You don\u2019t start by saying \u2018cuz the Church says so you lousy sinner.\u2019 \u00a0You start from the beginning. \u00a0Years ago, my Dad had a heart attack. \u00a0A work horse all his life, he was healthy and that\u2019s what saved him. \u00a0But the biggest shock wasn\u2019t that he had a heart attack (though people who knew him actually wept when they heard, thinking if C.C. Griffey could have a heart attack, anyone can!). \u00a0The biggest shock was that he had diabetes. \u00a0Pow! \u00a0Pow! \u00a0One-two punch. <\/p>\n
Now, when things settled down and everything got back to normal, we talked about things. \u00a0We realized we should have seen it all along. \u00a0Out of the blue he began getting tired when he never was tired his entire life. \u00a0He was starting to take forever to heal. \u00a0He was always thirsty. \u00a0I mean that. \u00a0We took to keeping milk jugs filled with water in the fridge. \u00a0It never dawned on us to look deeper. \u00a0We just thought, \u201cGee, he\u2019s awfully thirsty, let\u2019s get him some more water.\u201d <\/p>\n
But all the water and band-aides and naps couldn\u2019t help, because the problem wasn\u2019t that he was thirsty, not sleeping enough, or just accident prone. \u00a0It was that he had a disease. \u00a0We were dealing with the symptoms. We were missing the disease.<\/p>\n
As I sit back and gradually lose my interest in the Catholic blogosphere, I think one reason is that it is peopled by amateurs. \u00a0Amateurs, of which I am one. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t an amateur in my Protestant days. \u00a0With graduate and post-graduate schooling, years of pastoral and counseling experience, leadership and administration, I knew my way around our own tradition. \u00a0I knew enough to know that one thing you had to deal with in churches was amateurs. \u00a0And you needed to be careful that someone didn\u2019t misrepresent the faith, or present a bad witness to the unbeliever in the name of the Faith.<\/p>\n
Well, I feel that is a problem with the blogosphere. Too many amateurs. \u00a0Oh, they may be brilliant, they may be eloquent, they may be dedicated and devoted. \u00a0And some of them may just be blowhards. \u00a0But whatever, most of them don\u2019t have the formal training mixed with the trenches of applied ministry to filter through what they say. \u00a0Often, they simply write subject by subject. \u00a0They deal with \u2018how should you vote?\u2019 (like me, duh); or \u2018should you ever lie to save a dying baby\u2019; or \u2018we must do whatever it takes to defeat consequentialism\u2019; or, well, you get the point.<\/p>\n
But if a Catholic, non-Catholic, or even an American, thinks things like lying for a greater good, or doing wrong that good may come of it, are morally permissible, chances are it isn\u2019t because they\u2019ve grasped the deepest and most foundational basis for Catholic teaching and belief and reached their conclusions accordingly. \u00a0It\u2019s probably because there are other factors at work. \u00a0I\u2019ve said that if you accept homosexuality, it\u2019s because you already accept many things at odds with traditional Christian morality. \u00a0If you accept might makes right, survival of the richest, what\u2019s wrong with abortion rights, it\u2019s because you already have bought into many ideals and beliefs that would have been foreign to a Christian thinker only a few centuries ago.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not everyone\u2019s fault. \u00a0We are of our time, despite what Chesterton seemed to believe. \u00a0And so are many Catholic bloggers, who can be just as prone to being children of their age as anyone. \u00a0In fact, it\u2019s because of this amateur status that they can miss this fact, and end up doing or saying things that seem smack out of the park loony when set against other things they say. <\/p>\n
In the end, when you are trained and you have the hands on experience, you begin to look at people and their flaws, errors, and failings, and realize that they are doing what they are doing for the same reason I have my flaws, errors and failings. \u00a0Because we are children made in the image of God living in a fallen world. \u00a0And our particular era of fallenness encompasses some differing views of the world from that which has been held by the Christian faith, or is held by the Catholic faith today. \u00a0And at that point, you begin to realize that just yelling and calling people names, insulting them and smacking them down because they can\u2019t see why it\u2019s better for a baby to die than tell a lie to save it is about as effective as handing a diabetic more water when they just can\u2019t quench their thirst. \u00a0If people think it\u2019s better to lie to save a baby, it\u2019s possibly because they have been weaned on a set of beliefs and values that differ from those of the Catholic tradition, and there\u2019s the disease.<\/p>\n
Starting with those values, those key and foundational beliefs, that define the Catholic world view would be a much better approach. \u00a0It helps because, one, like my Dad\u2019s diabetes, it acknowledges the disease rather than the symptoms. \u00a0Two, it keeps me humble because suddenly I realize I might be stone dead wrong about things and not realize it, since I\u2019m every bit the child of my age. \u00a0Three, it prevents the growth of my own inner fundamentalist who just can\u2019t imagine why everyone else isn\u2019t as humble as I am. \u00a0And finally, it is far more likely to produce results as people may begin to realize that God chose foolishness, rather than great wisdom. \u00a0It will do a better job at getting people to stop thinking as men think, and start thinking as God thinks. \u00a0From there will come changes in more than the symptoms, but ultimately changes that lead to curing the disease. <\/p>\n
With that said, here is the type of person Catholics everywhere should be listening to. \u00a0He\u2019s a pro. \u00a0He has the training and the experience. \u00a0And he knows how to go beyond the symptoms, and get straight to the disease. \u00a0Watch. \u00a0Listen. \u00a0Learn why Catholic is Catholic, and not just a variation of modern alternatives.<\/p>\n
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You don\u2019t start by saying \u2018cuz the Church says so you lousy sinner.\u2019 \u00a0You start from the beginning. \u00a0Years ago, my Dad had a heart attack. \u00a0A work horse all his life, he was healthy and that\u2019s what saved him. \u00a0But the biggest shock wasn\u2019t that he had a heart attack (though people who knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n