@Foofie,
You may not have noticed but in my first post on this thread I referred to the Holy Roman Catholic Church, I assumed readers of later posts of mine could infer what institution was meant by the shorthand "the Church.", but I see now I was wrong.
Ecumenism, wow, I had nearly forgotten that expression even existed anymore, even though I worked hard to bring together all kinds of faiths in dust of West Texas circa 1967-69. We would have breakfasts where, up on the dais would sit, any number of Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Christian Church and (oh, my land) Baptist clergy, all tight-lipped while one of them, picked at random. would rise to give the blessing-grace-opening prayer-message.
Meanwhile, down amongst the people eating their pancakes and strawberries the conversations about what could be done about the lack of post-school mentoring and whether enough people had volunteered to pick up trash at the Ft. Concho museum continued loudly and without reservation. They were all neighbors afterall, and churchgoers. (In West Texas, the only creatures allowed not to be church-goers and still be allowed in polite society, always have four legs.
There was a scandal one Saturday, two of the Catholic boys (9 and 11) were caught teaching a couple of Methodist boys (same age or thereabouts) how to do the Sign of the Cross. "They ASKED us!" was their defense. No souls were lost, but, back up on the dais, you could read some of the minds thinking "Knew it. Knew it. KNEW it!"
I think humans do better with each other when we don't know the labels we have placed,or had placed, upon us.
Let's NOT be specific about our religious affiliations, let us act in accordance with our beliefs and everyone will know who we are.
Joe(and where we stand)Nation
