For Christ's Sake. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      • from a religion in which beliefs, moral rules, worship and membership of an institution or human community holds first place to a religion in which a love-relationship with God holds first place

      • from a commercial relationship with a god whose rewards can be earned by doing right things to a love-relationship with a god who is pure gift

      • from a relationship in which we are firmly in charge and determine exactly what part God shall be allowed in our lives to a love-relationship of total giving

      • from a god who demands that we bridge the gap between us to a god who always takes the first step and comes to us.

      The Catholic Church is so vast and its history so varied that all of the ideas just mentioned, both good and bad, have had their place. There are many beautiful statements about a loving god and many examples of individuals whose lives reflected such a god in ways that had a deep impact on those who met them.

      Sadly, there has also been a long history of the angry god, with the Inquisition being merely the most glaring example. Coercion of many kinds, including torture, has had its place in an institution that should have reflected the example of Jesus.

      The very structure of the Church, with a monarchical Pope insisting on obedience and using coercive means to ensure conformity, means that the angry god is never far away. At every level of the Church, many Catholics experience this as the pervasive and dominant atmosphere.

      This has created a Church in which, despite the talk of love, practice has been based too much on fear rather than love, and authorities have always had the support of the angry god for their words and actions.

      Spirituality has too often been understood in the negative sense of self-denial, self-abasement and rejection of the ‘world’, and the Christian life has too often been seen as consisting overwhelmingly in right behaviour before a judgemental god. A constricting guilt has played too large a part in the lives of too many people. These are unhealthy ideas that have too often created an unhealthy atmosphere and contributed to unhealthy actions.

      To change all of this will require far more than a beautiful statement about God’s love. It will require a careful look at all aspects of the Church at every level, and the changing of everything that reflects the angry god—from finger wagging Popes, to priests who convince themselves that they listen to the people but always manage to get their own way in the parish, to the widespread lack of belief in and respect for conscience. This will be a massive task, but the rest of this book will make it clear that the angry god is to be found beneath most of the other factors I shall speak of. To change the culture while leaving the angry god in place is a contradiction in terms, for too much of the culture is built on the angry god. This is the first chapter, for I believe it is the single most important change that is needed if the scourge of sexual abuse is to be confronted and ended … for good. Catholics of the future must live predominantly out of love rather than out of fear.

      Believing in a primitive and angry god is unhealthy, and unhealthy actions such as sexual abuse can grow out of this unhealthy culture.

      _________________

      ³ Ex. 21:25, Deut. 19:21.

      ⁴ Ex. 20:1–17; Deut. 5:6–21.

      ⁵ Lev. 19:18.

      ⁶ Matt. 7:12.

      ⁷ John 13:34.

      ⁸ Matt. 5:43.

      ⁹ Luke 14:8–10.

      ¹⁰ Mic. 6:8.

      ¹¹ 2 Sam. 24:15.

       CHAPTER TWO

MORAL IMMATURITY

      According to Webster’s dictionary, morality is ‘the quality of an action as conforming to or deviating from the principles of right conduct.’ This is the most common meaning of the word ‘morality’ in the world today. In this understanding, morality is about performing right actions and avoiding wrong ones. This approach to morality has two serious drawbacks.

      The first is that it lacks a context, for it does not address the purpose we hope to achieve by doing right actions, that is: why we should want to do good or be good.

      The second difficulty is a corollary of the first, for the definition does not face the question of whether performing right actions, in and of itself alone, is an adequate means to achieve any purpose we might have, that is: whether doing right things, of itself alone, will make us good.

      In its simplest terms, in any human enterprise, we first ask two questions: what goal do we wish to achieve and how shall we achieve that goal? The enterprise of living a moral life must address the same two questions.

       THE PURPOSE OF MORALITY

      In his novel, A Burnt-Out Case, Graham Greene depicts an unlovable character named Rycker.¹² Rycker had spent a number of years in the seminary studying to be a priest, but left before ordination and eventually drifted to live in a small village in the heart of Africa. In his own words: ‘At the seminary I always came out well in moral theology.’¹³ In the book he constantly annoys the priests at the nearby leper colony with the artificial moral dilemmas he invents and loves to discuss for hours. Despite this, he is not a particularly moral person.

      Among the mistakes he makes are:

      • his attitude is negative, so he concentrates on not doing wrong things rather than actually doing something that might help someone

      • he concentrates on the details of his life, i.e. specific actions, but ignores the plot, i.e. the whole direction his life is taking

      • his model of morality is basically legal, i.e. obeying moral laws rather than truly imitating Jesus Christ

      • he is motivated by fear more than love

      • because of the kind of morality he practises, a debilitating guilt is never far from him

      • while avoiding specific actions that are clearly forbidden, he is unloving towards his wife and the African people who work for him

      • if asked about goals and means, his honest reply would have to be: ‘The goal is that of getting into heaven; the means is that of not doing wrong things.’

      The meaning given by Webster’s dictionary to the word ‘morality’ is a restrictive one. It is part of the reason why being called a ‘moral person’ can have overtones of being judgemental, unloving and holier-than-thou.

      The meaning of the word ‘morality’ should go far beyond not doing wrong things, for it must essentially include the purpose of:

      • seeking to rise above ourselves and our own self-interest and to act on behalf of others

      • seeking to act in accordance with what is deepest within ourselves

      • seeking to open ourselves to truth, reality and life

      • seeking to become more authentically ourselves

      • seeking СКАЧАТЬ