It is people who commit crimes
By Michael Kirk
There is a great deal of woolly thinking out there about the issue of Christian identity. The Irish Times gave a typical sample of it not long ago.
Commenting on Rob Weatherill's new book, The Anti-Oedipus Complex, on the disintegration of our civilisation, the paper's reviewer, Rob Doyle, made a very superficial comment about Christianity.
Doyle did not not know whether or not Weatherill, "one of Ireland’s leading psychoanalysts", was a believer, but noted that he endorsed the Catholic Church as “offering the only serious critique to [several] lines of destruction” which he saw running through society.
Here was a fresh, non-conformist academic view of the Church and her role in society, different to the usual take on the Catholic Church, and it might have been explored a bit further.
Instead, the reviewer immediately switched into the usual liberal rut, remarking that "Christianity’s litany of historic crimes is all but ignored" by Weatherill.
Now, in fact, crimes are committed by persons, as Doyle knows well. Persons may commit crimes thinking that they are acting on the principles of a belief system.
But before I condemn that belief system I must examine it to see if the actions of its followers are consistent with those principles.
Christianity is what Christ proclaimed it to be and what his Church has identified as a Christian way of life on the basis of his teaching.
It is not what fallible, weak and even evil people have on their own authority interpreted it to be, often with criminal consequences.
Indeed, Christ himself was executed as a criminal by men who thought they were acting on God's authority. There is no limit to the folly and malice human beings are capable of.
But it is the height of folly to attribute our own crimes, or those of others, to the Faith given to us by Christ. It also creates a fake history of the Faith.
• Are actions consistent with belief system's principles?
All are made in God's image
The parallels between racism and religious intolerance are remarkably close - both have the same ugly outcome: hatred for others because they are other than we are.
The roots of both are, literally, diabolical: they deny the fundamental truth that we are all made in God's image, that Christ identifies with those in need.
"I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take me in...
"Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me."
Of all the "isms" which mankind has had the misfortunate to generate, few have been more pernicious or stupid than that which leads us to marginalise and mistreat each other because of our skin colour, the texture of our hair or the shape of our eyes.
But matching this, surely, is the evil which leads us to persecute each other because of the convictions we bear in our souls.
Fiction of a post-Christian world
We may believe that we now live in a world in which fewer people know anything about God or Christ. Certainly vast numbers of people know nothing of the Saviour.
This leads some people rather glibly to talk of us living in a post-Christian society. But we don't, and never will. This is a radically false description of where we are.
The German theologian Romano Guardini, in one of his books, recalls that the task of Jesus "is consummated", brought to fulfilment. This is what Jesus himself told us on the cross (John 19:30).
But what an appalling paradox; what a spectacle of failure: the Saviour's word rejected, his message misunderstood, his commands ignored.
Nonetheless, the task is accomplished, through obedience to God unto death—that obedience whose purity counterbalances the sins of the world.
What counts is that Jesus delivered his message, not how the world reacts; once proclaimed, that message can never be silenced, it will knock on people's hearts until the last day.
Once introduced, the eternal kingdom, too, remains forever “at hand,” ready to enter into time wherever faith opens a door, for Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” (Matt. 3: 2; John 14: 6).
The coming of Jesus changed the world. From now on it is and will remain the world in which Christ stands. There is nothing "post" about it.
Food for thought for cafeteria Christians
Romano Guardini asks what makes a Christian "Christian" in everything he says and does. He replies that this requires nothing less than Christ living in him.
This is different in every individual and in every phase of an individual life, but it is always Christ.
"In every Christian, Christ relives his own life anew: first as a child, then as a mature adult. He lives and grows in each of us, that our faith may increase, our love may be strengthened, our Christianity constantly deepened."
This is a good reflection point for "cafeteria" Christians, for those who think they can ignore God-given Church teachings and who satisfy themselves that they are Christian by just picking and choosing what suits their life-style.
Commenting on Rob Weatherill's new book, The Anti-Oedipus Complex, on the disintegration of our civilisation, the paper's reviewer, Rob Doyle, made a very superficial comment about Christianity.
Doyle did not not know whether or not Weatherill, "one of Ireland’s leading psychoanalysts", was a believer, but noted that he endorsed the Catholic Church as “offering the only serious critique to [several] lines of destruction” which he saw running through society.
Here was a fresh, non-conformist academic view of the Church and her role in society, different to the usual take on the Catholic Church, and it might have been explored a bit further.
Instead, the reviewer immediately switched into the usual liberal rut, remarking that "Christianity’s litany of historic crimes is all but ignored" by Weatherill.
Now, in fact, crimes are committed by persons, as Doyle knows well. Persons may commit crimes thinking that they are acting on the principles of a belief system.
But before I condemn that belief system I must examine it to see if the actions of its followers are consistent with those principles.
Christianity is what Christ proclaimed it to be and what his Church has identified as a Christian way of life on the basis of his teaching.
It is not what fallible, weak and even evil people have on their own authority interpreted it to be, often with criminal consequences.
Indeed, Christ himself was executed as a criminal by men who thought they were acting on God's authority. There is no limit to the folly and malice human beings are capable of.
But it is the height of folly to attribute our own crimes, or those of others, to the Faith given to us by Christ. It also creates a fake history of the Faith.
• Are actions consistent with belief system's principles?
All are made in God's image
The parallels between racism and religious intolerance are remarkably close - both have the same ugly outcome: hatred for others because they are other than we are.
The roots of both are, literally, diabolical: they deny the fundamental truth that we are all made in God's image, that Christ identifies with those in need.
"I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take me in...
"Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me."
Of all the "isms" which mankind has had the misfortunate to generate, few have been more pernicious or stupid than that which leads us to marginalise and mistreat each other because of our skin colour, the texture of our hair or the shape of our eyes.
But matching this, surely, is the evil which leads us to persecute each other because of the convictions we bear in our souls.
Fiction of a post-Christian world
We may believe that we now live in a world in which fewer people know anything about God or Christ. Certainly vast numbers of people know nothing of the Saviour.
This leads some people rather glibly to talk of us living in a post-Christian society. But we don't, and never will. This is a radically false description of where we are.
The German theologian Romano Guardini, in one of his books, recalls that the task of Jesus "is consummated", brought to fulfilment. This is what Jesus himself told us on the cross (John 19:30).
But what an appalling paradox; what a spectacle of failure: the Saviour's word rejected, his message misunderstood, his commands ignored.
Nonetheless, the task is accomplished, through obedience to God unto death—that obedience whose purity counterbalances the sins of the world.
What counts is that Jesus delivered his message, not how the world reacts; once proclaimed, that message can never be silenced, it will knock on people's hearts until the last day.
Once introduced, the eternal kingdom, too, remains forever “at hand,” ready to enter into time wherever faith opens a door, for Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” (Matt. 3: 2; John 14: 6).
The coming of Jesus changed the world. From now on it is and will remain the world in which Christ stands. There is nothing "post" about it.
Food for thought for cafeteria Christians
Romano Guardini asks what makes a Christian "Christian" in everything he says and does. He replies that this requires nothing less than Christ living in him.
This is different in every individual and in every phase of an individual life, but it is always Christ.
"In every Christian, Christ relives his own life anew: first as a child, then as a mature adult. He lives and grows in each of us, that our faith may increase, our love may be strengthened, our Christianity constantly deepened."
This is a good reflection point for "cafeteria" Christians, for those who think they can ignore God-given Church teachings and who satisfy themselves that they are Christian by just picking and choosing what suits their life-style.
