The Easton Saturday morning farmer’s market is a happening place.Daring to spend a non-raining Saturday away from mowing, my wife and I decided to check it out.If you’re not familiar with Easton, Pennsylvania, it has more than the Crayola factory that smells like childhood itself.The downtown is marked by a traffic circle with an island in the middle large enough to fit, well, a thriving farmer’s market.As usual, large gatherings attract those selling spiritual rather than material goods.A very well dressed gentleman handed me a flier and when I got home I had to look up Refuge Church of Christ to find out what it it’s all about.A New York City-based denomination of predominantly African-American membership, the church has over 500,000 members.That I hadn’t heard of it before is no surprise.There are well over 40,000 denominations of Christianity alone and it’s difficult to keep track of them all.
There comes a time in the life of anyone who takes religion seriously enough to study it professionally when s/he’s inclined to ask which is the original.Think about it: you’re bartering with your eternal soul on the barrelhead here and don’t want to make the wrong choice.When someone invites me to convert (I don’t know the secret handshake to show I’m already a member) I’m curious about them.The unfortunate thing about all of this is that each tradition believes it has the truth and most, if not all, others have got it wrong.Few are the faiths that declare, “Believe whatever, just believe.”
I once tried to make a denominational genealogy chart.Part of the problem is that tracing things back to Catholicism isn’t quite right.The Roman Catholic Church as it exists today is quite different than anything Paul, or Peter, or James would’ve recognized.To say nothing of Jesus.And that’s inevitable.Religions don’t stay the same.They evolve as soon as they pass from person to person.Those who belong to denominations often do not know what the official teachings of the body are, and getting back to the original they’d find that their denomination started out believing things quite different than its own current theology.If you’ve got only one soul with which to make that eternal decision and literally thousands of choices, well, let’s just say that you don’t want to think about it too much.Besides, we’re here for fresh fruits and vegetables.And it’s a rare gift of a Saturday without rain, no matter who’s responsible.
