There are Christians who believe we should come to God on our knees as a supplicant. Others stretch their arms aloft like a child, as if begging for their heavenly Father to lift them up. Imagine an average Presbyterian going into a Charismatic service where speaking in tongues is common. The mainline Protestant might wonder whether the noise was the product of psychosis or groupthink — or a simple desire to grab attention. Meanwhile, a Charismatic attending a Presbyterian service might be truly saddened by its lack of spirit — that it feels dead, somehow.

When I was a religion reporter, one of the things I loved about my job was exploring the diversity of Christianity. I worked in Colorado Springs, which has long been known as an “evangelical Mecca” because it is home to some huge megachurches and Christian ministries. But that reputation obscured an incredible stew of religious expression. I thought that stew was great. For a guy like me, raised in a Presbyterian Church with its 20-minute sermons and reliable Sunday regimen, it was stunning to see the variety of forms that Christian faith could take.

But that very variety sometimes pointed to some serious divisions within Christianity, too. Let me show you what I mean.

In 2005, I noticed that Roman Catholics would stream into New Life Church in Colorado Springs every Sunday. These Christians, raised in a tradition steeped in millennia-old liturgy, would attend services at this 20-year-old non-denominational megachurch. Many of these Catholics would celebrate a traditional Mass at their home parish and then go to New Life later that day. They weren’t running away from Catholicism, but New Life was a respite of sorts — from tradition to a place where they could raise their hands, sing modern praise songs, and maybe even dance in the aisles.

New Life’s pastor estimated that at any given service, a third of the worshippers were actually Catholic. Peter Howard, executive assistant to the local Bishop Michael Sheridan, believed this trend was not only troubling, but perhaps soul-endangering.

“If you know somebody is engaged in something unhealthy, you have at least the duty to inform them of what they’re doing,” Howard said.

Take the Eucharist, Howard said. While Protestants typically believe that communion is a symbolic act of remembrance, Catholic doctrine holds to the idea of transubstantiation — the wafers in the Eucharist literally and miraculously become the body of Christ. Howard had other problems with New Life’s services: their praise songs might be pretty, but the lyrics didn’t always adhere to Catholic doctrine. The preachers may be passionate, but they didn’t acknowledge the primacy of the Pope. Howard quoted Pope Pius XI, who rose to the papacy in 1922 and declared that Catholics shouldn’t participate in Protestant “assemblies” because they’d “be giving countenance to a false Christianity.”

“Why do Catholics leave the faith? Because they don’t understand what the Catholic faith is,” Howard said.

Shortly after I published a story about the Catholic flood to New Life with The Gazette in 2005, the bishop fired Howard and apologized for Howard’s remarks.

While I’m no expert in Catholic doctrine, I wonder whether Howard got in trouble not because of what he said, but because he said it aloud.

Spiritual Divorces

In the Nicene Creed, Christians say that we “believe in one holy catholic [universal] and apostolic Church.” But when you survey Christendom, it doesn’t look very universal. We see the first hints of tension in the New Testament. In Acts 6, we learn the Greeks felt that Jewish Christians were overlooking their widows. Later on in Acts 15, Christians argue over circumcision. In Galatians, Paul documents a disagreement he had with Peter where the two pillars of the early church argue over whether Jews and Gentiles should eat together. While the two of them resolved that issue, Christians have been in the process of spiritually divorcing themselves from each other ever since.

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