For those interested in seeing it in the Gleaner on-line the link is below. The article title was changed to Accepting the Differences. It's the same letter I posted from Monday but with their editor's changes in paragraphing, so it's nothing new if you have read below.
I was going to post on some other things that occurred to me but time does not permit today. C'est la vie.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050427/letters/letters3.html
BOOM!!!
After I wrote this post I checked my e-mail and found a letter from someone commenting on my letter to the editor. Blown away aptly describes my feeling about their comments. I felt I must add their letter and my response to that letter to the post so ya'll can see what I have got myself into....... as usual.
Fan Mail
Hi HAYDEN HAMIL,
Golding Avenue
Kingston
“If other Christians would spend their time praying for us instead of bad-mouthing us, it's possible we'd come around if we are wrong or get along better, accepting our differences.”
People have accepted the differences for millenniums. Many have perished for not accepting. Praying for coexistence is good. However, just been static, and not complaining; or not doing something positive about it is non-Spiritual and cowardly. Catholicism gets the criticism it deserves. Check its history. Even if you are a papal apologists; now show some human Spirit!
S. Reklaw
My ResponseS. Reklaw,
Having quoted just a small part of my letter and pointing out to me that I ought to 'check it's history', is it now appropriate for me to point out that I had acknowledged that we had "seen good times and bad times including recent scandals"?
Everyone can complain. It is our right. Some do something about it. I encourage and applaud those who do something positive about it. I was taught that a good Catholic is a good Christian (not suggesting that other denominations are not) and that we must pray without ceasing. Prayer was always supposed to preceed and accompany any positive action (which must be done with love; the way Jesus did things). If you deem complaining to be the best action you can take and that was what prayer led you to do, then you are most certainly welcome to your desired course. I just hope that fewer persons arrive at that answer from prayer.
Catholics worldwide are actively praying for all souls (ourselves included) and doing what we can to live as Christ wants us to. We are seeking a relationship with our triune God to know Him and to love Him. There are many praying for us as we pray for them. We work together in Christ's name. We still believe that the Lord's Will be done.
If the church administration is wrong, then it means that many Catholics are being led astray. Is your answer (complaining) going to help save their souls, over prayer coupled with some other restorative act? Is it your aim to bring the Roman Catholic church to its knees or at some point are you interested in the Christians involved?
Hayden Hamil
Peace!
3 comments:
LOL, u may have stirred up an ants nest here, I curious to see how it all pans out, I shall pay close attention to the papers over the next couple of days. This may indicate the maturity of some churches in Jamaica , and then again it may turn out that Catholics may be the denomitaion everyone loves to hate. I do hope that the churches realize now is not the time to decend to bickering over beliefs with the current state our country is in, we desperatelty need a united front. I do believe that the church has to be an intergral part of Jamaica's reform, both from my spiritual beliefs as well as a matter of practicality.
Signed:
Christian With Secular Eyes.
Ok I posted My last comment before I saw the E-mail got. :) Such is life and Life is such. In my few years here on earth I have seen a certain division between certain denomintions (I mean above and beyond the norm). Part of this I have noticed from My parents and their freinds, and If I notice it from my parents who are VERY tolerant then I figure alot of other Jamaicans will be much much worse. Now Adventist & Rastafarians come very close To dispizing Cathoilics and to a lessor extent Anglicans. Othodox Churches Dislike Adventis and everybody just avoids Jehoviah Witnesses. (If I offended any one reading this By the way I apologize, do not feel I am singling out your religion or Denomination as I am critical of all institutions we refer to as religions includiong my own). What I found promissing was the concept of the prayer Breakfasts, with the GG, It sparked the beggining of coorpertion between churches and moved towards a pooling of resources, but as this issue shows, our diff are never far from the surface, and in a sense I understand, no denomination can afford to loose its Identity.
The truth is Hayden, that I dont think we will ever trully get along, we will always be at logger heads, simple because all types and personalities go to various churches. My favourite saying is "The problem with the church is the reason for its existence,....... Us" Humans will be humas no matter what :)
Signed:
Christian With Secular Eyes.
Ghandi loved our Christian beliefs but said that our religion is marred by our in-fighting.
For the past 20 yrs, an organisation called the Hope Area Church Organisation (HACO)has been in existence. It is as its name says. It includes Catholics, Anglicans, Brethrin, Methodist, Baptist. We have a working relationship. The heads meet and look at strategies for addressing issues affecting the community. We have an annual breakfast service at dawn. We erected a peace pole in Papine square (not sure how it works, perhaps you rub it.....). There have been other projects. Those are the ones in which I have played a part.
We share the same Seminary and Theological centres and yet some elements would have us believe that there isn't cooperation. Lack of understanding of each other's beliefs keeps some church members away but we working on it. We sell tickets for each other and continue to foster unity. Our mutual enemy is mammon.
Stop picking on each other because we losing the battle with it.
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