Opting out of belief
Garvey, John
us-be so easily laid...
...the hypocrisy and boredom, the words of Jesus, or to try to see what it means that someone loves us enough to die for us...
...I have it...
...Principled agnosti- that matters-our reason for being in honesty are concerned) would simply cism can be intellectually admirable, the world, the story of one who died for abandon the whole thing...
...This is hypocrisy and deception in this area (or tives...
...too thirsty or he'll charge us a fortLiner" the tradition, to try to hear the voice of Commonweal 8 May 19, 2000...
...Unease-a profound unease-is also to be endorsed by celebrities, or to receive seen a small Orthodox parish reduced to involved...
...If the purpose of The greatest danger of our culture, in making a religious commitment a matter of consumer choice, is that we will not see that this commitment is finally a matter of life and death, for us and for a much larger community, one to which we have an obligation...
...Sexual fidelity and honbility of encountering any transforming Indifference allows this sort of floating oring one's word (whether this involves truth-in our kind of society...
...I have known people raised in conJOHN GARVEY stricting Catholic, Jewish, Evangelical, and Eastern Orthodox environments, who rejected their upbringing in angry OPTING OUT OF BELIEF or disappointed ways...
...It is the duty ciple behind the welfare bill: public as- you'd be shocked at what's happening," of baptized people to be Christians, too sistance should be temporary and the says Lissa Bell, policy director of the Seatoften despite the people chosen to lead system should help the poor find jobs tie-based Northwest Federation of Comthem canonically...
...many people, it is as easy to drop a reli- is easy to see how someone faced with Belief competes with many alterna- gion as it is to lose an umbrella...
...There is a tone-deafness here which is largely the fault of the church, but this does not absolve each of us from the duty to try to hear, through all E.J...
...These benefits Those who feel betrayed by their ex- 1996...
...rest of the body to which they have been new jobs, and also by the bill's tough The problem, according to a new joined in baptism...
...Even if was a mess, and saints have lived under party...
...It is, after all, the is not something that can be reduced to Dorothy Day was told that some people clergy and hierarchy who insist on the moral issues, though the culture will considered her a saint, she famously said, continuing validity of traditional norms have an effect on how we look at moral- "I won't be dismissed that easily...
...indifference is not...
...Liturgical boredom are many ways in which sure...
...One of them is indifference, a sense where the unease enters...
...practice, not only among the young, but of the problem, but it is only a part of When religious leaders regard it as a coup especially among those over fifty...
...Mother Teresa, more vital, more urgent...
...Here professed be- particular kind of wealth, a particular kind should (given what we say it is about) be lief and church attendance are taken as of fame and celebrity...
...This seems too litidea...
...welfare reform against the wishes of that Congress pledged to put in place on The church in Francis of Assisi's day some of the leading voices in his own behalf of the working poor...
...To a se- (and fleeting) regard...
...When the Orthodox welfare-to-work provisions...
...But there is an- a vow of marriage or a commitment to rious believer it must mean more than other chilling side to indifference...
...Other cultures have paid whose excuses seem too easy...
...America is, after all, more religious most other cultures have done that but a tle a reason to sever a connection that than most nations...
...and pursue independence...
...That very ease may be part Gotti), and therefore equally important...
...Though there real attention to money, power, and plea- family backgrounds...
...However, belief they become part of the problem...
...us-be so easily laid aside...
...That undermines the incentives minated the lives of those around them...
...the sacraments...
...OIONNE, Jr...
...While disagreeFor unserious reasons ing, I can understand the emotional and familial dynamics involved in their drifting away...
...The church is necessary, chatological understanding that the they are wrong...
...El their boredom...
...Our culture allows us to take nothing seriously except what we perceive to be our needs and desires...
...even more wrong are because we cannot break the bread and Lord is coming, and our deepest vocathose who can spend a life around the drink the wine alone...
...I am more troubled by friends ou hear people say that it is ly contemporary...
...In Congress and tance, and children's health insurancetray me is with mine on the table" (Luke on the campaign trail, a favorite pastime to follow poor people off the rolls and 22: 20-21...
...I can understand this in which it finds itself...
...their hold is at best sentimental...
...about the welfare reform bill passed in footing in the workplace...
...It's not they wanted benefits-Medicaid, food my blood, which is poured out for you...
...If KEEPING PROMISES the behavior of bishops and priests seems What we owe the working poor to stand in the way-if at times the church itself seems to-we have to remember that even at the Last Supper, even in the is fashionable to talk about But supporters of the bill insisted they act of blessing the bread and wine, Jesus poor Americans left out of weren't just being punitive...
...They are the transmitdoes it mean to assert a belief in God- by the aura of celebrity make themselves ters not only of this teaching, but of all or, for that matter, belief in the possi- dismissible...
...If the church itself does not offer a way toward that relationship, or in practice can even stand in its way, it is still our obligation to dig more deeply into "Don't appear...
...One piece of this problem is not uniqueCommonweal 7 May 19, 2000 And still, much as I can sympathize Jesus-even when we feel entombed, hope lies in the restoration of this eswith the disgust of the leave-takers, I think like Lazarus...
...We have placed wealth and rever- is enough, or the feeling that church this is true, we should reexamine the ence for wealth not only at the center- takes too much time...
...What ple who allow themselves to be seduced men and women...
...They are more like "our song...
...These buildings and the holidays associated with them are not central to their lives in any important way...
...It's hard to oppose the core prin- you're a proponent of welfare reform, thoroughly corrupt popes...
...Jesus asks, in Luke tion is to be aware of that, despite everystory of Jesus and remain unmoved 18:8, "When the Son of Man comes, will thing in the culture, even in the church, enough to leave the church because of he find faith on earth...
...an award from Congress, or to be pho- nearly nothing by a sexual scandal inBelief is influenced by the atmosphere tographed with presidents and senators, volving the priest...
...Belief itself is a different thing...
...When reaction, up to a point...
...Unless these have been informed by a relationship with the living God they will mislead us...
...an index, and dispiriting as life in the Princess Diana, Richard Gere, the pope, I have heard that in Ireland, after clerera of Clinton may be, it is easier to be a John Gotti-all are similarly candidates gy and hierarchy were involved in sexuChristian now than it was under the Em- for the cover of People (well, maybe not al scandals, there was a falloff of religious peror Decius...
...Betrayal and duplicity are there for members of both parties is to brag help support them as they found their from the start...
...They said tells us: "This cup is the new covenant in the economic boom...
...These difficult to be a believer in lip service to religion, while paying their don't involve serious doubts or difficult Y our society...
...It is the result of a culture that has placed distraction and gratification so firmly at YOUNG MEN'S the center that they completely domi- POST--C,-fRISJ7AtJ nate the lives of millions, including many A ss,-% c i$It people who remain culturally attached V (V to churches, synagogues, mosques, or temples, people who often think of themselves as in some sense religious...
...Peo- which restrict sexual activity to married ity...
...Perhaps our that may seem to stand in his way...
...I fashionable to do much stamps, child care, transportation assisBut the hand of him who is going to be- about their problems...
...How can some- to be more charitable than I am inclined that is not really agnosticism but rather a thing which claims to be about so much to be, with weakness where honor and kind of "so what...
...For celibacy) go to the heart of who we are...
...The bragging is over the sharp are especially important to the children perience of the church are not wrong in drop in the welfare rolls brought about of the poor, and no member of Congress their feeling, but they have a duty to the by a prosperity that has created so many likes to look mean to kids...
...It simply "this is to my taste...
...George W. study released earlier this month, is that church in Russia was, institutionally, a Bush regularly boasts about the decline many states are denying the working weak and subservient department of the in Texas's welfare rolls, while Al Gore poor benefits to which they are legally state, there were saints whose lives illu- trumpets his premier role in pushing entitled...
...even sympathetic...
...munity Organizations...
Vol. 127 • May 2000 • No. 10
