1. »  Catholic Answers: On Cafeteria Catholicism

    catholicanswers:

    There seems to be a growing tendency among Catholics to pick-and-choose which beliefs we want to hold, and which we think are outdated, archaic, or unnecessary. And wouldn’t it be so much easier if we could just believe what we want? Absolutely. But did Christ promise us an easy time? He did the exact opposite. He told us that the world would hate us, just as it hated him (John 15:18).

    JPII talked about the idea of selective religion over 20 years ago:

    It is sometimes reported that a large number of Catholics today do not adhere to the teaching of the Catholic Church on a number of questions, notably sexual and conjugal morality, divorce and remarriage. Some are reported as not accepting the clear position on abortion. It has to be noted that there is a tendency on the part of some Catholics to be selective in their adherence to the Church’s moral teaching. It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the magisterium is totally compatible with being a ‘good Catholic,’ and poses no obstacle to the reception of the Sacraments. This is a grave error that challenges the teaching of the Bishops in the United States and elsewhere.

    - Blessed John Paul II, 1987

    We can’t pick and choose. To disagree with one issue is to disagree with all of them… we are essentially saying that the Church, in all it’s infallible teaching, is wrong, but our own wills are superior. In picking and choosing, we value our own intellects above the collective wisdom of the 2000-year-old Church. It is like turning up our noses at God’s revelation and saying that we know better. We use the excuse that Jesus was all about love, and that he was this nice guy who got along with everyone, accepted everything, and tried not to ruffle too many feathers. Newsflash: Jesus wasn’t “nice”. When it came to morality, Jesus was a force to be reckoned with! Don’t believe me? Check out the time He flipped out in the temple (written about in every gospel!)- Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45–46, and John 2:13-25. He wasn’t here to please everyone- in fact, he KNEW he wouldn’t (Luke 12:51). He predicted divisions, but it never stopped him from speaking out against moral wrongs. He didn’t come to make everyone get along… he came to shake us out of our complacency. We are called to love, called to serve, and called to witness, but we are NOT called to “tolerate” moral issues that are clearly wrong. That cannot and should not be our goal. We must either accept the whole Truth, or no truth at all.

    Christ said, ‘I am the Truth’; he did not say ‘I am the custom.’

    - St. Toribio 

    Just some food for thought! God bless.

    We totally can pick and choose. Church leaders got to pick and choose, and they were no more infallible than any layperson. They got to choose the canon, they got to interpret and translate scripture. Infallibility is a recently invented notion. If the pope can decide that there isn’t any hell anymore, then I can decide for myself what the New Testament says about abortions and homosexuality. “Collective wisdom of the 2000-year old church”? More like the collective hubris of a bunch of misogynist, anti-Semitic, power-hungry, money-grubing old dudes, who themselves ignored the traditions and culture of the early church, replacing them with more Classical Greco-Roman ideals and philosophy. News flash: the Vatican has been, and still is (though far less influential) a very temporal entity, it’s leaders often more concerned with political power and wealth than the spiritual well-being of their followers. 

    Jesus forgave the adulteress. You know what he didn’t tolerate? The hypocrisy and greed of religious leaders. He flipped out in the temple because it was being used for commerce. Not because people were fornicating or divorcing or whatever. Jesus was “hated” in his time because he was anti-establishment and undermined the position of elites in his society, not because he was an asshole to marginalized people. 

    “Christ said, ‘I am the truth.’” Yeah. For Catholics he is the truth. All the bullshit made up by the church hundreds of years after he died? Not so much. 

    The argument above has nothing to do with providing spiritual guidance, and everything to do with avoiding scrutiny and maintaining elitist, patriarchal power structures. 

    [Despite the fact that yesterday I was making fun of someone for referencing god in an attempt to, I don’t know, intimidate me? I actually am religious. It’s a personal thing that I try to avoid writing about; I think that one’s moral positions on issues should be able to stand on their own without reference to any kind of god. But the type of argument above really gets under my skin.]

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