Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
I teach a class at UD in which we study the rhetoric of Protestant fundamentalism and the Amish. On the first day of class, I always ask students to reflect a bit, first on paper and then in discussion as a class, on the tradition in which they grew up. For most students, that is Catholicism. Most, in fact, not only went to Mass every Sunday but also attended Catholic schools from elementary all the way to UD.
Inevitably, as we study the rhetoric of fundamentalism, they recognize it. They didn’t know that what they were being taught in Mass and in school had its origins in fundamentalism. Now they do. And it puzzles them that their Catholic world has been infiltrated by a belief system that is in many ways different from the Catholicism of the Church since Vatican II.
As they become comfortable in the class and feel increasingly safe in talking about their own story, they also share where they are in terms of faith now. And, I am sorry to say, most of them are not going to church. Most of them, for now at least, have pretty much given up on the Christian faith.
When I ask them why, some will say that the sex abuse scandal in the Church turned them away. They feel betrayed. But even more often I hear the repeated refrain: “Christians are mean and judgmental, and I don’t want to be that way.”
The latter response, it turns out, is not at all unusual among members of their generation. In fact, it’s on the rise. Polling data show that especially young Americans of Gen Z are turning away from Christianity because, they say, it has become altogether too political, too mean, too judgmental.
I understand their decision to become “nones”—that is, those who do not wish to claim any religious affiliation. It makes me sad. But I get it.
Jesus could not be more clear in his response to the scribe who asked him which is the first of all the commandments. We are commanded to love God with all that we have and to love our neighbor as ourself. The scribe repeats the commandment, and Jesus praises the scribe for getting it right. Jesus tells the scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom of God.
What if all Christians today honored that commandment? What if instead of so much culture war rhetoric that is all about fostering a fear of the other and, along with it, anger and hate toward that other, all Christians pledged their obedience to this commandment? What a different world we would inhabit. Safer. Happier. More peaceful.
Jesus puts to us all the radical commandment that we resist any temptation we might have to join in the culture war rhetoric of our times, and love instead.
What if love were to become the calling card of Christians, the word by which we are known? I believe it would change everything. Just for starters, I believe my students would be interested in giving our faith a second chance.
—Susan Trollinger