This is my thought for the day...
I find it interesting when people choose to remain Catholic and just 'put up' with Church teachings. If I didn't believe in the teachings, I wouldn't be Catholic. It seems our church is quite unique in that, a lot of our members are opposed to the teachings of our church (especially concerning controversial subjects...sexuality, female ordination, authority of the hierarchy)...sometimes even our leaders. That is something I just can't quite understand....it seems like such a conflict of integrity.
Those are my thoughts today:)
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I finally got around to reading this blog, Mary. My opinion: (yeah, I'm one of those people who has many opinions about alot of things.)
ReplyDeleteI think the Church actually leaves a reasonable window open in terms of certain beliefs and modes of thought. The problem is that too many Catholics are too often out of those bounds. Instead, they are influenced by the idea (foreign to the faith) that it is okay to dissent on certain issues, issues that are much more essential to the faith than they think they are.
I think the Catholic Church is unique in that these beliefs that you cite are explicitly spelled out in official documents, and that the bishops expect all members to uphold them. Many other churches and religious organizations I know will say that they do not have official 'hardline' teachings on these topics, so they don't require anyone to hold a specific standard. The important thing, they say, is that we hold certain 'essential' beliefs and then recognize the plurality of opinion on other issues. As you may be able to see, this train of thought is intellectually dishonest because we run into the problem of what is essential and what is not. If we were to go down this slippery slope, we would have to ask: Is it essential to believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Is it essential to believe in God at all? The point is that by doing that, all beliefs, 'essential' or not, are subject to the judgment of each individual or group. It follows that God's will and revelation is trumped in favor of a man-made religion.