The WORLD Needs Chrisitian Unity! NOW!!!

[Mikeoffaith]

Feeding those in need…perhaps poverty and hunger will come to our country some day…my uncle thought so…

Feeding the hungry is a praxis to reach out to the unbaptized…we can do it…but then, do we lead others into our own denominations…meaning, do we lead them to our fractions?

May be when the day comes, the way will be there…

I think we will have one faith and one baptism, but it won’t be like before…

I’m puzzled Kathleen, is it only non-christians who are starving? I don’t know why this has to be an exercise in growing numbers or why churching the unchurched needs to be part of our work, not that it isn’t part of our mandate. But somehow I don’t see in that passage in Matthew that a condition of feeding people is that we then have to baptize them.

So can’t we just feed the Samaritan for now, and then worry about what kind of Jew they will be later?

 

[Mikeoffaith]

With all kindness, you have totally missed my point. The point is that as Christians there is an attempt to silence and push us to the background. There are the Christians who do stand up for the truth, however there are far too many that are disunited and bow to the altar of political correctness. This is where disunity is breed. They do not have the will or desire to be a Christian first. Yes they proclaim they are “Christian” however their deeds prove otherwise. **James 2:17 ***“So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead”. *The examples I provided are the glaring abuses against Christians and all of humanity across America and because of the lack of “Works” by those who profess to be Christians is why we have the things I cited. Not that I am worried, I stand and fight against these abuses.

As for the comment of reclaiming my birthright as a Christian, I hope that this is not an attempt to insinuate that I have lost it or a veiled jab of some kind. I am Christian and always will be. No one can take that from me.

You state “do we agree or disagree on the point that Christ commands us to feed the hungry” what is your point? Of course we agree. I am not following your logic in asking this question.

I don’t share the same point of view that there is a conspiracy to silence the Christian. But I think you need to look at the other side of the coin. If your children have their Christmas pageant at their local public school, are you also willing to let the Hindu population have a Hanuman Jayanti festival? Or the Muslim population have the school participate in Eid al Adha? And then where does it end? What if the Lutherans, instead of Halloween, want to have a Reformation Day celebration?

But if what we are talking about Christian unity and having a united front, what about doing something completely radical and actually work at eradicating hunger out of our neighborhoods, city, state and country?

You state “do we agree or disagree on the point that Christ commands us to feed the hungry” what is your point? Of course we agree. I am not following your logic in asking this question.

What is my point, my point is if we all agree then why do we still have hunger? But Kathleen has already answered that question in the previous post.

 

[Mikeoffaith]

Unity will IMO never happen. As much as I want it to (believe me, I’ve gone to Protestant Churches to find similarities, studied different religions, ect), the problem is unity itself. Whenever a large group of people come together and make peace, who represents them? A leader, from the earliest days, a leader represented his people in times of negotiation. The Pope, the Patriach, and the Archbishop of Cantebury are all leaders of their respective Church. They can potentially make peace. However, with other denominations, such as Baptists, and Methodist, there is no centralized leader, other than God. How are they suppose to come to unity? Church by Church?

I honestly feel like the Protestant reformation was like toothpaste. Its all over the place right now. It is possible to get some of it back in the tube over a long period of time, but impossible to get all of it.

So because we can only get maybe a little bit back in the tube, we should just forget about it and throw out the whole tube?

 

[wmscott]

I don’t share the same point of view that there is a conspiracy to silence the Christian. But I think you need to look at the other side of the coin. If your children have their Christmas pageant at their local public school, are you also willing to let the Hindu population have a Hanuman Jayanti festival? Or the Muslim population have the school participate in Eid al Adha? And then where does it end? What if the Lutherans, instead of Halloween, want to have a Reformation Day celebration?

But if what we are talking about Christian unity and having a united front, what about doing something completely radical and actually work at eradicating hunger out of our neighborhoods, city, state and country?

What is my point, my point is if we all agree then why do we still have hunger? But Kathleen has already answered that question in the previous post.

I guess in your PC world you just don’t get it.

 

[Mikeoffaith]

I agree all Chrisitians can serve the Poor. And Work Together. The Lord would probably be happy to see us working together.

But is working together the same as unifying?
For example, Two Christian Churches can work together, but that is not the same as following One Belief.
TRUE UNITY. Involves all Churches following The One True Church.

Is working together the same as uniting into one belief? Yes and no. This is just one brick in the road that needs to be built. But this is one Belief we all share, so why aren’t we working on it together?

 

[Mikeoffaith]

Without quibbling about “the one true Church”, unity does not have to be an all or nothing proposition. Certainly the goal is full unity, which would be confirmed by the sharing of the chalice and the altar, being partners in the one true Church. That should be our goal. Getting there will be aided by small steps of unity, as we’ve been discussing, and by ecumenical dialogue that results in convergence of doctrine, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jon

Thanks you Jon!

 

[Mikeoffaith]

I guess in your PC world you just don’t get it.

And I guess in your dimly narrow exclusive world you don’t get it.

“I like your Christ, but I don’t like you Christians. You are so unlike your Christ.” -Ghandi

 

[Mikeoffaith]

Christian unity is only valuable if it unites around the truth. I’m not sure that is possible. I’m not sure the normal Christian message of “God loves you, believe in Jesus or go to Hell” is a message that Christians can rally around and take to the world …

And at this particular moment in this particular time, why does the truth or message have to be any greater or more complex than, “Feed them.”

 

[wmscott]

And I guess in your dimly narrow exclusive world you don’t get it.

“I like your Christ, but I don’t like you Christians. You are so unlike your Christ.” -Ghandi

Not going to get into a :slapfight:contest with you mike, have a nice day.

 

[GaryTaylor]

I hope this is the place to put this thread. If not, please move it to where it should be.

In a world that is being more and more Secular, and less Chrisitian. We (All Chrisitans) Must work Together. The Church, and (I feel) All Of Christendom is under attack. Look at the spread of secularism, abortion, homosexuality, the culture of death, and the rest of our enemies. This is all coming from that same despised enemy. We can’t afford to let our guard down while we are fighting such a large scale spiritual war. There are many people out there doing a great job fighting for everything that is right. But this war could be won sooner if we did something more, I feel like the victories we gain today, are just skirmishes. We need to win decisive battles! Our victory is gaurunteed, so what or who are we afriad of?

“Of Whom Should I be Afraid?” ( This is from The Scriptures.). ( I believe it is from one of The Psalms.).

I have complete confidence in Our Lord Our God, and In Our Lady. I am Trusting that Our Lady will always lead us to victory in the battles we face. We all KNOW (and *SHOULD KNOW *) How important Our Lady is to all of us. She Helps her children here on earth, and works to crush the head of the snake. " Our Lady, O Heavenly Queen, I Am Extremely Thankful I am not Your enemy! " " Thank You, O Lord! "

keysofpeter.org/henry8/index.htm
I was watching a very interesting program on EWTN Last night. on Bookmark. The Book was “King Henry VIII: Defence of the Seven Sacraments”.

I encourage you to visit the site I made a link to.

Lets All Make A stand, And Fight The Good Fight!

:knight1::knight1::knight1: :knight1:

:knight1::knight1::knight1:​

I with you my friend. We need to put our difference aside for the greater good. Were much to deep in this battle with evil for any other thinking to be correct.

 

[Jon_Hus]

I with you my friend. We need to put our difference aside for the greater good. Were much to deep in this battle with evil for any other thinking to be correct.

The unofficial definition of unity by most catholics on this forum requires that protestants put themselves under the direction of Rome, or in other words, become catholic. The simple and obvious response: if protestants wanted to be catholics, they would join the catholic church.

This whole discussion reminds me of the old confederate soldier who every night refights the entire civil war, hoping that today somehow history will reverse itself and the south finally emerges victorious.

 

[KathleenGee]

I am picking up on all sorts of people really wanting to be together, to be one…

The other day there was an article about a group meeting in my area of town. A Christian evangelical couple began a Christian dialogue group at a small coffee house.

Then some atheists wanted to come in…so the couple changed the format and now it includes religious and non-religious who want to share and be together over a meal and have community inspite of their difference.

I see that happening across the lines in my work…just be together when we have some serious differences. They want love and unity…

I think what really helps is self-renunciation, and what Mikeoffaith was referring to…living out the gospel in my own circumtances…then William Scott saying we need to work together in society in regards to social issues. There are churches in my area that are also crossing denominational lines to live the Gospel such as Stephen Ministry.

 

[stormy99]

Take for example that we let a small minority to tell us that we cannot have the Ten Commandments in a court room; we cannot have a cross on a hill just because it is public land,

**For as long as I could remember, the crucifix was in our township park…not any more…it’s been an eternal flame for awhile…the religious symbol…gone…

Happy Holidays not a mention of Christmas…Winter Break not a mention of Christmas…Spring Break, forget Easter…

The small minority is always telling the majority what to do and guess what, we do it…talk about stupid, talk about clueless, talk about no guts…they say and we do…

My rant is over…

stormy**

 

[stormy99]

---

The points brought up in this thread have been really interesting but I think we are kind of missing out on an important point.

Kathleen and Angel want us to work on unity but really don’t see any possible way because we have dogmatic and doctrinal beliefs that get in the way and aren’t sure how we can meet anywhere in the middle. Wmscott is worried about partial birth abortion, marriage, and reclaiming his birthright as a christian to have a nativity scene or a christmas party at PS 125.

Christ gave us the easy bake recipe for working together in a untied way that doesn’t interfere with our doctrinal bickering and in no way shape or form could ever annoy the secular.

In Matthew 25, Christ gives us 6 tasks: feed, water, house, clothe, heal and visit. We can look at the first one. It’s a great example. In the US in 2008 there were approximately 173.5 million Christians. In the US in Nov 2009 an estimated 17 million households (for the sake of numbers we’ll say an average of 4 people per household) or 68 million people couldn’t put enough food on the table. Why is it we can’t work together to end hunger? Even if every one of those starving people are Christians that still leaves 105.5 million who aren’t and can probably do something about it.

So when we can find in scripture “When my hill was empty and you put a cross on it,” then we can worry about why there aren’t more crosses on hills and the dechristianizing of america. But when Christ tells us that when you have fed the least then we have fed Him, why then does a nation full of people that profess to love Christ cannot get it together to end hunger, to end Christ’s starvation?

I don’t think you are going to find many Christians who are going to argue that the dogma or doctrine of their denomination or even personal belief doesn’t buy that Christ MANDATES us to feed in a physical sense the hungry.

So at this point, I ask everyone, Kathleen, Angel, Wmscott, JonNC, Mikeoffaith, do we agree or disagree on the point that Christ commands us to feed the hungry?

I agree on the point Christ commands us to feed the hungry…every Christian should be doing this for people of all denominations not just their own group…every time food is donated someone is eating and children will learn better…

stormy

 

[stormy99]

In a sense, yes. If we were united then we would be Catholic (universal)

**Definitely we would all be Catholic…it is Christ’s Church through Peter…that would work fine for me.

stormy**

 

[dianaiad]

Take for example that we let a small minority to tell us that we cannot have the Ten Commandments in a court room; we cannot have a cross on a hill just because it is public land,

**For as long as I could remember, the crucifix was in our township park…not any more…it’s been an eternal flame for awhile…the religious symbol…gone…

Happy Holidays not a mention of Christmas…Winter Break not a mention of Christmas…Spring Break, forget Easter…

The small minority is always telling the majority what to do and guess what, we do it…talk about stupid, talk about clueless, talk about no guts…they say and we do…

My rant is over…

stormy**

OK, having the Ten Commandments in a courtroom—all by themselves–is very much a violation of the separation of church and state, because when they are by themselves they are there for the purpose of advocating a specific belief system.

However, when they are displayed along with other documents that relate the history of our legal codes (as they are in the Supreme Court, for instance,) then banning them is religious discrimination, and equally wrong.

As for having a crucifix in a public park…hey. It doesn’t belong there AT all. Aren’t Jews American citizens too? Protestants (who usually use crosses rather than crucifixes) and others for whom a crucifix is the symbol of a religion they don’t share?

Let me turn this around: would you be this upset if it were a Muslim crescent removed from the park, or a giant star of David, or a Hindu lingam?

As for me, I think the issue should be settled the OTHER way; not by eliminating all signs of religion from public areas, but rather an inclusion of all of them–so that the crucifix would stay—and the star, crescent and lingam would also be found.

 

[JHow]

You know, the most thoughtful attempt at Christian unity I have seen in recent memory was Richard Neuhaus and Charles Colson’s "Evangelicals and Catholics Together published in “First Things” magazine. It sought to delineate things we could agree on, and where we respectfully disagree, but underlying it was a desire to work together on important social issues.

 

[KathleenGee]

Thanks, JHow…both have great experience in living out their faith.