Tell Me Are You a Christain Child?

My second daughter was supposed to do the yard work in order to gain her freedom from the most recent grounding. She was supposed to do it Saturday.

Saturday came and went. No yard work. Sunday came and went. No yard work. Monday. No yard work. The wisteria was beginning to grow across the front gate making it impossible to open.

As I was pushing the mower yesterday, a woman handed me a flier about a neighborhood Southern Baptist church. I told her I was an Episcopalian.

"Do y'all believe in God and Jesus?"

"Um," stunned for a moment. "Yes, we do."

Blank stare on her part.

"We were one of the first Protestant churches."

Continued blankness.

"Like when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door?" hoping it would jog something in her memory.

More blankness.

"He was a German Catholic priest or monk who wanted to reform the Catholic church, which began the Protestant Reformation."

"So you're a Christian?"

How can people be so ignorant of history? Especially the history of their own denomination?

When I recounted the story to our youth minister at church last night, he told me there are some people who don't think Catholics are Christian. When several major branches of the Christian Church are in ecumenical communication, it seems very isolationist to consider one's denomination to be the One True Church.

As she turned to leave, I thought how sad that her daughter standing beside her might turn out just as ignorant. But any hope for future generations was dashed as she told me she was a teacher.

And people wonder what they're teaching kids in school these days? Ignorance must be bliss to some people.