BaptistMany members of Oakhurst Baptist Church are proud to be Baptists, but many of those same people are embarrassed about their identity because some Baptists are famous for being self-righteous, smug, and hateful. So someone came up with a tagline that is featured prominently on church tee shirts – “Baptist but… We Dance.”

I forget I am wearing my tee shirt most days until someone smiles at me and says, “I like your shirt!”

My wife and I went to the grocery store on Saturday when I was wearing a tee shirt. When we were checking out, the bagger, a young man who has taken groceries to my car a dozen times, started to laugh and said, “I get it. I’m Methodist, but I’ve heard about Baptists. I get it.” I just nodded my head and said, “Yeah.” The cashier, an immigrant, looked puzzled. I told her that when I went to a Baptist college years ago, students were not allowed to dance on campus. Baptists were very strict about those kinds of things. She smiled and said, “I’m Catholic.” I smiled and said, “Catholics are allowed to dance!” and we just grinned at each other. Then she added, “We are all Christians. It does not matter if we are Methodists or Baptists or Catholics. The important thing is that we are Christians.” Yes, we all agreed on that.

And then my wife took our sharing a step further… “We are all God’s children. Christians or Muslims or whatever. The important thing is that we are all God’s children.” We all nodded in agreement.

There, in the check-out lane of Publix, the kingdom of God came to a cashier, a bagger, and two shoppers.