After taking in the excitement of Universal Studios for two days with the family I commented on the fabricated, faux and artificial world that America has become. One friend commented that the entertainment culture has infected every aspect of our lives as well. Not only do we eat Italian food in a faux Tuscan villa next to a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, but the staff have been trained to give us the \u2018Italian experience\u2019 and some trainee opera singer is trundled out to bellow out \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 in order to amuse and delight us. At the shopping \u00a0mall we don\u2019t just buy clothes and furniture and whatever else we need, but in each \u2018themed\u2019 store we are expected to have \u2018the experience.\u2019<\/p>\n
The shallow stupidity of it all is frightening, and then when we stop to consider we see that American Christianity has basically adopted the same, shallow, individualistic, \u2018experience\u2019 mentality. We\u2019ve swallowed the secular culture totally and uncritically and we\u2019ve adapted the Christian gospel to fit into this shallow, entertainment based culture without thinking. So the Evangelical mega-churches have become totally consumer driven, entertainment based and utilitarian in their message, and I\u2019m sorry to say the rest of Protestantism has gone down the same path, and even more embarrassed and ashamed to say that most of Catholicism has gone down this path too.<\/p>\n
So our churches compete with one another for members just like any other business. We run things according to our budget and our bottom line and consider people to be new members once they start contributing to the envelope stewardship plan. We incorporate entertainment styled liturgies and music and make sure \u00a0our homilies are catchy, funny, a touch inspiring and most of all\u2013short. These things, disturbing as they are, are only the symptom of a deeper malaise within American Christianity\u2013and in this I include Catholicism.<\/p>\n
The deeper problem is the over emphasis on \u2018the personal encounter with Christ\u2019. Yes, of course Christ meets us and calls us to follow him. Yes, of course the personal encounter is important for our life in Christ, but just what is this \u2018personal encounter\u2019? What does it consist of and how do we know we have had it? For the Evangelical it means \u2018getting saved\u2019 or \u2018accepting Jesus into our hearts.\u2019 However, what is unspoken and yet universally assumed is that for this to be real there ought also to be a vivid and memorable emotional experience as well.<\/p>\n
Likewise, within certain Catholic groups there is a great emphasis on the \u2018encounter with Christ\u2019. Just what this encounter consists of is never spelled out. Instead one is encouraged to \u2018find one\u2019s deepest desire\u2019 and there one will \u00a0encounter Christ. I am increasingly of the opinion that this is really a load of hogwash. Emphasis on the \u2018personal encounter\u2019 apart from the objective realities of the Church and the Sacraments is a heresy\u2013like all heresies not wrong in what it affirms, but it is wrong in what it denies (or de-emphasizes)<\/p>\n
The desire for the \u2018personal experience\u2019 is a relativistic, subjective, sentimental phenomenon which, by it\u2019s very nature, either ignores, denies or de emphasizes the objective authority of the Church. It is this essentially Protestant world view which contnributes to American culture being shallow, fake and entertainment based. It is also a poison within American Christianity\u2013both Protestant and Catholic.<\/p>\n
The answer of course, is the objective reality of the Catholic faith. Do you want to know where to find authenticity within all the artificiality of our modern world? Are you looking to find objective reality as an answer to the subjective \u2018experiences\u2019 you keep having? Are you searching for something solid instead of everything sentimental? Are you looking for a rock solid encounter with Christ with no doubts? Then look to the Catholic faith which is built on a rock. Make it the center of yoru life.<\/p>\n
The Catechism says that Christ is encountered 1. in the Scriptures 2. In the person of the priest 3. In the Eucharistic Assembly 4. In the consecrated bread and wine 4. In the person of the poor. 5. In the lives of the saints.<\/p>\n
There is the objective source or reality\u2013all the rest is chaff.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After taking in the excitement of Universal Studios for two days with the family I commented on the fabricated, faux and artificial world that America has become. One friend commented that the entertainment culture has infected every aspect of our lives as well. Not only do we eat Italian food in a faux Tuscan villa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n