got punched the day I first dared to be Lutheran. I grew up in the deep South and the public high schools in my home town were really bad.The year I was in the eighth grade at my Lutheran grade school, there was a big race riot on the campus of Escambia County High School, the very school I was supposed to go to in a few months! My parents thought that sending me to a place where rioting was a team sport wasn’t such a good idea. So they sent me to Pensacola Catholic High School instead.
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One day in religion class, Father Foley from Ireland was telling us how the Roman Catholic Church teaches that a Buddhist or Hindu or Muslim, if they are sincere, will go to heaven. I blurted out,“What are you saying? If that is true, why did God bother to send His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins?” I remember quoting that verse I learned in confirmation class from Acts 4:12,“There is no other name given among men under heaven by which we must be saved.” Father Foley got red in the face and tried to change the subject. And then it happened. A guy reached over and let me have it . . . smack! I got punched hard for sticking up for Jesus and daring to be Lutheran.
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