Making Sunday Pudding

Looking at my last post, I realize that I left out some critical bits of information. I've grappled a bit with my own religious affiliation in recent months, and I even considered converting to Catholicism at one point. I had to examine what I believe about God, the church, divine revelation - the whole lot.

I know many sincere Catholics, and I respect and admire them. I'm far too ingrained in protestant ways of thinking to convert with ease. Pity the poor priest who might have had the task of instructing me!

The Pope and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church are probably convinced that he actually does represent Christ on Earth, and that the Catholic Church is the only path to God. I am not convinced of that, so I obviously would not make a good Catholic. I respect those who do believe these things. Their beliefs are at least as reasonable as some of the things Protestants believe. For the record, I don't completely swallow the Protestant KoolAid, either.

I was raised in the Methodist Church. What I believe about God and faith could not be summed up neatly in a booklet about Methodist doctrine. I don't believe exactly what any one denomination believes, swallowed whole in an undigestible mass.

I guess the Pope's recent statements irked me a bit. They struck at the core of my sectarian and religious beliefs about freedom. However, as part of that freedom, every religious group has the right to define itself without intereference (as long as it does so peacefully). We each choose our religious, political and personal affiliations. More important, we choose just how much influence each of those thing has on who we are and how we go forward in life. I guess, in the end, the proof is in the pudding.