FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA

Yesterday our computers were down and I was unable to post before I left for the day.  Apparently Time Warner was down for much of Akron due to a digging incident. 

Yesterday on Fresh Air (NPR) Terry Gross interviewed Bishop Blair about his role in helping certain of our religious to be more in line with the Church.  Interestingly it was a great platform for Gross to voice her concerns about the Church disguised as very lengthy questions at the end of which she would say, “So what do you think about that comment?”  (You can hear the whole interview here.)

A major concern of hers and, quite frankly, of many, many people is that the Church is out of step with today’s culture.  Many people are leaving the Church, reports Gross, because the Church does not keep up with emerging views on women, persons with SSA, marriage, and the whole ball of wax that you might easily discern yourself.

But for Catholics, it is not a matter of the Church keeping up with the culture.  That is a distinctly Protestant idea.  It is much easier to achieve conformity between culture and religion also when all one has is the Bible.  As the past Episcopal Archbishop of Washington once said when defending his view on the homosexual lifestyle, “Don’t argue Scripture with me.  You can make Scripture mean whatever you want.”  But for Catholics, we have Tradition to grapple with also.  Tradition helps interpret Scripture and Scripture helps interpret Tradition.  We hold what we believe to be revealed truth that cannot simply (or complexly) change.  If it was held true in the year 212, it must also be held true as divinely revealed in the year 2012. 

(If you listen to the interview, Gross does point out things about the Church that have changed and asks if not things like an all male priesthood could not also change.  But what changes is practice – man made stuff – not theology.)

But do we want another Church that is just like everybody else?  Why are we (especially as Americans who cherish individualism and freedom of expression) not excited that there is somebody out there who is thinking outside of the mainstream box?  Will we really be happy when religion is just like what our food and music landscape is becoming – the same the same the same from sea to shining sea?

To quote Chesterton, “We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right.  What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong . . . They say they want a religion to be social, when they would be social without any religion.   They say they want a religion to be practical, when they would be practical without any religion.  They say they want a religion acceptable to science, when they would accept the science even if they did not accept the religion.  They say they want a religion like this because they are like this already.  They say they want it, when they mean that they could do without it.”