Since I'm focused on the faith today, I want to say thank you to the many Christian bloggers I read. The things they write and the ideas that they express have been helpful to me in the development and maintenance of my own faith. So thank you to fellow Christians, including (but not limited to) Name Hidden and The Write Jerry and Jamie Dawn and W-H-Y-G-Ronald-Reagan and Rey and, of course, the indispensable Pastor Scott at The Burr In The Burgh.

My apologies to other Christian blogging pals I may have failed to mention.

And I hope you don't mind if I make special mention of those bloggers who share my specifically Roman Catholic Christian faith. I've really enjoyed their blogs. So thank you for sharing your faith with me, either through long and explict blog entries or through subtle but telling asides. Thank you, fellow Catholics such as A Catholic Life and The Cafeteria Is Closed and Dymphna's Well and A Southern Catholic Convert and Thoughts of a Regular Guy and MCF and Willow Missing Crossing.

I'd be amiss if I didn't single out my real life friend, the Jambander, for special mention. One of my two oldest friends in the world (along with The Governor, who comments here frequently), Jambander and his family took my family under their wings during our discernment of the Catholic faith. Jambander was my personal sponsor, his luminous wife was Wendy's sponsor, and they are the godparents of all three of our children. As a family, our gratitude to them is more than we can express.

But enough with the mushy thank you stuff. On with the blatant copyright violations.

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Ask The Seen SouthCon Blogger

The Unseen Blogger regularly invites his readers to ask him questions about his faith... questions he then answers at his blog. I've decided not only to steal that idea, but to steal one of the questions in it's entirety. Namely:

What is the bare minimum one must believe in order to be a "Christian"? I've come up with four general ideas, but I'd like to know what you think.

My bandaged buddy answered as follows:

I believe that anyone can be considered a Christian if they:
1) Believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the Trinity,
2) Believe that Christ was crucified as a sacrifice for our sins.
3) Believe that Christ was resurrected.
4) Believe that Faith in Christ will lead to Salvation through God's Grace. I know some denominations believe that other things are needed, such as Baptism and good works, but Faith is also included in their beliefs of what is needed for Salvation.
5) Possess the Faith included in #4.

Now, believe it or not, this is an issue I struggle with. The question seems basic, and the answers provided by the Unseen Blogger are simple, concise, and unavoidably true. So why do I struggle with it? Well, for a number of reasons.

What about the people who go their entire lives and never hear the name of Jesus Christ? What about the people who are exposed only to a hollow, inaccurate, downright anti-Christian idea of what Christ is? What about people who are faithful followers of other religions and live inherently Christian lives?

All of those questions have simple, basic answers as well. Missionaries are doing all they can to spread the Gospel of Christ across the world. It's up to each of us as Christians to set a truly Christian example, so that others will know that those who do evil in Christ's name aren't really Christian.

The thing is, in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis made an argument that has really won me over. I won't try to quote the entire argument here, it would involve copying pages and pages of the book. I won't try to paraphrase Lewis either. That's like trying to edit one of Mozart's symphonies into a three minute radio mix. I will, however, present the idea as I understand it, and I will apologize in advance to anyone I offend. I especially apologize to those who understand Lewis better than I do if I've misunderstood his argument.

Anyway, as I understand it, Lewis made an argument that comes down to this: It is not our place as humans to place our limits on how Christ can work in the lives of others. As we understand it, in order to come to know about Christ, one has to hear the Gospel and make a knowing and conscious declaration of faith in Christ... and then lead a Christian life. However, it is possible that Christ works in ways that go beyond our understanding. It is possible that Christ is working in the lives of people who have never heard of him. It is possible that Christ is even working in the lives of people who practice other religions. He told us, after all, that he has other flocks that he has to attend to.

I am prepared to be branded a heretic or a blasphemer because of that idea. I don't want to assert that I believe it to be an absolute truth.... it's just an idea that I'm willing to consider. Part of the reason for that is because of the book of Romans, part of which I'll quote here... Romans 2: 12-16

"All who sin outside the law will also perish without reference to it, and all who sin under the law will be judged in accordance with it. For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified. For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people's hidden works through Christ Jesus."

It comes down to this... Christ asked his followers to love the Lord God with all their hearts, souls, and minds... and to love their neighbors as themselves. I believe that there are those who do that without even knowing it. I also believe that there are those who believe that they do those things and yet don't do them at all.

I also believe that the passage I quoted above from Romans indicates that each of us is born with an innate understanding of what God expects from us. C.S. Lewis called it Natural Law. I believe that it is possible (as nutty as this sounds) to live a very Christian life and to never even consider the very idea of Jesus Christ.

Now, I am prepared to admit that I am possibly WAY off base here, and I'll concede so right off the bat. Feel free to comment about my ideas, but I'm not going to argue the concept because I can't defend it, other than to say that it's what I believe.

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The Rock That Rocks

There were other things I wanted to cover here... I wanted in particular to write something about my devotion to Saint Peter. Dymphna's Well has featured some nice posts about various saints, and I wanted to steal that concept today, too. Peter is my favorite Saint and I find myself very drawn to his example. To be honest, I've wanted to write something about Saint Peter for a very long time now... but every time I try to sit down and find the words, I end up unhappy with what I put together.

Basically, what I want to do is write something that conveys why I love the guy so much, why I draw so much comfort from his example, his mistakes and his successes. Peter was such an important apostle. He was, after all, the rock upon which Christ built his church... and yet he was a terribly flawed guy. He denied Christ when it mattered most. He over-reacted during the Transfiguration to the point that God had to literally tell Peter to chill out and just listen to Jesus. And talk about over-reacting, think about that tantrum in the garden when the temple guards came to arrest Christ! Then, after the resurrection, Christ had to repeat himself three times in order to get Peter to understand the importance of tending to the Lord's sheep. My favorite typically Peter passage, though, is in the book of Acts. It's the part about the dream wherein animals are given to the hungry Peter and the Lord tells him to eat them, but he refuses to eat them because they aren't kosher. Yep, good ol' Peter, basically saying "I can't do what you tell me to do, God, because I'm too religious!" Nonetheless, he did get it right later when he realized what that dream was really about.

Oh, and how about when the angel freed him from the prison after he'd been arrested for preaching about Jesus. Most people would have said "Now's my chance, I'm getting the heck out of Dodge!" Not Peter. They found him again, the very next morning, right in front of the jailhouse, still preaching about Christ. The idea of running away never crossed his mind. He was too concerned about the Gospel. You gotta love that.

Basically, Peter was often thick-headed and narrow-minded. He often acted before he thought, and he sometimes behaved shamefully. And yet, he was the ROCK. He was well-loved and honored by Christ himself.

If a loveable lunkhead like Peter can be so important to the Lord, I guess I have a chance of salvation as well.

Someday I'll sit down and write about Peter... if I ever find the words to do the guy justice. Peter was the rock... and, in my opinion, Peter really rocked!

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I guess that's all as far as Theological Thievery goes. I'll wrap up with a few pictures of St. Andrews Church in Roanoke. Wendy and I stopped by there the other day to pray. It's beautiful inside. I took a few pictures, but I felt weird about using the flash inside, so I didn't. Thus, the pictures aren't great... but there are some clickable thumbnails below.