Cornerstone Festival - Musings

As I said before, it's a pretty eclectic group of people here at Cornerstone. In theory, what unites all (or the vast majority) is that we call ourselves "Christians". So what does that mean with such diversity? I'm sure there are people here who wouldn't consider me a Christian being Catholic and all and others that would look down on the kids in black with bullets for a belt. To me, it's simple, you only need to believe that God loves us unconditionally, Jesus died for our sins and that every blessing we receive is through God's grace. Sure, there's a lot of other stuff I believe because I'm a Catholic, but they just make me Catholic, not Christian.

The Cornerstone Survival Guide (http://www.cstonesurvival.com) had some good ideas along these lines....

• "Be prepared to be offended. Not everyone shares your views on abortion, homosexuality, the death penalty or the Clinton presidency. If you find that someone is wearing a t-shirt espousing views that you don't like, ignore them. Or better yet, talk to them about it. You may make a new friend, and more importantly, you may learn something.
• Not everyone holds to the same "holiness standard" that you do. Some people smoke, drink, and wear two-piece bathing suits. Try and focus on the beams in your own eyes before plucking slivers out of theirs.
• Remember that not everyone has had the blessing and benefit of a good upbringing. Sometimes the people who seem to be the most rude and obnoxious are at Cornerstone because they really are trying to live a Christian life. It isn't easy for a lot of people to transcend their upbringing (or lack thereof), show grace and understanding with such people. This doesn't mean that you should be a pushover, or should tolerate abusive or dangerous behavior. It just means that you should try and settle problems with people in a gracious and understanding way, rather than immediately going to security."

As an aside, there are at least 2 other Catholics here - one had a Benedict 16 shirt on and the other a Cardinal Ratzinger shirt. I wore my JPII shirt from DYD but didn't get any comments positive or negative. Wish more Catholics were exposed to Christian music - most don't even know it exists. (I know Boom, Mr. P and I are trying to get the message out) The music quality is good and the message is better.