Category: Religion

Something I Don't Understand about Catholics

As a Jew, I freely admit that some aspects of Christianity are alien to me. The recent public debate about whether or not pro-choice Catholics should be allowed to take Communion brings to light one of them.

Here’s one example: Catholics who feel so at odds with their church’s ideology – who don’t they just go worship at some other church? What makes them stay committed to being a Catholic even if they vehemently disagree with what their church is doing? Is it an unwillingness to let go of their tribal identification? Fear of the unknown? Do they sincerely feel that Jesus won’t love them if they go to the church across the street? Is it a love of the liturgy they grew up with? Or do they think that if they wait long enough, the church will change and become more in line with their own beliefs? It could be pure politics – nobody wants to be accused of flip-flopping on moral issues. Or something else entirely that I’m overlooking because I’m not Christian.

I’ve heard the phrase “cafeteria Catholics” and it’s a term that could be applied to a lot of other religions, Jews included. I’m guilty of the practice myself. But I do think you have to draw the line somewhere. Not agreeing with every aspect of a religion is one thing. But if you disagree with enough key points, sooner or later I think you have to ask yourself what you’re really doing there.

I’m also aware that the Catholic church is not monolithic on this subject. There are bishops who would excommunicate anyone who is pro-choice and there are those who would not. And perhaps that diversity of opinion is enough to give Catholics hope.

It would make for some big headlines if a few high-profile Catholics switched affiliation to other denominations. I doubt it would change what the Catholic church is doing though. If the morass that is the wholesale molestation of children by priests has not overly upset the Vatican, I doubt a few politicians changing affiliations would.

Side note – Andrew Sullivan has a good article on this issue. His focus is partially on Bob Novak and some snarkiness about an Opus Dei priest, but it’s worth a read.

The God Gulf

I’m tired and have been fighing off a cold these past few days. Been tough to get the energy together to post. But Nicholas Kristof has a good column in the NY Times today and I wanted to call a bit of attention to it.

America is riven today by a “God gulf” of distrust, dividing churchgoing Republicans from relatively secular Democrats. A new Great Awakening is sweeping the country, with Americans increasingly telling pollsters that they believe in prayer and miracles, while only 28 percent say they believe in evolution. All this is good news for Bush Republicans, who are in tune with heartland religious values, and bad news for Dean Democrats who don’t know John from Job.

So expect Republicans to wage religious warfare by trotting out God as the new elephant in the race, and some Democrats to respond with hypocrisy, by affecting deep religious convictions. This campaign could end up as a tug of war over Jesus.

Over the holidays, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Christmas card symbolized all that troubles me about the way politicians treat faith

I’m not surprised but I am disappointed

I don’t know how long this URL is going to work, but here’s a link to the “Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the European Union” report mentioned in this and other news articles.

The bottom line is that attacks on Jews and Jewish property, religions institutions, and symbols in Europe reached alarming heights in 2002. The report seeks to look at what happened and try to assign some causal factors to the upswing. One of the hot button parts of the report follows:

Physical attacks on Jews and the desecration and destruction of synagogues were acts mainly committed by young Muslim perpetrators mostly of an Arab descent in the monitoring period. Many of these attacks occurred during or after pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which were also used by radical Islamists for hurling verbal abuse. In addition, Islamic circles were responsible for placing anti-Semitic propaganda in the Internet and in Arab-language media.

It’s been suggested in some circles that the report was suppressed because the EU is unwilling to deal with the underlying issues the report details. Whether that’s true, I don’t know. As my sister once told me, Americans generally don’t have a good grasp of EU attitudes and beliefs, and she, having lived in Europe, is generally right about that sort of thing. I try to keep that in mind as I try to keep up with what’s going on in Europe.

That said, I’m saddened but not surprised by either the report or the fact that it hasn’t been published yet. Anti-semetism is nowhere near as bad as it used to be (for which I devoutly thank God) but it’s still out there and should not be ignored becasue it’s politically inconvenient to deal with it.