Replies

>>I believe Catholics and Protestants can 'cross party lines' on most things.

Well, on many things. We seem to be be divided on social policies though (health care, etc).

>>fight for the family and decency in the media.

I look at it this way. Lets group together to fight a common fight. Once victory is accomplished, then we can resume the great debate about Catholicism.

I am an orthodox Catholic and I have serious disagreements with my protestant brothers. I think the differences in the faiths are grave, not small. It's true we share some fundamentals -- Christ is Lord, etc.

However, I think there are bigger battles than theological ones. Since we live in a post-Christian (post-protestant) nation, it's more important to restore the nation to some semblance of Christianity than it is to hammer out the differences in faith.

If we fight each other publicly, the nation will just see the Church for what it is -- a factionalized group of squabbling, self rightous people. How will they ever listen to us?

Most of us who are active are not convertable -- ie, we have had the deep theological debates with each other and remain unconvinced of the other side. So we don't need to try and convert one another. I'm as absolutely convinced about my faith as you are about yours.

What we need to do is to convert the hearts of the rest of the nation. And I'm not talking about the literal Gospel -- they won't even listen. I'm talking about changing their hearts to a point where they can hear it without writing it off. Right now, they simply write it off.

IMO, the battle lies in abortion, sex, the family, marriage, and charity. If we can change the heart of the nation on these, they will have very little resistance to the Gospel.

Finally, we need to DEFEND ONE ANOTHER publicly. I'd defend Billy Graham or Pat Robertson publicly. In my defense of them, I won't spell out my disagreements either. Rather, I laud them for living their faith.