What's a Southern Baptist doing in Catholic New York?

I have many friends with whom I disagree. Though we'll never change one another's mind, we behave with grace, kindness and affection towards one another.

Upon arriving in the Northeast as a "born and bred" Southern Baptist pastor, I was amazed to find myself part of a religious minority. My distinctly southern religious heritage (and accent) are massively "Baptist-centered."

Even in the jails where I preached in the South, more than half the inmates were Baptists. Seldom were there more than five miles between the Southern Baptist churches in the South.

Yet, in New York, I would have to shake hands with more than 1,000 folks to find even one member of my denomination. That is different!

My sheltered religious life was a distinctly "non-Catholic" existence. In my former pastorate in Mississippi, there was not one Catholic church in the whole county. I knew only one person who was a Catholic. Obviously, I had left the land of corn bread, grits and fried catfish, and I entered a vastly different religious landscape.

I discovered that I agree with the Roman Catholic Church on almost every moral, social and familial issue. I rejoice that a Baptist pastor and Catholics concur on abortion, sodomy, divorce, gay marriage, civil rights and a host of front-burner issues.

I found both groups get their morals from the Bible. We both hold to a virgin birth, accept Jesus as God, regard the Bible as authoritative and believe in a Holy Trinity.

This cordial agreement does not extend to all doctrines. We do not see "eye-to-eye" on many important matters - such as salvation, church authority, priestly orders, baptism and the role of the Lord's Supper (i.e. the Mass).

I could not be a Catholic, but I can surely like them.

Devout Catholics hold their Church's teaching as equal in authority with the Bible. Baptists stoutly resist that. Possibly, the situation is similar to my relationships with my cousins. I respect them and like them, but I would never plan to marry one of them. Either binding union (with Catholics or cousins) would be unwise, unhealthy and create lots of problems!

It is much better to hang out together and enjoy our commonalities, without compromising our deep beliefs.

Whenever possible, Catholics and Southern Baptists can work together for moral good, for improving our society, or for standing against evil.

In arenas where we can never agree, we can still be courteous and Christ-like, while retaining our deepest convictions.

After all, I have never had to hit a cousin. We have too much in common.

(The author is director of the Northeast Campus of the Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Schenectady.)

(8/25/05) [[In-content Ad]]