An interesing distinction was made by Charles Taylor.  In his remarks, Taylor said contemporary secular society creates faith challenges unlike those of past generations.

Today, Taylor sees a society where people fall into categories of “seekers” or “dwellers.” Seekers he defines as those who don’t want to be told by others what to believe. In a religious context, this may mean that they’re people who are willing to be part of a religious tradition or who are looking to reconnect with a faith, said Taylor. As Father McLean described Taylor’s work, dwellers are those who want things decided for them, those who are inclined to commit to “things which are true and old.” He noted that this puts the church in a difficult position. “The degree to which it clarifies and makes things decisive is a problem for seekers,” said Father McLean. “And the degree to which it leaves things open and undecided is a problem for the dwellers. In these circumstances, I wouldn’t want to be a bishop.”

St. Paul held these two poles together in his own Christian communities. He believed in the power of the Spirit working in the lives of the members of the churches he founded, believing they could work out the development of their Christian community in his absence. At the same time he preached and taught, corrected and persuaded, called for reconciliation and fervor.  Whether we look at our own families, communities, parishes, friendships, or the universal Church, this way blazed by Paul could open up new avenues for us today, whether we deal with seekers or dwellers.

Cardinal George said he thinks Taylor “does us all a great deal of good” by challenging people to consider “how can I be holy in a secular age?” He feels people are basically interested in being holy. He suggested that an appropriate way of looking at the problem is St. Augustine’s example of the tug between the sacred and the secular as two sides of a theater, played out in the world in the middle.

“The saving of Christianity as a whole is to go back to the resurrection and the cross of Christ,” Cardinal George said. “You cannot escape from the world if you believe that the Lord has risen because the resurrected Lord walks beyond the world. … He has transcended the world but has not escaped it.”

He described one of the choices for how a secular society operates in the contemporary world as a closed, secular public square, where the civil dynamic works to eliminate religion from society; what results is something like the former Soviet Union, where there was no freedom of worship.

On the other hand, in a secular, but open public square “as the pope thinks we have in he US,” religion can helpfully influence civil society itself, primarily through the actions of individuals, he said.

“The hallmark of an open society is trust in the process,” Cardinal George said. As long as the governing process is open and transparent and trustworthy, “then you can have even dishonest people and the process will enable us all to live in peace and keep seeking.”

via Catholic News | Panel on Faith in a Secular Age Launches Philosophy Project | American Catholic.

Sr. Anne Flanagan, fsp

I don’t think this ever happened, but it’s not impossible.

Imagine a genteel southern city in the 1950′s.

A local Christian association has a long history of works of “charity.” What started out as a simple soup kitchen run from a church basement developed into an array of programs in education, child care, job training, health and provisions for the needy. Since these services spare the government the burden of creating and administering new structures, the city approved an annual grant for a number of programs (in effect, off-loading to the church group some of the social services the city would otherwise have had to provide directly). At a certain point, however, the city fathers (weren’t they all “fathers” back then?) felt that the times called for certain measures to protect the fabric of society. In the name of propriety and good civic order, the city council passed a bill mandating agencies in any kind of contractual relationship with the city to maintain racially segregated offices for their employees. Although the bill’s name gave a nod to “religious freedom,” it did not include an exemption for religious organizations and individuals whose rights and beliefs might be compromised by observance of the new requirement.

Following passage of the bill, the church association sorrowfully announced a reduction of hours and programs in their service arms. Conforming to the city’s stipulations, the official statement said, would imply acceptance of racism as a principle. This was contrary to their identity as an organization. With segregated offices a condition of city funding, they could no longer qualify for the grant that had supported many of their good works.
Mystified by the group’s intransigence over an issue so (seemingly) peripheral to health, education and poverty, the city fathers sputtered about religious narrow-mindedness and about silly “philosophical differences” that shouldn’t enter into the discussion. In their pique, they even accused the organization of holding the city hostage to arcane theological doctrines.

No, this probably didn’t happen. At least, not in those exact terms.

Instead of a genteel southern city, think of Washington, DC. The social services (physical and mental health care, legal care, immigration, employment, counseling, shelter, education, foster care and services for the developmentally disabled) are provided by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. The bill in question is the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Equality Amendment Act.” The stipulations of this gay marriage law bind any person or entity in a contractual relationship with the city. Failure to conform to all the requirements of the law leave one open to penalties and lawsuits. Despite its name, the bill includes only the narrowest provisions for religious freedom, limited to a short list of specific circumstances. Even the ACLU has weighed in to urge greater protection for religious freedom, in accord with federal law.

The Archdiocese of Washington is not a social service organization; it is a Church expresses its identity in a vibrant way through its many social ministries. But that identity is a complete package: the “Catholic” in “Catholic Charities” means something! The District of Columbia is free to withhold funding for organizations whose character doesn’t meet city criteria. People still need help. If Catholic Charities can no longer meet city criteria for contractual services, there is little that can be done other than regroup and try to find ways to do as much as possible with significantly fewer resources.

This post was originally written for the Chicago Tribune religion blog: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/

For more information, please see: http://www.adw.org/news/News.asp?ID=702&Year=2009

As coverage of the Ft. Hood shootings continues, I find myself wondering less about Major Hasan’s religion than about his clothing.

Let me explain. As someone who has worn a religious habit for over 20 years, I have had to reflect a lot on what this specific uniform means in itself, for me, and for the people I encounter or meet.

Within Catholic circles, my habit identifies me as a member of a community called the Daughters of St. Paul, a community with its own history, spirituality and field of work.

On the streets of Chicago, my habit identifies me as a full-time “Church lady” (although that means different things to different people). For myself personally, the habit is a practical expression of simplicity of life and a daily reminder that my life, like that of Jesus, is to be at the service of others.

That’s a lot of meaning riding on one set of clothing!

But the media have presented Major Hasan in two distinctive uniforms: that of the U.S. Army, and the habit-like Middle-Eastern clothing he is seen wearing in a convenience store video. Each of those uniforms says something about the wearer’s values, beliefs and relationships. I haven’t heard otherwise, but, it’s hard to imagine that Major Hasan wore Middle-Eastern styles growing up in southwestern Virginia. I was in Dearborn, Michigan last week; this city has the highest concentration of Muslims in the entire US, and while I saw many women in headscarves, I didn’t see a single man in a flowing tunic.

Clothes don’t make the man (nor the habit the monk), but knowing the circumstances under which this American military officer began to don the vestments of Middle Eastern culture might help us better understand what was going on that day in Ft. Hood.

Originally posted on The Seeker for the Chicago Tribune.

Where is King Solomon when you need him? He once made a landmark ruling in a case involving parental rights (remember that one?), but the situation outlined on the front page of Tuesday’s Tribune would have stymied even that famously wise king: When couples are so desperate for children that they resort to IVF, what is the “right thing” to do with embryos that they do not intend, ever, to bring to birth?

And again, he writes:

“The new tyranny of which we are speaking, instead, exalts man to the point of adoration, giving him the opportunity to turn his interests and desires into freedoms and rights, which however are no longer inherent in him by nature, but become the “gracious concessions” of a power that legally ratifies them. And so, turned into a child who contemplates his own whims as these are maximized and satisfied, the man of our time is more than ever the hostage of the assertions of power that guarantee him the enjoyment of all-encompassing liberty and constantly expanding rights.”

At the point of his conversion he saw Rome as the rock of salvation, not only religious salvation but also cultural. Rome appeared to him as the bulwark that clarifies the terms of our spiritual geneaology and shelters us from the battles of this new tyranny in which people fight over who what is our most authentic nature.

“The eternal revolution of Christianity consists in revealing to us the meaning of life, restoring to us our nature; from this discovery is born a joy with no expiration date. When this joy is combined with a minimum of artistic sensibility, life becomes a feast for the intelligence.”

His articles appear often in L’Osservatore Romano.

Read the preface to his book The Progressive Matrix of the New Tyranny

President Barack Obama, speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday, September 9, sent a clear message that basic health care is a right, not a privilege, a position also held by the U.S. bishops.

Universal access to affordable health care and a respect for all life from conception to natural death are the two essential principles put forth by the bishops in their July letter to Congress on health care reform.

In laying out the details of his plan, Obama directly addressed two of the main concerns of the U.S. Catholic bishops: “And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up – under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”

Of the plan he is proposing, he says, “It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government. It’s a plan that asks everyone to take responsibility for meeting this challenge – not just government and insurance companies, but employers and individuals.”

via Catholic News | Obama Sends Clear Message to Congress on Health Care | American Catholic.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued this response to the president’s speech, saying: “Health care reform that respects the life and dignity of all is a moral imperative and urgent national priority. We welcome the President’s speech as an important contribution to this essential national debate and task.”

Integrating an ethical framework into an economic system is the challenge today, and he said he hoped his encyclical in some way helped.

He said the church will continue to make its voice heard so that people’s moral “sense of responsibility may be stronger than their desire for profit and that their sense of responsibility toward others may be stronger than selfishness.”

via Catholic News | Pope Pleased With Debate on Ethics in the Economy | American Catholic.

The pope strongly endorsed that orientation toward “a greater spirit of solidarity and multilateral engagement,” saying today’s crises cannot be resolved on individualistic or even national terms. As a prime example, he pointed to the global economic crisis, and said it calls for a revision of financial structures in the light of ethics.

The pope said multilateralism should also be applied to “the whole spectrum of issues linked to the future of humanity,” including basic health care, immigration policies, climate control and secure access to food and water.

He expressed his particular satisfaction for the results of a recent U.N. summit on nuclear disarmament, chaired by Obama, which unanimously approved a resolution on nuclear disarmament and set the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Catholic News | Pope Welcomes US Ambassador, Prods on Right to Life Issues | American Catholic

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Dr. Valerie Dixon wrote on the blog “God’s Politics” a profound call to Christians to find the passion in their compassion so that we dare to believe in young people enough to act, to mentor, to guide, to protect, to forgive, to step up to the violence we see around us instead of hiding in our houses:

Our calluses thicken. Our shields go up yet again, higher and faster this time. What is the biochemistry of the calluses that harden around our consciousness? What is the physics of the shields around our hearts? What happens to our compassion, to the capacity to suffer with the Other from the core of our being? Do we lose a portion of our own humanity when our capacity to care weakens?

There is passion in compassion and that passion ought to be more than a co-suffering. It ought to be a love so deep, so radical, so fearless that we dare to act, to do something to step up to the challenge of the violence in this world rather than to step back or to step away. The passion of compassion is the passion of Jesus and the challenge of our faith to make our own bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto our God. (Romans 12:1).

via A Prayer for Derrion Albert – Valerie Elverton Dixon – God’s Politics Blog.

We cannot function together as citizens of the same city or the same country unless we are mindful of how we treat other people in public spaces — in airports and shopping malls, on internet blogs and in movie theaters, on tennis courts and in Congress. Civility has to do with the pursuit of the common good, rooted in the idea that we share a common life together. The loss of civility leads to a complete breakdown of community. This is not hyperbole. For at the heart of incivility is disrespect of other people.

Our refusal to exercise self-restraint in our behavior and our words is not merely a violation of Emily Post’s rules of etiquette so much as it is cutting the tie that binds us together. … I will show you respect because you are made in the very image of God and we are bound together in a common life as fellow citizens of this city, this nation, and this planet.”

Civility and humility go together just as incivility and arrogance go together. The civil person is fundamentally a humble person who recognizes that God is not pinning his hopes on us for the redemption of this world. Rather, the civil person is modest in his or her self-assessment, as is fitting for finite, fallible people.

via Our National Loss of Civility – Rich Nathan – God’s Politics Blog.