If there is ONE God...

Q: If there is ONE God, then why are there so many different religions? If we believe in the same God, then why do I (a Catholic) feel out of place in a Methodist or Lutheran church, even though I get more out of them?

A: First and foremost, I hope and pray that you find La Croix to be a welcoming and open environment where Christians from all denominational backgrounds can come together and worship THE Lord, God Almighty. So many of our members come from different backgrounds and it is important to me that the weekend is not about denominations – it is about Jesus – and He doesn’t care what your background looks like.
My husband grew up Catholic. He was raised in a Catholic home, attended Catholic school, etc. When we started attending La Croix years ago, he too, expressed a sense of discomfort. For awhile, we couldn’t really pin down exactly what it was. I grew up Baptist, but never felt what he was describing to me. Over time, we realized that he wasn’t feeling uncomfortable because of anything that was happening at the church – he was uncomfortable because deep down he was feeling a sense of guilt. What it really boiled down to was that in his mind, he felt like he was letting his family down. They had invested a lot in his Catholic upbringing. In his family, besides being their faith, Catholicism was a tradition…a tradition that he was expected to carry on. Eventually, through a series of events, he was faced with the reality that Jesus was longing for a personal relationship with him – and he made the decision that if going to a Methodist church was where he felt like he could work on developing and nurturing that relationship, then that’s where he belonged. Please don’t misunderstand me – I am not saying that you are experiencing the same struggle or that people can’t find a relationship with Jesus in Catholicism - I’m simply letting you in on the simple truth – you are not alone in the feelings you are expressing.
Now, I want to back up and address the first part of your question: “if there is one God, why are there so many different religions?”
There are so many different religions because all religions do NOT believe that there is only one God. The belief that there is only one God is unique to Christians, Jews and Muslims, and even these three view this one God very differently. Hindus believe there are millions of gods; Buddhists technically don’t have a god at all.
I think from your question, what you are referring to is not different religions, but rather different denominations. There are three distinct groups of Christians: Roman Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox. Protestants then have many denominations (Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, the list goes on and on). There are a number of reasons these multiple denominations were formed – but the biggest reason was simply because everyone could not agree on the same interpretations of The Bible, causing several major theological differences between the different denominations.
However, all that being said, all groups mentioned in the previous paragraph agree that there is one God. The traditional theological view of each is that the road to him is through Jesus Christ. The subtleties of traveling that road vary from denomination to denomination. At La Croix, we believe that belief in Jesus Christ, a personal relationship with Him and accepting Him as the Lord and Savior of your life leads to a life of eternity – no matter which church building you hang out in on Sunday morning.