I recently had a conversation with a long-time friend who believes in a “higher power,” but not one associated with any organized religion.
As I approached the 150th day of my Bible excavation — 150 days of consistent dedication to building my own opinion of the Catholic faith — I shared some thoughts on what I was learning.
My friend interrupted.
“You don’t have to agree with everything the church has to say, you know.”
Knowing their heart and good intentions, I understood that the comment wasn’t meant to belittle or disrespect. She simply meant to encourage an independence of which she perceived to be a value missing from the faith.
The accusation
But the truth of the matter was that yes, it was insulting and it was belittling. It was a confident accusation on two fronts:
- That because the faith is organized, by default, there must be corruption — i.e., things to morally disagree with.
- That followers of such faiths are victims who lack a certain level of agency and self-esteem — i.e., that I therefore must lack agency and self-esteem.
The defense
“Catholicism isn’t a book of rules to follow just to get a ticket into heaven. It’s a philosophy — and because of that philosophy, I don’t pick and choose what I believe or don’t believe. What is true or not true isn’t up to me.”
But instead of yielding or practicing a humble level of curiosity, she doubled down to debate me: claiming that Catholicism was a derivative of paganism and that our practice of “worshiping” the saints was a clear example of idolatry. As much as I love and respect my friend, the fact that she was willing to act as an authority on a topic without reading any of the necessary literary material was, to say the least, really something special.
Although not an expert (I’m not even halfway done reading the Bible), I was able to defend our practices on a deeper, much more intellectual level, again emphasizing the philosophy, not just the practices.
Eventually, we landed right where I thought we would. In a somewhat surprised and shocked tone, she said,
“Nobody ever talks about Catholicism that way.”
The trap
And that was my concern: is it really that “nobody talks about Catholicism that way,” or is it that she — and I presume many others like her — was a victim of the very thing she had accused me of earlier: blindly following the words of those around her, who had gotten their opinions from others around them, none of whom are Catholic and none of whom are even remotely religious.
It’s this trap that had kept me from exploring the faith sooner.
For the sake of keeping this post short, I’ve been vague about what that philosophy is. If you’re interested, my previous post covers the basis for this. The thing is, it’s pretty extensive. In these next few weeks, I’ll break down what I’ve learned, and how I put the faith into practice.
But for now, I encourage you to consider your misconceptions: what might they be, and the source of which you got them from.