Your Sunday Sermon

...He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her... John 8:7 (KJV)

So as we all know, Newt Gingrich won yesterdays primary in South Carolina.  The thing for me last night was watching my Facebook feed after the race was called immediately after the polls closed.  A majority of my Utah friends who are also members of the predominant religion in the area, took to Facebook in high dudgeon, wailing and caterwauling about how "dumb" South Carolina voters were in voting for a "serial adulterer".  These are the same people who have spent the last many months trying so very hard to convince Evangelicals that "Mormons are Christians TOOOOOOOOOO...we believe in Christ"

Well this message is for those people.....Christians are (by dictionary definition) people who follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazereth...not just people who "believe" in Him.  Christians are supposed to (by teaching) practice the teachings of Jesus.  One of those teachings is the forgiveness of sin.  Something that was not shown last night.

Fact is this - Newt Gingrich is a member of the Roman Catholic Church.  The RCC has some pretty "odd" (by modern standards) practices when it comes to divorce and their members.  In order to be a member of the RCC and have had a divorce (as my Catholic friends tell me) one has to have repented of ones past sins - including the divorce.  Now I can not profess to know what is in Gingrich's heart....no one but God does.  However, I know that as a Christian I am supposed to show to others, the GRACE that God has shown to me.  Something I did not see out of many of my LDS friends last night.

In thinking about all of that, I am reminded of the old Carolyn Arends hymn we used to sing in Sunday School many many years ago....

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord 
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord 
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored 
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love 
They will know we are Christians by our love