>From: "Richard Laverdure" <laverdurerj@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: cobu@onelist.com

I'll
>give a simple example, if your a baptist they preach that the gifts of
>the Spirit stopped when the original 12 apostles died.  They teach that
>because for sometime I attended there churches.  If you come from a
>catholic background you can't have a home bible study with the church's
>blessing and a preist most be hired by the group to interpret the
>scriptures according to the churches doctrine.  I think you get my
>point

I cannot speak from personal experience regarding Baptists, so I'll have
to leave that one alone.  But I have recent personal experience with
Catholics having home Bible studies without a priest.  Lots of home
Bible studies.  This might be a fairly recent development - I can't say.
But it is happening.  Along with some other things that don't fit into
the standard Protestant protestations...

I did not get the point.  Or maybe I just hope that I didn't.

It is too easy to write off others with a different heritage because
their practices are unfamiliar.  We learned that _very_ well in cobu
(but Stewart was certainly not the original teacher of the attitude).
Guaranteed that whoever it is you are looking has a speck or two in
their eyes.  But can't you see the Body there?  It is hard to overlook
the odd nuances of "other" Christians, if that is all you want to see.

I am not interested in starting a theological debate or bashing anybody.
In no way am I suggesting that anyone should embrace heretics, etc. in
some namby-pamby lovefest.  But be careful of what you say about
brethren (yes, brethren, of whatever stripe).  Look for the Savior we
have in common and perhaps you'll find that many of "those people" are
sincere in their faith, even admitting a foible or two (which, e.g., in
the case of Catholics, includes a few misconceptions about
"evangelicals".  Imagine! :-).

Imperfectly yours,

Rod Huffman
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
====================================================
From: Tom Pierron <tpierron@Op.Net>

My brother in Atlanta that just got remarried
had his service at the local Kingdom Hall.
That's a stretch.
But my brother's wife here in Philly is Catholic,
and I have been to a few things.
The latest was when I become the "godfather"
of their new son.
I had to go to "godfather" class on evening with
8 or nine other couples who were getting their
babies baptized.
Part of it was answering pre written questions
as we went around the room.
The nun liked some of my answers.
You could also "pass" if you so chose.
Not bad.
But you could see the "nervous fear"
which some may call "respect" for those
in authority.
Much like we were around ST.
When Jesus appeared to different brethren
after his passion, he would appear in THIS way.
Different in each case.
==========================================
From: John P King <jpkinghome@juno.com>

Gosh, that was nice, Rod! Say it again louder.  Maybe he'll hear you.
There are lots of different kinds of Christians -all members of one body,
all different -same Lord, same baptism, one voice.  Jesus doesn't seem to
have a whole lot of problems with the nuances about us all either.
Imagine that.

What else can we talk about now, brothers and sisters? Oops!  Probably
shouldn't have used that exact phraseology. Let's talk about something
good like our heritage?  How are everyone's kids doing?  Who needs prayer
and who needs encouragement and who can pray and who can encourage?  What
kinds of things are we doing in our lives?  A brother in Philly plays
golf.  I never learned how, but I love Scrabble and Chinese checkers.  I
also teach my kids at home, play the guitar, write and organize things,
teach, lead prayer meetings, and enjoy roller coasters and sewing of all
kinds.  I'm experiencing some sort of slight reaction here to this debate
about "sons of God" I think.  give me a few moments and I will have
returned to normal, but I'm still not deleting any of this afterwards
because this is who I am.  I really want to know how everybody is
spiritually and otherwise and who they married if they married and how
many kids they have and where they live and what they're doing  and so
forth now.  Jesus is giving us back to each other; let's take advantage
of it while we can.  So here i am-- fully, fully, fully here and quite
unbelievably sincere - no question about it -I've decided.  Let's talk
about life - all of it.  Let's talk about who we were and who we are now
without proselytizing if at all possible.  I mean who needs to get saved
here?  If someone really does, they'll hear it, believe me.  Our worship
is our lives.  It's so nice to hear you all and try to put the faces and
names together. Love,  Ellen

======================================================
From: "Jeff  C. Benninger" <jeffBenninger@compuserve.com>

Richard Wurmbrand would tell us that in Prison you would find who had their
faith in religion and who had their faith in God himself. It didn't really
matter if they were Catholic , baptist. Or even Jehovahs witnesses or
whoever. At the times of trouble a person either had his faith in his
stronghold of his faith in God. Didn't matter who it was.

Jeff Benninger
===========================================================
From: "Carol Stutts" <cstutts@kih.net>

THANK YOU JEFF!!  You said what I've been trying too and much more
eloquently...   Quoting Richard Wurmbrand helps a lot too...  I mean who
can argue with that..!

Back to my little black hole...Thanks Fred, I'm going to have fun with that
one...
LOL

Carol Stutts
==============================================