I thought Thursday night’s Pub Talk was one of the best, the noise forced people to speak up and others to listen more intently which may have quashed some side conversations. There were around 20 people, (didn’t take and exact count) including three of the panelists.
I think the panelists did a wonderful job of going even deeper into questions on their beliefs and fielding new questions. I certainly came away with some new found insights and a couple new questions that anyone may address.
I heard one comment that the Catholic tradition is not considered Christian.
I’m confused because the Catholic Church created the New Testament and many protestant churches still use some form of the Nicene Creed in their belief statement. The history is that the protestant religions grew out of the reformation movement begun by Luther, who had been a Catholic monk.
I also heard that Jesus started the Christian faith.
It has always been my understanding he lived and died a Jew and the Christian faith was begun after his death based on his teaching. I also just recently read that there were real challenges between early Christians as to whether to keep his teachings among the Jews or allow others into the teaching.
I ask these questions with total respect for different traditions. I was raised Methodist and only left Christianity when I went into Marine boot camp and heard conservative chaplains seemingly cheering us on to war. I know there was prejudice against Catholics in early U.S. history, this is the 21st Century and I did not know the prejudice was still alive.
