Since You Asked....

Over at Tiny Cat Pants there is a discussion about political labels. Apparently the other 'labels' with which I self-identify are confusing to some.

Speaking of labels...
Which are you, Katherine? Baptist or Quaker? I saw you nearly converted to Catholicism as well at Sharon Cobb's place, so I guess your multiple religions are confusing to me.

Since one person admits out loud to being confused, I'm sure there are multiple others who just don't say anything.

So I'll clarify.

First off...Christianity is one religion. The whole "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism" thing applies, as far as I'm concerned. The denominational differences are largely about procedure. Of course I realize that the Church of Christ has a different spin on things.

Second off...I've never in my life been a Quaker.

I grew up Mennonite, but there are no active Mennonite churches around here, so I joined a Baptist church so that I could experience corporate worship.

Philosophically I'm still more Mennonite than Baptist, but they have the same historical roots so there isn't much of an idealistic conflict. I'd still rather my church gave more to missionaries than it spends on internal operating costs, but that's nothing that I can do anything about at the moment.

The whole thing about converting to Catholicsm was also when I was flirting with Liberalism. Around 19 I had a bit of a period of questioning. Not uncommon, I guess.

To draw a secular political analogy for those who don't understand church politics, it's like Christianity is America, but the denominations are the different political parties.

I hope that clears things up a bit.