Are We Still Listening? Accountability Is a Virtue - Abp Lazar Puhalo

We have had some correspondence expressing dismay of the growth of atheism, and even militant atheism. It is evident that people are not only departing from religion, but that among some of them, there is a visceral hatred of religion.

An acquaintance in Ireland wrote to me that he had voted "yes" on both of the recent controversial referenda in that country, although he did not completely agree with either one. He said, “I did not so much vote for the two referendums as I did vote against the Catholic Church.”

It may be that that is why the two referenda carried. Not only is the memory of the Magdalene Sisters still very much alive, but an inordinate number of the men in Ireland were sexually abused by priests when they were children. Also, when it came to light that there is a slush fund of the mistresses and children of higher-ranking clergy, all of that added to a cynicism about Christianity in general, although it only involved one denomination.

The response from some of the hierarchy when these two referenda passed was that they had failed in the task of educating the people in the faith. It is precisely the wrong response. The response should have been, “How have our actions and attitudes destroyed the faith of so many people?”

And in fact, many of the people who voted yes on these two referenda are deeply believing Catholic Christians. Rather than lamenting the rise of atheism around the world, and blaming demons or science or something else, it would be more reasonable for every religious body to examine itself in a very harsh light and ask what it has done to drive people away from Faith.

In North America, a right-wing fundamentalist approach to Christianity has had a great deal to do with the advancement of modern atheism. Telling people that they must believe something which they know of a certainty is not true in order to be Christian is certainly not going to solve anything! Trying to turn back the tide of atheism through advocating things that are demonstrably untrue, and through threats of wrath and other types of fear, is certainly not going to solve the problem! For religious bodies to demonstrate an amorality, for the sake of a political agenda is no way to turn back the tide of atheism; it is a recipe for turning it into a tidal wave!

It is very difficult for any ideological system to deeply analyse itself and find its own error, its own drift away from its original raison d’être, and turn itself back toward its original mandate. The hypocrisy, bigotry, amorality and even immorality of many of our religious bodies is certainly a serious problem.

With blatant falsehoods such as creationism--especially when it tries to pass itself off as a science and when religious bodies try to force it into the school system--or when some religious bodies seek to undermine democracy and accept immorality in the name of this agenda, then one can hardly wonder about why there is a growth in atheism, and why there is a visceral hatred of Christianity growing, not only in America, and elsewhere.

But even this is not the whole problem. When a dominant Christian body essentially advocates social injustice and denounces efforts at alleviating the suffering of poverty and instead, lobbies for the enrichment of the already extremely wealthy at the expense of the poor, this is a total abandonment of Christianity. It turns its back on Christ Himself and marks the devolution away from Christianity into a new religion of Christianism. This ideological “-ism” tied to a political and financial system has replaced the true worship of Christ and rendered Christ only a “frontman” for a religio/political cult.

What is necessary, but unlikely, is for every religious body to undergo a deep and unremitting examination of itself to see if it has any real relationship with its Founder, or whether it has just become a political movement with religious trappings and an ideological political agenda.

Comments

[eric h janzen]

Thank you. I couldn't agree more. You express what I've been feeling and thinking for quite awhile now. We need much more open discussion about the problem of politicized 'faith'. I have increasingly become disillusioned with both politics of all kinds and streams of the Church I once considered part of my own stream. I have consciously been working to depoliticize my own faith so that I can more fully follow the command of Jesus to love...especially those I would think of as 'enemy'. It feels like we live in a hard time and much prayer for mercy is needed.