What Kinda Christian? (Page 2)

Don't ask my how I found this thread but I thought I would post in an effort to dialogue with Don a bit.

I'm a Lutheran, probably the "original Protestant", although Calvin and Zwingli were close behind.  For Luther, the thing that put him over the edge was Indulgences.  Over-simplified, these were "Get out of Purgatory Free Cards."  For a price, a person could purchase time off their stay in Purgatory and speed their way to heaven.  Luther posted 95 Theses about this subject on the door to his chapel one Halloween Sunday and things went from there.  Luther went on to talk about the means by which salvation comes to humans, the nature of the Sacraments and even the role of the Church in civil government.

From my studies, I don't think Luther was a Protestant like the others.  Luther was a Reformer, which means that he wanted to bring this doctrinal flaw to the Church leaders and correct the teaching.  What happened was that the princes of German at the time saw this as a way to break out of the Holy Roman Empire (which was neither Holy, Roman, nor and Empire...but I digress.)  Luther would go on to write some more about other differences he had with the Catholic Church at the time, many of which are quite nasty.  In the end, Germany and other parts of Northern Europe sided with him and split to form their own church that would bear his name.

Interestingly, if one looks at many of the changes from Vatican II, most of Luther's concerns have been dealt with.  The differences between Lutheranism and Catholicism are much less than they used to be.  But, people have built little "church kingdoms" and old habits die hard so I'm pretty sure that the chances of Lutherans and Catholics reforming ties are slim.  However, it should be interesting to note that leaders and scholars from my church body, the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, are in continuing talks looking for areas of commonality.  Meaning, even though there are some divisions, we think that Christ's wish that we should be One in Him (John 17:20-21) are serious enough to at least dialogue about.

If one were to compare the beliefs of the people that sit in the pews of my church to the beliefs of the people who sit in the pews of your church, you would find a lot of commonality.  However, there are still differences and these differences should be discussed and perhaps even celebrated.

Don, I'd be happy to discuss these differences more but not necessarily in an open forum; they seem to get hijacked quite quickly.  But, I would appreciate hearing your views as well.  The dialogue between different faiths shouldn't just be left for leaders and scholars; it should happen between regular people, too.

There ought to be a Political and Religious forum.

Someone suggested that and Ron (or marmadaddy) said thats getting too specific, then we'll need other forums for burritos, men v. women, etc.

Yes, now that would be a riot. Men v Women

I grew up midwestern pan-protestant--Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist (briefly). I now pick elements of faith that resonate with me, and stitch them together into my own, relatively Christian-infused 'ism'. Yes, I go to the Unitarian church. Here in NC where I live, most people in it are Christians of some flavor originally, just anti-credo and some of the politicking that seems to come with church-going here.

I'd be interested in such a discussion, though I would listen far more than talk/post. I have a lot to learn about religion, and I'm quite curious to hear from people of faith who've thought about/studied it.

I also have a whole line of thought about how, while organized religion fulfills a deep human need for connection with community and the divine, it was dreamed up and institutionalized by men as a method of consolidating resources, particularly land and political capital.

But no need to go there right now. Back to work.