Phew. Jeez. I don't blame you for leaving.indianajdp wrote:I was born-and-raised Catholic, but broke away from the church during my HS years. I was active in Youth For Christ/Campus Life programs at that time, but I was so utterly disgusted with the many hypocrises within the doctrines of Catholocism and actions of some of its fervent followers, that I could not bring myself to practice that faith anymore. The last straw for me was when my grandmother, a lifelong Catholic, dying of Alzheimer's in a Catholic nursing home, was denied communion. The reason? She was not of the right mind to receive the body of Christ.
That's great to hear, Indy, I'm glad you're back in the body of Christ (the church of Jesus Christ). Just FYI, and this is more semantics than anything else, but Methodism isn't generally considered a separate religion from Christianity, as such, but rather a specific denomination of it. I'm sure you already knew this, I was just clarifying that for anyone who might be confused by your reference of "the methodist religion." The body of Christ, the church, is the totality of the followers of Jesus Christ. The various denominations are all a part of that.indianajdp wrote:Anyway, I drifted for awhile until I met my angel, mrsindianajdp, in college at Indiana University. She brought me back to religion, and to the methodist religion, and the rest is history. Although I will say that it was not easy telling my Italian Godmother that not only would I be married in a Protestant church, but a woman would be "officiating"! She took it well, though.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV):
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.