If there's one thing I've learned from Congo, it's that most aspects of human nature are universal. Sometimes this place seems like another world altogether, but again and again I'm reminded that we're really not all that different when it comes down to the essentials.

Politicians are greedy, corrupt and will almost always say what they think you want to hear. Mothers will do anything to save their children's lives. Unsupervised teenage boys with weapons will make stupid decisions and someone will be killed. People will often do the selfish thing, but sometimes choose to sacrifice their own well-being to serve another. At some basic level, we're all the same.

So it shouldn't be surprising to learn that the Baptists here don't get along with one another either.

I'm not sure I completely understand what their split was about; it has something to do with ethnicity and long-ago grudges. So instead of there being one, unified Baptist group here in the eastern Congo, there are two separate associations, with separate bureaucracies, separate hospitals and separate schools.

Sound familiar?

Read it all.

Filed under: * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches

1. David Keller wrote: This is something like what the Episc0pal Church looked like before August 2003. I am saddened by what we have lost.But I am trying to keep my eye on the prize. Pray for me.  Pray for us all. July 25, 9:04 pm | [comment link]

2. Augsburg wrote: The difference between the ELCA and the ECUSA is that the ELCA most definitely would break apart if gay clergy are allowed.  Our constitutions allow parishes to leave the denomination and take their property if they join another “Lutheran body.”  And there is a very sizeable portion of the church that still upholds traditional teachings about sexual ethics.  Our leadership knows this, and is trying to build consensus so as to avoid breaking apart a denomination that only merged in 1988. July 26, 5:46 am | [comment link]

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