"Preach the Word,

and when to separate? That is a question that I asked myself as I sat in the huge meeting hall attending the "Mayor's Prayer Breakfast" for the city of Orangeburg on Thursday...which also happened to be the National Day of Prayer. I intially thought what a great opportunity to go see the relationship between the city officials and the area clergy.

[author's note: what an interesting word...clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term comes from Greek κλήρος - kleros (a lot, that which is assigned by lot (allotment) or metaphorically, heritage).]

While I know my intentions were pure and more curious than self-serving, I realized quickly that by simply being in the same room our presence together lent an element of fellowship and that I condoned the whole group whether I agreed with them doctrinally or not.

Nearly every reverend...

[athur's note: Reverend another grand word. The term the Reverend or just Reverend is used as an honorary prefix to the names of many Christian clergy and ministers. The prefix is correctly called a style rather than a title or form of address. It is sometimes also used by leaders in non-Christian religions such as Buddhism. Anways let me continue...

that prayed (1-Southern Methodist, 1-Catholic, 1-Female, 1-Southern Baptist, 1-Presbyterian, 1-Church of God, 4 of other various flavors not readily identifiable) took it upon themselves to pray for and focus on unity; in fact, one prayed that he was thankful that our differences were not as big as our commonalties. Huh? As I sat there wondering why I thought this was a good idea...you know you've done stuff like that too! I couldn't help but think of some of our differences...Jesus as the Son of God; Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life; salvation by grace not by works; baptism by submersion; confession of sins through Jesus the only mediator between God and man; and more. I realized that they all talk about unity so that the idea of unity is the only thing that unifies them together. It is common understanding that not every religion sees God the same way...often overlooked is that not every so-called Christian religion sees God the same way... not counting the Moslems, Buddist, or other such religions.

Further complicating my discomfort and strengthening the urge for escape, was as the guest speaker (an area college president) spoke for nearly 30 minutes hardly mentioning God, occassionally mentioning church, and improperly using the idea of prayer to fix all the socio-injustices of the world...I realized that we should be quicker to separate and quicker to be intolerant towards the false teachers who are wolves in sheeps' clothing and slower to accept the world religions' idea of unity.

Remember my friends what Jesus said to his disciples in John 18,

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

So learn a lesson from my good intentions and my desire to "get along" and instead of wondering when to unite...you would do better trying to figure out when to take flight....................................you know run away and fast!