Ok. Shutting down my computer and really going home. I meant to be on campus for about 30 minutes today. Instead I've been here for, oh, 5 1/2 hours. Oops. Well, at least I've gotten work done. And eaten. And played.

Going home. Really.

What always gets me is when you see a convocation of bishops and there are some that look all funky and it turns out they're some weird sect of Catholics?

In my religious background world (and I'm not saying this is right or wrong), Christian and Catholic are different--Christian means "born again" or "saved" or whatever, and Catholic is separate from that. Just like Lutheran would be separate, as well.

Um....wait, why are Lutherans not? They're Protestant! WTF? Are Prebyterians? Methodists? Baptists? How do you decide what counts?

After the funeral I went to last week, I was thinking of hitting up some gay Catholic mass in Seattle, but found out their Dignity chapter just has "prayer service" once a month. Not mass. Boo! Apparently the Catholic churches in Seattle are pretty darn gay-accepting, but...that wasn't my point!

I just read a really interesting article about an apparent flood of ex-evangelicals to the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

That's a lot of Orthodox churches.

That's just Eastern Orthodoxy -- Oriental Orthodoxy has a whole different list: [link]

(And yes, my brain keeps saying "butbutbut oriental MEANS eastern". In this case? Separate thingies.)

Um....wait, why are Lutherans not? They're Protestant! WTF? Are Prebyterians? Methodists? Baptists? How do you decide what counts?

Speaking as someone who came out of a similar religious background, basically a "real Christian" is someone who believes that salvation is purely through faith (often expressed in praying a "sinner's prayer" where you repent and sort of stake your personal claim in Jesus' atonement through his death and resurrection), as opposed to through some kind of faith-works combination, and also tends toward a relatively literal interpretation of the Bible and believes that everyone who isn't a real Christian will go to hell (hence the heavy emphasis on making converts).

That's an extremely simplified version, but every time I tried to refine it, I thought of exceptions. As for how do you know who's in...well, just about every denominational family has conservative and liberal branches. So Presbyterian Church in America is in, but Presbyterian Church-USA is generally out; Southern Baptists are in but most American Baptists are out, etc.

Mind you, these are not my current views, though I'm trying to report them fairly and accurately.

it was quite weird being a known atheist in grade school. The other kids were seriously concerned that I was going to Hell. They earnestly wanted to save me from eternal damnation. I got testified at pretty regularly. It is worth noting that back then I still believed in Santa Claus.

So Presbyterian Church in America is in, but Presbyterian Church-USA is generally out; Southern Baptists are in but most American Baptists are out, etc.

Good grief! That's so confusing. Much easier to just dismiss them all as "Protestants", I say. :)

So the others aren't "Christian"? How weird.

I get to explain to my students at some point each year what "agnostic" is (vs. atheist) -- most of my students are Catholic -- but each year, at least one kid shouts in relief, "So THAT'S what I am!"

Cracks me up every time.

Some of my kids are very devout, but it usually sparks a short thoughtful convo, and we move on.

Caveat: I never BRING up religion; this is always brought up in context of a story or a question that a brings up. I never lie to kids or avoid my spiritual beliefs, but I am SO not a proselytizer.

Anyhoo, skipped and skimmed, and BTW, I love Erin's Funeral. (Doesn't it kinda sound like a Fenian-leaning indie film?! )

So Presbyterian Church in America is in, but Presbyterian Church-USA is generally out; Southern Baptists are in but most American Baptists are out, etc.

It just struck me that what the homophobe-flavored Episcopalians are doing is just joining in the great American schism trend. If your church in Virginia actually reports to the archdiocese of Zambia, you're in, etc.

My family belonged to a very liberal Catholic parish--we were known for being the "hippy church" in town, the first to have guitar masses, altar girls, and even (horrors!) a priest who preferred the name "Father Bob" instead of "Father Perkins" and who had a beard. (A few families ended up leaving the parish and the Catholic church completely when the head parish priest retired and Father Bob was transferred rather than promoted from assistant to head priest, but he didn't encourage their actions at all.)

My CCD 8th-grade teacher actually taught us that Genesis didn't rule out evolution at all, but reinforced it instead (God created the animals in the order that they ended up evolving, and the sun was created first and the land brought forth out of the sea due to lava and plate tectonics, so it all fits, according to the teacher). So I never did understand creationism = faithful Christianity.