divine tapestry

i've spoken of my friend "pastor charlie" and identifiy him as pastor charlie so you will know who i am talking about when i speak of how often he has been of great encouragement to me. he and his wife had dinner with us in our home - i feel our friendship is progressing and that is very pleasing to me. however, i feel a wall. whenever he introduces me to one of his lunch guests, he explains the fact that i am a "former Methodist-turned-Catholic."

every.
single.
time.

then i am left to my own devices (and depending upon the mood), whether or not i explain, even in the simplest way, my choice to become Catholic. what exactly is that about? to top it off, he was in with his mother-in-law yesterday who asked me, right off the bat (before he could explain i was an M-turned-C) "where do you go to church?" (why does it matter, first of all?)

"St. Bernadette's."
that's a Catholic church....isn't it?
"yes. very."
do your priests preach salvation?

**blink, blink.
sigh.
blink, blink.**

unlike me, i looked at my husband jim and said, "honey --- do our priests preach salvation?" in the most dead-pan voice i could muster. he looked at me, knowing i was joking and said "yea.......at least i think they do......."

excuse me, but what the hell kind of question is that? of COURSE they preach salvation! of COURSE we believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, THAT HE DIED AND ROSE AGAIN ON THE THIRD DAY (in accordance with the Scriptures) in an effort to save our puny butts, OF COURSE I BELIEVE THAT!

honestly, i wanted to stand up and recite the creed.

back to the story (sorry for the rant) i don't introduce him as charlie, my Christian-and-Missionary-Alliance friend, or do i introduce my girlfriend Cyn as my Second-Baptist-Church friend when we are out - she is simply my friend. she'll sometimes call me her sistah-friend, but that's when we are by ourselves.

i don't get it.

further, i don't even know what half of my blog-friends *are* - what are you? some are easy - julie d. is a happy Catholic, so she is easy, as are kalanna and mecandes at mere catholics. dan at lofted nest is a recent convert to Catholicism, but you need to read his blog (he shares with two other wonderful writers) to discover that...

but what about the rest of you? jeff at so i go is a Christian, as are sparrow, kerouac, jan, and many many others i feel i will hurt if i leave out, but my hearts sing when i see responses from them and when i visit their blogs -- we are all Christians, right? do i care what church you attend? no offense, please, but NO i DON'T CARE. that doesn't mean i don't love you, and that doesn't mean you don't matter to me, you do very much. i don't even know if some of you are black or white. that doesn't matter, either.

i love your hearts. that's what i *see* when i read what you write. your hearts. i feel we are all a big part of a divine tapestry and instead of seeing beauty in its entirety, we choose to look at single threads.

do you look at someone (or in the case of the internet, *read* someone) and see denominations and if you do, please explain to me why it matters to you.

i promise, no judgments (this may even be a spin-off from my last thread...)