Catholic vs Evangelical. The Litmus test for Christians

            I have been neglecting writing this for a while now. Neglecting it because I know I am going to offend people. I didn’t want anyone to think I am too liberal or too conservative. I didn’t want anyone to argue with me. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week. And I am finally writing it because I was reminded that if I speak the truth in love, people are still going to get offended, but at least I am speaking the truth.
            I have been living in Ecuador for almost two years now. During my time here I have been doing an internship for my school, Columbia Bible College. That means one thing: homework. And part of that homework is to really take a look at culture and religion in the country I am working in. In Ecuador, the religion is Catholicism.

            There’s no avoiding it. It’s everywhere. Images of Jesus dying on a cross. Statues of virgins and saints. Even Baby Jesus is worshiped, which was a very new idea to me. Mary is the Mother of God, making her God as well. I was disgusted. Not only were these statues worshiped, but many followers lived their lives with next to no religious conviction. They could do what they wanted and ask for forgiveness later. What a mess!

"Say NO to idolatry"

            When people asked me if I was Catholic I proudly proclaimed that NO! Indeed I was an Evangelical! This attitude carried over into my work with the kids at the club. I spent a lot of time discussing what was wrong with Catholicism. Idol worship, purgatory, priests, and Mary were all on my chopping block! How could the Catholics let the church become so corrupted?!
            I started spending more of my time with Evangelical Ecuadorians and wow did my superiority complex reach new heights! Most of my Evangelical friends had converted from Catholicism and had lists of reasons why the Catholics were wrong. The really bad word that was ascribed to them was “religious.” Ew. Good Evangelicals hate that word! It is dirty and reeks of false teaching!
            Then, over the summer, a man that I spoke to regularly at church in Quito who had been a missionary here for more than 20 years committed suicide. It was horrible. He had gone back to Kelowna which was where I was going to be working at camp for the summer, and we had made plans for me to stop by his place and visit. I didn’t make it to his house and only a few weeks later he was gone.
            Suicide is a tough issue. It isn’t really addressed in the Bible. There is no commandment that says, “Thou shalt not commit suicide.” I really didn’t know what my theological opinions on the subject were.
            One evening I was sitting down with some Evangelical friends who I respect very much and the topic of this missionary came up. One of them said to me, “Can you believe it? He committed suicide and now he is in hell!”
            Wait, what???? Hell?? Where did that come from? I thought that Evangelicals got all their theology right from the Bible...
            Over the next few weeks I found myself more and more uncomfortable with the way Evangelicals were glorified (among the Evangelicals). I was on the bus and the man next to me started a conversation. When he asked me why I was in Ecuador I told him I was a missionary. “Missionary?” he said. “I’ve never heard of that. What is it?”
            “It is a person who has a mission from God to tell people about Him.”
            “Oh! You’re a Catholic!”
            “Well no…I’m a Christian.”
            “What do you mean? A Christian?”
            It wasn’t until I explained that I was an Evangelical that he knew what I was talking about. I thought that was so weird. Why couldn’t I just call myself a Christian and people would know what I was talking about?
            That night again I was sitting down with my Evangelical friends. I explained the odd conversation on the bus. “Well of course he was confused. You are either Catholic or Evangelical.”
            I was taken aback. Something seemed off. Our conversation continued and the gist of it was, “Robbie, you are an Evangelical. Evangelicals have good doctrine and Catholics have bad doctrine. They have idols and we don’t. They pay penance and we don’t. They have doctrine that comes from outside of the Bible and we don’t. You are an Evangelical, and when you work with the kids your objective should be to get them to be Evangelicals.”
            I suddenly saw the title of “Evangelical” as just that: a title. It can be something to hide behind. As long as you have the right title you are okay. Catholics think Catholics are right. Evangelicals think Evangelicals are right. But let’s take a closer look at Evangelicals, shall we (seeing as the majority of those reading would consider themselves such).

            We have no idols. Yeah right. We may not bow down to worship a statue, but we certainly have a whole list of things that we care more about than God! I have idols in my life, and some of them I have gone to extremes to rid myself of. Others I have gone to extremes to justify. There is always something else creeping in to take the coveted place of God, and it will be a life-long battle to rid myself of idols.

           We don’t pay penance. It is true that we do not give money to the church to release our dead from purgatory. We don’t physically beat ourselves to please God. But don’t we often dwell on the guilt and work hard to make God happy again? Aren’t we often convinced that God loves us less or wants nothing to do with us when we fall into sin, but that He is happy and proud when we are “righteous?” How many times have we prayed and told God that if He would just do this one thing for us in our lives we would be different? Penance comes in many forms, yet somehow we are blinded to our own version.

            We don’t have false doctrine. HAHAHAHAHA Yeah right!!!! You can go to a thousand churches anywhere in the world and find people who base their doctrine on human feelings and ways of thinking instead of the Word of God! In North America some of the falsest doctrine comes straight out of the Evangelical church! The prosperity gospel is self-serving and empty. Its only goal is to win people over. To get numbers. Universalism is built on human ideals of love and goodness. Ideals that have been projected onto God in an attempt to make Him more palatable. What about smaller things? Our opinions on suicide. Our rules about when and how we pray (You can’t eat because we haven’t prayed yet). Our snap judgments we make about other people based on the denomination they belong to or originate from. We all get that theological superiority complex at one time or another. Yet somehow we think it’s okay. And how much of this do we get from the Bible? How much of it is just our tradition?

            What I have learned this year is that God doesn’t care about a title. While we hate the word "religious" we will find that we can be just as religious as anyone else. There may be people reading this who think they know Christ, but when they see Him face to face the Lord will deny ever knowing them. 

Matthew 7:21-23
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

            I don’t say that to judge. I say that to emphasize that a title will never save you! Call yourself a Christian all you want, but if there is no fruit in your life, then how could you possibly call yourself His? If there has been no renewing of your mind then how can you say that you have been transformed and know God's will (Romans 12:2)? If you live however you want and hide behind a title, how can you say that you are a follower of Christ? Isn't that what the word 'Christian' means?
            I have been there. I had hidden behind a title for years! But I am not interested in being an Evangelical anymore! I long to know Christ for who He is and serve Him the way he calls me to in the Bible. I want to be filled with a love for God that causes me to practice true religion by looking “…after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep [myself] from being polluted by the world (James 1:27). I long to see others meet Christ and follow Him. Not to see them conform to a denomination or a mold.
            God doesn't care about your title. He doesn't care about the group of people you hang out with. God looks at our hearts and our actions. The two need to be aligned with Him. If they are not, whether you are Catholic, Evangelical, or any other variety of Christ follower, you may want to re-evaluate whether or not you truly know Him.

            Again,  objective in writing this is not to judge or condemn. Christ didn't come to the world to do that (John 3:17). I hope to perhaps help guide us back to Christ and to re-evaluate the ways we share the gospel with others. People should be drawn to Christ through us! Not sucked into legalism or conformity to our own ways of doing things. It is all about true relationship with God, and the process of getting to know Him as we follow Him, and Him alone, on the road to eternity.