand each others beliefs and maintain a respect for individual decision making on matters of belief.
But let's stop pretending we're all one one team. We're playing in the same league sure. We abide by many of the same rules. But when it's all said and done, it's very unlikely we'll all come out looking like winners.
