we claim only two sacraments:

1 - Baptism, and 2 - Communion

As a Southern Baptist, my congregation welcomes all fellow believers, regardless of denomination, who wish to participate in communion to share the table with our congregation.

My hope is that Sally honored the spirit of the sacrament when she took Catholic communion. My fear is that she didn't. Who would be hurt if she didn't? Only Sally.

I did think that the comment at the end of the piece about taking extra pieces for later consumption was absolutely tasteless.

In what way would Sally be 'hurt if she didn't'?

Would god be the one that is hurt because one of his sheep didn't show him the proper respect?

only Sally.

Another step taken, when all steps are important.

My views, stated in total opposition to your views.

ColonelMcPhee:

I did think that the comment at the end of the piece about taking extra pieces for later consumption was absolutely tasteless.

It occurs to me that this entire exercise is more about tastelessness than it is about communion. It is not newsworthy that Sally took communion. It is newsworthy that she chose to write about it.

The real story is the reaction to her public confession.

Whew! In my long experience, statements that are prefaced by "As a Baptist...." contain some kind of unkind vileness about 95% of the time. Congrats on being part of the innocuous 5%. But like jazzguitarman, I'd be interested to know in what way you think Sally was hurt by partaking of the Catholic communion.

IMO

- If she only wanted to see what would happen (simple curiosity), she probably suffered no lasting harm by what she did. My God does not strike you dead, since most of us are perfectly capable of bringing on death on our own. I'm referring to death of the soul/spirit/God-relationship here.

- If she wanted to keep from creating a stir, then she was disingenuous and suffered from that social failure. Putting on a false front is never a good thing.

- If her intentions were religious, she suffered spiritually from her actions.

- If her intentions were to cause a stir, then she suffered greatly from actions intended to hurt others, specifically the Catholic congregation that held communion to honor Christ. Additionally, she offended me, IMO. Additionally thousands of others of similar faith and belief - IMO.

I do understand that IMO is worth about 1 cent, give or take a penny.

I'm certain I have omitted other cases of harm she sought to accomplish (or not). You probably knew my answer before I responded.

ColonelMcPhee:

You probably knew my answer before I responded.

No, not exactly. I did wonder whether you thought her self-harm was theological or what. Personally, I don't see that she was much harmed, or anybody else for that matter. I happen to agree that what she did was thoughtless and insensitive, especially so in somebody who apparently writes about religion for a living. And writing about it in such a cavalier way was even more stupid. I've never read any of her reports/columns regarding religion, but if this is this incident fairly reflects her style and engagement, I will continue happily not to read them.

It's hard to know what temporal harm might come to her. Maybe there's a religion editor that won't be offering her a job, who knows?

I do think there's a bit of harm you would inflict on yourself deliberately screwing around with someone else's faith though, simply because if you train yourself to act in this manner, you'll be more likely to continue to do so.