Credit Where Credit's Due

An impressive post from Jeremiah Lewis following up on the wheat Eucharist discussion.

I have to confess to being almost entirely naive about the preconceptions and misconceptions that people have about Catholicism. Just as all Rhode Islanders are kin in Vermont, New Englanders in California, Americans in Europe, and so on, I've tended to view all religious folks in the West as kin in a Godless society, even if separated by differing doctrinal opinions, as citizens are separated geographically. In other words, my errors tend toward ascribing too much similarity, smothering real, genuine, and significant differences, and therefore failing to move discussions toward harmony — even harmony within disagreement.

One problem is that tensions run so high — so high as to take the naif aback — that it becomes very difficult even to tease out the actual differences and misconceptions. Bravo to Jeremiah for picking at the knot until some complicating kinks were revealed, and bravo to Elana for helping him to do so.

(N.B. — I'd have linked to Elana's contributions to the debate, but they appear to have been in private email. If my guess is wrong, I welcome correction.)

Posted by Justin Katz at September 8, 2004 5:18 PM
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