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© The Atlanta Journal - Constitution Saturday, 10/26/2002
Section: Religion Faith & Values Letter: B Page: 1 Words: 1993

The Good Book brothers

Wayne and Judy Book came from two religious backgrounds --- his Catholic, hers Protestant. They raised their children in both traditions. Now one son is a priest; the other may become a Methodist minister.

By GAYLE WHITE/Staff

Moments after his ordination, the Rev. Theodore Book stood in the front of the Cathedral of Christ the King serving Communion for the first time as a Roman Catholic priest.

His brother, Andrew, walked down the aisle for a blessing, but crossed his arms over his chest to signify that he couldn't take the sacrament.

He's not Catholic.

As Theodore resumes advanced work in Catholic liturgy in Rome this fall, Andrew is starting studies at the evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary in California and is considering becoming a United Methodist minister. His goal is to teach in seminary.

Andrew has already passed one test of faith. In the spring of 2001, he was held for three weeks in the United Arab Emirates for distributing Christian Scripture to Muslims during a spring-break mission trip. Parents Wayne and Judy Book are puzzled by their sons' fervor, but they understand how Theodore and Andrew --- both Eagle Scouts and honor students --- came to parallel but different religious paths. If it's an even-numbered year, the Book family is Catholic. In odd years, they're United Methodist.

Wayne, a mechanical engineering professor at Georgia Tech, and Judy, a school psychologist, met in Boston when both were in graduate school, she at Boston University, he at MIT. Neither was religious, but both were committed to the historic Christian traditions of their ancestors. For Judy, born in Maine, that meant the New England Puritan stock that arrived on the Mayflower. Wayne's West Texas kin are German Catholic farmers.

When the boys came along --- Theodore, "Tad" to the family, 26; then Andrew, 22 --- Wayne and Judy wanted to raise them in the church. But which one?

Discussions about faith in the Books' living room encompass centuries of doctrine and schism. Both parents are intellectual and analytical, as befits their professions. And both, they admit, are stubborn.

His allegiance is with St. Peter, considered the first pope. She aligns with Martin Luther, the monk whose 16th-century treatises sparked the Protestant Reformation.

"I like the Catholic service OK," Judy says. "I just can't accept some of the Catholic beliefs."

"For me, it's the heritage of the Catholic Church," says Wayne. "Protestants have some heritage," she counters.

"Up to a point," he replies. "If I'm going to be a Christian, why not be one of the originals?"

And so it goes.

They visited the Unitarians and Episcopalians as possible compromises. In the end, they decided to raise their children in both their denominations, but to worship always as a family.

Changing churches every week would be too disruptive, they thought, so they decided to alternate years. One year they would attend Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown Atlanta; the next they would attend Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory University campus near their Druid Hills home.

Journeys to faith

Theodore, 6 feet 7 inches and dark-haired, is known as the contemplative, more introverted brother. Andrew, lighter-haired and 6 feet 1 inch, is more outgoing. Neither remembers feeling very spiritual as a child.

"I didn't say my prayers before I went to bed, or really think much about God," says Theodore, who came to his religious identity at Sacred Heart while in high school. He describes the experience as more intellectual than emotional. "I began to realize that if God exists, there's nothing more important than him. If he doesn't exist, then I should say he doesn't and be finished with it."

He concluded that there is no meaning in the world without God --- but "I was then faced with the question, what God do I believe in?"

He decided he was Christian because of the doctrine of the Incarnation --- that God became human in Jesus. "Then," he says, "I had to ask myself what sort of Christian I am." He echoes his father: "The only church which goes all the way back to Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church."

In high school, Andrew developed a preference for Methodism that was more social than theological. Many of his friends went to Glenn.

But during his freshman year at the University of Georgia he became very involved with the Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist campus ministry, and started trying to understand what being Christian really means. "Instead of its being your social activity on Sunday morning, it's a way of life," he says. "Christianity isn't about what I do, it's about what Jesus Christ did."

The Wesley Foundation director, the Rev. Bob Beckwith, says he can point to no specific reason for Andrew's passion for the faith. "I just believe the Lord awakens people," he says, "and it's hard to predict who will respond."

Although he downplays the importance of denominations, Andrew has no doubt that he is Methodist. "The more I look into John Wesley and his theology, the more I find I agree with it."

Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached that everyone can accept Jesus Christ, repent of sins and have eternal life --- a teaching that differs from some Christian groups that believe that God preordains people for salvation. As taught by Wesley, Methodism emphasizes the obligation to apply one's beliefs to improve society.

Altar calls

Having established their faith, both young men were convinced that God would reveal a plan for their lives.

During his senior year at Druid Hills High School, with an acceptance to Georgia Tech in hand, Theodore suddenly knew God wanted him to be a priest. He was walking home from a Boy Scout meeting at the time. As soon as he entered the house, he blurted out to his mother what he felt.

"It wasn't easy to tell her," he recalls, "but I thought I ought to. You could tell she was very sad. I think she felt like she was losing me." He told his father, who came home a little later. Theodore also delivered the news to his girlfriend at the time. "She was startled, I think, more than anything."

A few days later, he went to talk to a priest who advised him, "Take your time. Go to college. Date."

He entered Tech as planned, majoring in computer science. He also went to Mass every day, and attended regular "discernment meetings" sponsored by the Archdiocese of Atlanta for people who think they may have a religious calling.

He found the Catholic requirement of celibacy for its clergy "difficult to embrace," but says he came to accept that by giving up his own family, he can be a part of every family he serves.

"There were times I wasn't so sure I wanted to be a priest," he says, "but I was always sure God wanted me to be one."

The Rev. Mario Di Lella, the Franciscan priest who oversees the Catholic campus ministry at Georgia Tech, says he can explain Theodore's vocation only as a genuine call by God. He sees in his former student, now colleague, "a fierce determination to learn and to excel."

"Right in the root of his being, he's determined to serve the Lord in the best way he can," the priest says.

Theodore completed his degree at Tech in three years and entered seminary in Pennsylvania, then studied at the Gregorian University in Rome.

Ironically, his parents say, his decision to become a priest was actually harder for his Catholic father to accept than for his Methodist mother. "When you look at all the options that could happen --- he could become a drug addict, he could become a Nobel laureate --- being a priest probably wasn't on the list," Wayne says. "You lose your progeny."

Judy had a harder time with Andrew's decision.

Andrew had entered UGA in biology, intending to be a doctor. But by the time he finished with a 3.94 average in August, he realized his heart was not in medicine, not even to become a medical missionary.

"He was going to go to medical school all along," his mother says. "I thought that would be really good for him. He was doing his applications when he e-mailed us and said, 'I don't think this is what God wants me to do right now.' "

Between studies at UGA, Andrew worked with Frontiers, an interdenominational evangelical group based in Mesa, Ariz., that focuses on establishing churches among Muslims. When an opportunity to spread the Gospel in the United Arab Emirates came up, Andrew says, he "felt it was something God wanted me to do."

His parents were worried about his safety but did not try to stop him from going.

He was handing out compact discs of Scripture on a crowded street in Dubai with two other mission workers when, as he describes it, "all of a sudden, half a dozen guys were surrounding me." They hauled him off to a police station and charged him and his co-workers with proselytizing and defaming Islam.

He denies that he was criticizing any religion. "We were just telling them who Jesus is."

After keeping him all night, the police confiscated his passport and released him from custody. Every day he and his co-workers checked back in at the police station. The rest of the time, they walked around the city, read Christian books, played cards, spent time in self-reflection and prayed.

Andrew kept in touch with home and his UGA assignments via e-mail sent to and from Internet cafes.

He says he found inspiration in the Apostle Paul, who was imprisoned for his beliefs. And he came to understand that he must glorify God despite the circumstances. "It was hard to get to that place," he confesses.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department was negotiating to get him home.

One day, as suddenly as he had been arrested, he was set free. On the long flight home to Atlanta, he had plenty of time to think through his experience.

"Was it worth it?" he asks himself. "I think definitely it was worth it."

Common ground

The brothers seem to have accepted each other's paths.

"I'd heard him batting around the idea of going into a monastery," Andrew says of Theodore.

"Somewhere along the way, he started mentioning the priesthood. I don't ever remember being surprised by that. He had for a long time been serious about being a Christian, being a Catholic specifically."

When Andrew was in the United Arab Emirates, "my first thought . . . was to wonder whether he was really discerning God's calling," Theodore says. "The Catholic Church in these countries tends always to be very prudent and patient. It doesn't compromise the Gospel, but it doesn't run in like the Marine Corps either."

But Theodore asked his friends to pray for his brother.

When the two are together, "we mostly stick to areas of agreement," Theodore says. "There's a lot in common between Catholics and Protestants.

Almost everything the Protestants believe, the Catholics believe. We also believe a few things in addition."

"People are so quick to say, 'They're different, they're different,' " says Andrew. "Definitely there are some differences between being Methodist and being Catholic, but the core is exactly the same."

Wayne and Judy still alternate churches. They are involved in several ministries, especially through Sacred Heart. "We didn't do many of those things before our kids got involved," says Wayne. "I think kids can have a very good influence on their parents."

There's one more Book child. Rebecca, 13, is a student at Chamblee Middle School in a DeKalb County program for high achievers.

Because Glenn has confirmation classes for seventh-graders and the Catholic archdiocese for 10th-graders, she can take both, just as her brothers did. Her parents won't speculate on what Rebecca might do with her life. Neither will she.

Asked what she thinks of her brothers' vocations and what her own plans are, Rebecca lookspensive, then grins and makes a hasty exit, saying, "I think I'd better finish my homework."

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: Andrew Book, who is not Catholic, crosses his arms to signify that he cannot take Communion as he approaches his brother, the Rev. Theodore Book, to be blessed at the Cathedral of Christ the King. Andrew, a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, is a Methodist who wants to be a seminary professor./ CHARLOTTE B. TEAGLE / Staff

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: Newly ordained Catholic priest Theodore Book blesses his brother, Andrew, after the ordination ceremony at the Cathedral of Christ the King./ CHARLOTTE B. TEAGLE / Staff

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: Parents Wayne and Judy Book, along with their son Andrew, attend the ceremony at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta at which their son Theodore was ordained into the Catholic priesthood./ CHARLOTTE B. TEAGLE / Staff

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