{"id":2051,"date":"2013-02-17T08:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T08:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/hyphenated-catholics.html"},"modified":"2013-02-17T08:36:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T08:36:00","slug":"hyphenated-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/hyphenated-catholics.html","title":{"rendered":"Hyphenated Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
In my Protestant ministry days, I remember reading a book \u2018Emerging Voices in Global Christian Theology<\/i>.\u2019 \u00a0The book dealt with the growing input in Christianity (Evangelical style) from other non-Western cultures. \u00a0Not just the famous liberation theology of which everyone has heard. \u00a0But different takes on Christian doctrines and practices from different parts of Asia, Africa, South America, you name it. \u00a0The big message was, beware the\u00a0hyphenated\u00a0Christian, as a professor I had once said. \u00a0Beware assuming the way I do Christianity is just what Jesus was thinking when he handed the keys to Peter. \u00a0Resist the temptation to believe that everyone else is somehow adding an extra-doctrinal spin on what the True Gospel is all about (that is, how I do Christianity).<\/div>\n
I\u2019m thinking of that as I follow the unfolding comments over at Mark Shea\u2019s Catholic and Enjoying It. \u00a0Mark posted a rather scathing assault on Trad Catholics<\/a>. \u00a0At one he says most are \u2018repellent specimens\u2019. \u00a0Harsh language. \u00a0Far harsher than most Protestants I know would have used against other Christians. \u00a0In fact, most Evangelicals I knew wouldn\u2019t have\u00a0referred\u00a0to\u00a0Catholics\u00a0that way! \u00a0I know he qualifies this by stating that he knows plenty of Traditional Catholics who are good and decent people, but see below<\/a>.\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In the comments, strange and bizarre discussions break out. \u00a0For my part, I keep asking just what a Traditional Catholic is. \u00a0Apparently, I\u2019m told, it\u2019s nothing that is in keeping with Mark\u2019s terminology. \u00a0Rad Trads, a term coined by Sandra Miesel, suggests those who fully reject Vatican II, though not all do. \u00a0I\u2019m also informed that not all Traditionalists are these \u2018Rad Trads.\u2019 \u00a0And yet Mark does not use the term \u2018Rad Trad\u2019, he uses Trad Catholics. \u00a0Does that mean Traditionalist? \u00a0Does it mean Radical Traditionalist? \u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here\u2019s the thing. \u00a0It\u2019s dangerous to hyphenate Christianity because it usually leads to the belief that it\u2019s a good thing God didn\u2019t make me like those people over there. \u00a0Especially if you aren\u2019t taking on the label of a particular approach to Catholicism yourself. \u00a0If you think Group A Catholics are generally bad news, do you consider yourself part of Group B? \u00a0Can we\u00a0analyze\u00a0the meaner parts of Group B and suggest you are suspect? \u00a0 First problem. \u00a0In the end, most of us probably don\u2019t hang our credentials on some arbitrarily defined group. \u00a0Most of us are Midwestern Accent types.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What do I mean by that? \u00a0The first time I ever traveled abroad I was shocked to find others from other parts of the country who immediately recognized that I was from the Midwest. \u00a0How did they know? \u00a0Easy, they said. \u00a0They could tell by my Midwestern accent. \u00a0But I didn\u2019t have an accent! \u00a0I just spoke the normal way! \u00a0Everyone else in America had an accent, not me. \u00a0Southerner, New Yorkers, New Englanders, Amity Islanders, Texans of course \u2013 they had the accents, not me. \u00a0<\/div>\n
Well, turns out to others, we have the accent. \u00a0Us Ohioans have an accent that\u2019s a dead\u00a0giveaway\u00a0 \u00a0Funny that. \u00a0Same thing with Christianity. \u00a0Yes, there were groups. \u00a0I belonged to an\u00a0Evangelical\u00a0tradition. \u00a0Evangelical in this point defined the second of about three ways it could be defined. \u00a0Most, of course, didn\u2019t see themselves as part of a mere approach, certainly not part of whatever bad elements others saw when they think \u2018Christian Evangelical\u2019. \u00a0Some didn\u2019t even think the term should apply! \u00a0Most didn\u2019t see themselves as Fundamentalists, or Fundamentalists Extremists (which might include, among other things, the belief that only the King James Bible was the true Word of God). \u00a0Most weren\u2019t mainline either, meaning Presbyterians, Anglicans and the like. \u00a0Liberal or conservative was a bit sketchy, and it depended on what you meant. \u00a0Most were probably conservative, but not all. \u00a0And not all voted Republican. \u00a0As a general rule, since most post-Reformation Protestantism is a factor of American society, most in my churches considered their own American brand as the default Christianity\u00a0against\u00a0which others were measured, even if they could never clearly define just what approach they were part of.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Nonetheless, I was always careful to remind folks that we should be careful about applying our own yardstick to other expressions of Christianity. \u00a0Didn\u2019t mean we couldn\u2019t note the differences. \u00a0And to be brutally honest, it didn\u2019t mean we couldn\u2019t point out obvious problems. \u00a0Sometimes it wasn\u2019t hard to find racism in more fundamentalist\u00a0oriented\u00a0traditions, especially in the South. \u00a0It may not be flagrant, but it was there. \u00a0Harsh and sometimes\u00a0judgmental\u00a0terminology would sometimes be used in dealing with such issues as homosexuality. \u00a0Those were facts. Not always, but it happened.<\/div>\n
But here\u2019s the ugly secret. \u00a0When you\u2019re a pastor, like it or not, you get to see some of the meaner sides of church living. \u00a0You may not like it, but you see and find out quite a lot. \u00a0I\u2019ll never say all the things I saw or heard, simply because it was in pastoral\u00a0confidence\u00a0 and even\u00a0anonymous\u00a0quotes feel like betraying some of the more\u00a0sensitive\u00a0confessions I heard. \u00a0But let me say this: ours was not the tradition of angels. \u00a0The people, if not as outward in their defining characteristics, were still as flawed, as imperfect, as sinful as any\u00a0fundamentalist\u00a0waving a KJV, and pining for separate\u00a0water fountains for African Americans.\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Therefore, remembering that was a good way to remember that other cultures or approaches are probably not any worse than any we identify with. \u00a0Our approach to the faith is not the one against which others are measured, the one that leads to better types of people. \u00a0I have no problem believing there are approaches to the Catholic faith that have their issues. \u00a0I\u2019m sure that approach vaguely known as Rad Trad has its problems. \u00a0And I\u2019m damn sure that the approach that is embraced by those who used the term Rad Trad has its problems. \u00a0If the approach isn\u2019t what causes it, then those within the approach are probably just as problematic when the dust settles. \u00a0Therefore, caution should be used.\u00a0<\/div>\n
Again, this doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t disagree, or point out why Catholics who chafe at Vatican II are wrong headed. \u00a0That\u2019s fair in love and Church. \u00a0But we must be careful. \u00a0If we are going to group people together, we should claim a group ourselves and be prepared to be judged accordingly. \u00a0In the end, it\u2019s best to single out a quote or a person, rather than use a quote by a single person to single out a group. \u00a0If someone says they don\u2019t want a witch doctor for a Pope, suggesting strong racial undertones, then deal with the quote and the person who made it. \u00a0Feel like it\u2019s too common among Catholics of a particular group? \u00a0That\u2019s fair, but be prepared to hear where other approaches might fall short, including our own, which no doubt is the real Catholicism that doesn\u2019t have an accent.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my Protestant ministry days, I remember reading a book \u2018Emerging Voices in Global Christian Theology.\u2019 \u00a0The book dealt with the growing input in Christianity (Evangelical style) from other non-Western cultures. \u00a0Not just the famous liberation theology of which everyone has heard. \u00a0But different takes on Christian doctrines and practices from different parts of Asia, […]<\/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-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHyphenated Catholics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In my Protestant ministry days, I remember reading a book 'Emerging Voices in Global Christian Theology.'  The book dealt with the growing input in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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