Judgment

So something I realized the other day after a conversation I had with a friend was that those of us Christians of the "Evangelical" or more correctly protestant side of things tend to feel like they have the right to decide, among Christian denominations, which denominations are Christian, and which are not. Obviously the most common belief is that liturgical churches are wrong, and all of their members are just as lost as the people we witness to on missions trips. What gives us the right to decide that? It's true that the two types of churches have very different practices and beliefs, but the majority of them agree on the fundamentals of Christianity. The most common argument, of course is that liturgical churches are "dead" or "legalistic" and therefore practice works based salvation rather than faith based salvation. But just because you don't understand something doesn't make it legalistic "works based" salvation.

The other argument I have heard a lot is that of the people who go to liturgical churches, the majority of them are the kind that just go through motions without really believing. Ummm...judgment? Yea. I can't count the number of people I know or knew growing up at a protestant (Baptist) church who were there on sunday mornings and wednesday nights who no more acted like Christians than their athiest friends at school. For some reason though, protestants have decided it is their job to make everyone believe the same way they do. Yet for some reason, the people on the other end of the spectrum have no problem with believing that protestants are Christians.

It seems to me that the problem is the same, and the results are the same. Those who really live out their faith are the ones who are truly saved, regardless of what church they attend. Some of the people who are loved the most in the Christian community went to Liturgical churches. C.S. Lewis would be a great example. No one in their right mind would question his salvation, yet there seems to be an overall consensus that if you go to a liturgical church and are a Christian you are the distinct minority. Why don't we try backing off a little bit and instead of witnessing to them, treating them like the brothers and sisters in Christ that they are?