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There are Protestants in the trenches with Roman Catholics fighting the culture war, which is why I don't like it when we attack each other. We should save theological disputes for after the immediate danger has been overcome.

My doctrinal differences with Rome don't prevent me from working with RC activists in political matters. We have a well-defined line of cooperation. I should hope no one is so fragile in their faith that some good-natured sparring over doctrine should be problematic. Even if it is occasionally heated. Sometimes we clear up misconceptions we have about one another. Of course, we non-Romans have it easier because we all oppose you. You have to oppose a veritable alphabet soup of non-RC's. However, I would think that the distinctives of Baptists and Presbyterians and others would not be too difficult for any of you to understand.

Let me illustrate. I see a comparison here, between us, on the matter of how we approach Christ. As you approach the cross, standing between you and Christ is your priest and your pope here on earth. In heaven Mary stands between you and Jesus. There are three that stand between you and your saviour. A Baptist kneels alone, alone with His sheperd and knows His love and His correction directly. For you, there are always intermediates. We Baptists would say that our Lord desires you to abandon intermediates, that that was in fact His entire purpose in establishing the New Covenant in His blood. He wants you for His own. We believe that He is there, waiting at His cross for you to come to Him. But He wants for you to come to Him alone, without a pope or priest standing between here on earth or Mary to stand between in Heaven. He wants you for Himself, to be your Sheperd, to guide you as His own lamb, a member of His flock. He wants you, and you alone, to come to His cross and follow Him from that cross to your own grave and then to eternal life with Him in the presence of the Father.

We Baptists generally are outspoken on the church of Rome, often harsher than is warranted. Perhaps it is because we are almost the exact opposite of Rome in every way. We are not Protestants. We went a step further than the Protestants to re-capture the purest reading of scripture and practice of Christian faith. I do not always take the harsh view toward Rome that other non-Romans do. I see in the historical accounts how many of Rome's doctrines began as small or relatively harmless solutions to temporal problems. Those needs are long gone but the doctrines remain and have expanded. And they were never strictly scriptural to begin with, at least by the plain reading of Baptist scholars.

Give it some thought. Quite honestly, I wouldn't tell you to quit the church of Rome. I would urge you to claim Christ in the way that we Baptists do but only if you feel that spiritual urge and calling from Christ. If you should ever choose another church, I would want you to do so only because you knew that you were led by God Himself to do that, not because someone trashed the church of Rome to you.

FRegards.