We travel in a few different circles, our family. Our old homeschool co-op was Christian based, we have many non-denominational Christian friends locally, and our son plays in a Christian (rather than secular) basketball league now. But we are firmly planted in our own traditional Catholic parish community, our Catholic co-op, and various other Catholic social circles. Our interactions are most always respectful, positive, and mutually-supportive, even though we belong to different faith traditions.
But it's strange times we are living in, isn't it? The culture wars are raging all around us, and sometimes there are unlikely allies. We had a Catholic guys pub night last weekend, and one of the guys (a father of 9) brought up the Muslim parents joining forces with the Christian parents in Detroit in protest of the sexualizing of children at a school board meeting. He said, "I'd almost rather have an on-fire Muslim in the trenches with me than a lukewarm Catholic when it comes to this stuff."
So, I had a thought at work this afternoon, and I proposed to following to a Christian friend of mine via text:
"I would love to have a Catholic--Protestant party. Get together some great minds to meet on our common ground on a variety of topics. Whiskey or tea, hors d'oeuvres, fire, and good old fashioned discussion about what matters. And for mutual learning and enrichment."
So, I'm flushing out the idea here (on this post) because it's as good a place as any to get the thoughts out. I have as my ideal a meeting of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or Chesterton and...some other Christian intellectual heavyweight who enjoys good spirits. Here's what I was thinking:
-It would be by invitation only, and relatively small to start (8-10 individuals or couples); possibility of being a once-a-month get-togther.
-The 'topics for discussion' would be drafted ahead of time and presented with questions to aid the discussion.
-The bloc would consist of 50% Catholic participants and 50% Protestant.
-The purpose would be one of mutual-learning in a respectful manner (not aggressive conversion tactics). It would give opportunity for Catholics to present their beliefs as Catholics (hopefully to dispel prejudices) and give Protestant participants the opportunity to do so as well.
-Each person present would have an opportunity to share with equal time; discussions would be informal, though would hopefully piggyback off more formal, prepared discussion topics.
It would also be important to lay down agreed-upon ground rules and set expectations ahead of time. The purpose of the time together would be:
-to learn about where our commonalities lie, so that we can join forces in the culture war
-to learn more about what others believe in their respective traditions to be well-rounded human beings.
-to have robust philosophical and theological discussions over good food and drink, about the things that matter
-the topics would not be 'hot button' for the purpose of dissention, but challenging and nuanced enough to provide fruitful and intellectually stimulating discussion.
-the most important underlying quality that would have to be manifested among participants is listening, detachment, openness to learn, non-judgmental friendship, and respectful dialogue.
All that being said, does ecumenism have value? Is it something that should be cultivated or encouraged at all, by either Catholics or Protestants alike? Or is it just a hippy-dippy kumbaya ideal of the (Second Vatican) Council to encourage 'dialogue?'
I think the difference is if these people you are 'dialoguing' with are strangers or neighbors. I have a good friend, a faithful Christian man and dad, who is a mentor of sorts for me. We lean on each other in various capacities, and our interactions are always respectful. We sometimes are forced to navigate the precarious differences in our theology deftly, since our friendship feels greater than any theological differences we may have. In this case, Friendship>Theology
One of my favorite films is Of Gods And Men, the story of the Algerian Trappists who were kidnapped by Islamist terrorists in the 1990's (I believe), who lived among their Muslim neighbors. That, in my mind, is not religious syncretism and there is nothing hippy-dippy about it--just hard reality, and respectful co-existence.
The past two years have been so crazy, maybe the vibe is right now to start something like this, very enjoyable and informal--just different friends coming together over a common purpose, when they may not have mixed together at all otherwise. Plus I need something to look forward to during the bleak days of winter after New Years!
Good idea? Bad idea? I'm willing to try anything once, as long as it is for the glory of Christ and the good of neighbor--Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise!
Dear Paul, what a lot of questions you have laid out for us, like a smorgasbord! So I will take the last question first -- and I would say, "good idea, but move forward carefully." For instance, I would not head straight into the thick of controversy, but let the differences come up in the nature of things -- as they will. (Very few of us are trained in speaking theological truths carefully. So someone will say "I think all religions will lead to God," and everyone else will wince. But what the speaker actually meant is that there is good in each religion -- because God has been trying to guide us from the beginning, and not even the devil can be completely wrong! And Protestants and Catholics actually speak different languages. Sometimes cradle Catholics will accidentally step on the toes of some Protestants because "grace", or "predestination" can mean vastly different things to people of different faith backgrounds. And different Protestant denominations are sometimes more radically at odds than Protestants and Catholics -- but they don't know it. ... )
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is the fact that many of us haven't learned how to talk about our faith. I heard a cradle Catholic say that he didn't believe that he was "eating the body of Christ in the Eucharist." But when he stumblingly said what he DOES believe, he was merely saying that he did not look on eating the Eucharist as being like cannibalism -- and of course it is not cannibalism because it is the Living Christ that we take into us. But it sure sounded bad for a minute!
So, I guess my advice (not that you need to take it!!) is to find a topic like "How do you intend to improve your life in Christ?", "How do you like to pray?", "When was the last time you felt God's presence in your life?", "What are you most grateful about?" -- not sure if any of those are viable. But maybe something along those lines
I think it could work out.
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