Skip to main content

How not to share

Purple Fish Guts (?) shares with us how it is that Christians get a bad reputation in the public sphere.
Do you drink? No Do drugs? No Do you fornicate? Do I what? Do you... you know... have sex? Uhhh... well, I'm married and I have sex with my wife.... so I guess if you call that fornicating... then... Oh... no.... that's okay. (ignores me while he converses with one of his buddies) Well... you need to get right with God. (turns and walks away with his buddy) Yeah.... that's definitely the way to make a good impression on people. I mean... I was already a Christian and they offended me.
Who wouldn't take offense at being approached in such a way? I was one of those who used to think this sort of thing was what faith was all about. This doesn't help anybody. It's a barrier to learning, not an aid. The public isn't stupid and you can't treat them as if they were, even when you disagree with their choices. The first step is to show that you aren't stupid either. Being empathetic is also very good. Doesn't that seem obvious?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mirror of the just man

Ecce Homo I haven't done a quote from Pope Ratzinger's Introduction to Chistianty in a while and even though I have finished the book there are still one or two passages I want to share, including - perhaps even especially - this one. When I first began to look over what Christianity teaches, to look at the gospel story and to try penetrate why it has been so compelling to so many for so long, this was one of the things that leapt out at me. I was happy to see our Pope confirm it. Expanding on the Apostles Creed where it says "... suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried," Ratzinger writes: The fact that when the perfectly just man appeared he was crucified, delivered up by justice to death, tells us pitilessly who man is: Thou art such, man, that thou canst not bear the just man - that he who simply loves becomes a fool, a scourged criminal, an outcast. Thou art such because, unjust thyself, thou dost always need the injustice of the n...
1 comment
Read more

Last minute christmas suggestions

Suggestions fror the coming Christmas season: Loreena McKennit , Songs for the Season . Even though McKennit has not released an album in something like a decade, I've only just discovered her and she's amazing. This little EP has only five songs on it and Canadians can pick it up on iTunes for about $4 and change. Amazon wants ten US bucks... Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers, Catholic Latin Classics . It's not a Christmas album per se, but it'll sound terrific. Magnificat . This is a really nice daily missal. Fourteen issues a year include two special editions for Holy week and Christmas. Each issue has all of the masses for each day of the month, and a couple of features about historical artworks, poems, and faith issues. These are really nice and I'm glad my wife has deemed me worthy of one.
Post a Comment
Read more

Redemptionis Sacramentum

Thank you to Rick and Kristina and others who commented on my post about our parish's liturgical meeting this past weekend, and to Tony , who sent a very supportive e-mail. Rick and Kristina pointed me towards a document called Redemptionis Sacramentum , which will be quite helpful, I think. Looking back at the Easter mime incident, for example, I can see issues with Chapter 3, sections 58 to 63. A summary of the document can be found here .
Post a Comment
Read more