Cooperation, Not Competition

Thursday just past, Ross Douthat wrote for his new column in The Free Press on whether, give the current surge amongst young people into Roman Catholicism, Evangelicals or Catholics are “winning.”  Douthat is Catholic and the essay spends most of its time pointing out Evangelicalism’s many flaws, but then concludes Evangelicalism will “win” anyway because is is built to proselytize while Catholicism is not.  I pondered the article for several days and decided the question itself missed the genuine point.

As I see it, Christians have two great missions – one to save souls and another to make a better world.  These missions are deeply interrelated as a better world is simply impossible until all the souls belong to Christ.   Evangelicalism is really good at reaching out and trying to save souls.  Catholicism is really good at molding those souls into citizens of a better world.  The two flavors of Christianity are complimentary, not competitive.

But therein lies the rub – both are so busy competing with each other that they forget both missions. Catholicism refuses to honor baptism from any other church, automatically making believers of any other stripe somehow inferior, even unwelcome in God’s kingdom.  I think I have told the story before of the girlfriend I once had that broke up with me because I sincerely believed that Catholics were, in fact, Christians.  It is as if a battle broke out between the Army and the Marine Corps while we were experiencing an amphibious attack from abroad.  It is not a recipe for success in either mission.

When the Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the church in Corinth that church was torn by divisions and strife.  He begins by calling them to unite:

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Later in the letter he points out that they may have different emphases and different abilities, but they are all pointed in the same direction:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

Elsewhere, he emphasizes what matters:

And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God.  For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I also was with you in weakness and fear, and in great trembling…

Now that I have been all “Sunday School” in responding to Douthat’s piece, I am going to be completely honest.  My initial reaction when I read it was to go through it in detail and review the numerous weaknesses of Evangelicalism, wondering if, given those weaknesses, it would continue down a path that would make it unrecognizable as a Christian church.  My own roots are deeply Evangelical, but as I have grown and matured, I find it increasingly unsatisfying as a Christian expression.  I have some pretty important theological differences with Catholicism that serve as a serious roadblock to my ever joining that church.  And so I find myself longing for something that no longer exists in any meaningful way – the highly organized Protestantism of my youth.

But I let those reactions age and found myself increasingly thinking about how all those thoughts and Douthat’s thoughts were really missing the point.

Jesus is the point and everything else flows from Him.  If we maintain our focus there, all our differences become secondary and and we can work together to achieve the missions.  If Jesus wins – we all win.  That is the most important point.