Religion

There have been some interesting postings here this week. I'm so pleased people find it interesting and respond. Religion is a really personal thing no matter how big a church is, and finding a public platform to even talk about faith, the practice of religion, belief, or even religious thought is tough without offending someone.

I look to my son Brendan as a marvelous example. He practices a "non offensive" persona in his life. He works with a huge mix of people who could easily not like one another, and he manages to smile more often than not and offer good sound advice when asked and looks for common ground and does his HUGE load of work to the best of his ability in all kinds of horrible situations. He's a hero to me.

So with religion, especially at school and on this blog, I try very hard to be non offensive. I'm a Catholic, and that can be construed as offensive to a lot of people. Most people don't understand what being a Catholic is or means or demands - even Catholics.

I think my criticism of the program is more of a large sigh over the struggle of sides. One side would empty churches and crush belief of any kind. The other side is the faith side. Making fun of belief - any belief - is a dangerous trespass. Faith is the ultimate gift. The size and shape of the gift was not given by us, so critiquing the gift seems an assault on the giver rather than the gift itself.

Catholic teaching demands that we love and respect anything that is true and holy about any belief. So when I see a family show dedicated to destroying a religious institution - especially one ravaged by the very people who would see it crushed - it makes me sad and I cringe.

I don't think such a "show" is one impressionable children should see. I base that on the rah, rah, rah of the moment. Kids get carried away with the moment and moments make days, months, years. The one thing most kids are not getting is reason, thought, ideas and historical perspective.

The very idea that we know or understand truth to be this or that as presented by this thinker and that philosopher is about as rare a discussion as a debate over eating cranberries on cold cereal.

The world is becoming a very narrow place. Belief is not a part of that narrow place, and that's a shame for children who have a deep desire for knowledge. Children want to know what we believe about God and the things surrounding God. But they want to know what WE believe, and that's the point about turning into a show like that.