CrossCurrents A Catholic Reflects on Faith in Our Times
Bernard F. Swain, Ph.D.
Unconventional
wisdom
As the season turns we see baseball ending, parish activity peaking and the
long string of holidays approaching—and
a number of things have come across my desk that appear to bear no common
theme. But when I stop to think
about it I realize that many of them are really about the foibles of
conventional wisdom. People too
often accept assumptions without facts and form beliefs without basis and end
up viewing the world, not through rose-colored glasses, but through lenses that
distort reality like the comic mirrors at an amusement park. Yet because most
other people suffer the same distortion, it passes for wisdom.
In these cases, it takes a bit of
reflection to penetrate the distortion and see the reality. When people of
faith fail to do this, they give faith a bad name, as if our faith was a way of
avoiding the truth, instead of a way of finding it.
Let me offer just a few examples along
with my own brief reflections on the reality thatÕs been distorted.
Baseball. ItÕs commonplace these days to hear that America is
increasingly secular culture, where faith is losing ground and the countryÕs
Christian foundations are being abandoned. A quick look at our national pastime
shows, however, that every single major league baseball team has a chaplain
assigned to meet with the players. And on many clubs, prayer services and faith
sharing are as frequent as batting practice.
The Boston Red Sox for example count
twelve evangelical Christians on a 25 man roster! Assuming there might also be
a few practicing Catholics, mainline Protestants, or Jews, last yearÕs 2004 World
Series Champions hardly reflect a culture avoiding God.
Evolution deception. In the argument over the teaching of evolution versus
intelligent design, it seems to me that both sides are deceiving us.
The Òintelligent designÓ folks insist they
are not promoting religion, merely an alternate scientific theory. But hereÕs
the troubling fact: there are alternate scientific theories for nearly
everything in every chapter of all science
textbooks, yet these folks are not proposing wholesale re-writing of all our
texts to fit these theories in—only intelligent design gets their
attention. My suspicion is that these people have no interest in the rest of
science (that is, in science as a whole), but only in the one small part of it that conflicts with their
beliefs.
Many evolutionists, meanwhile, insist on
drawing a strict line between science and belief (saying thereÕs no place for
belief in the classroom), when in fact scientists need belief in order to
function. Scientific method only
"makes sense" on the premise that nature is ultimately comprehensible
(if we instead presume natureÕs absurdity, for example, how can we trust any
experiment?) Yet the comprehensibility of nature is itself unverifiable—it cannot be proven scientifically—so
science must rest on some belief, however secular it might be.
Hurricane Katrina. WeÕve heard a lot, since disaster struck the Gulf Coast,
about the work of faith-based organizations in providing relief, and indeed
thereÕs a lot of heroic sacrifice and dedication to the needs of others being
displayed by people of faith.
But some people are using this as an
excuse to suggest that such efforts are, in the long run, more effective than
government itself. Thus Katrina is being used by some as an excuse to argue for
Òsmaller governmentÓ—and even to cut government spending in order to pay
for recovery efforts.
But stop and think for one little moment:
in New Orleans, the real disaster came after the storm had passed, when the levees gave way. If
government had done its job in the first place, New Orleans need never have
flooded at all. Powerful storms cannot be prevented, but their impact can be
blunted – but only by the kind of massive public works that government
(and no private organization or movement) can accomplish.
In short, our safety depends on the
investment we make with our taxes. If we will not invest in our own future, we end
up paying the price when the future we could have avoided overwhelms us.
North Korea. The PeopleÕs Democratic Republic has recently
announced that it will abandon its nuclear weapons program and dismantle its
existing weapons. The U.S. government had insisted on its preference for direct
talks with North Korea involving no other nations, but appears it was the
Chinese who finally got the North Koreans to budge. So those who urged
multilateral diplomacy were right all along.
Now thereÕs a big question which no one is asking: since the
North Koreans have acknowledged that its security cannot depend on a nuclear
arsenal, why donÕt we Americans
follow their good example and insist that the U.S. dismantle its own weapons of mass destruction? My guess: our government
will avoid this question at all costs.
Iraq. In a recent interview, the speaker of the Iraqi national legislature
in Baghdad spoke about the prospects for the new constitution. He supports it despite his own
misgivings, including his concern that there is Òtoo much religionÓ in it. He
also admitted that it will probably be very difficult to gain the support of
IraqÕs Sunni population for the new constitution. ÒThere isnÕt much in it for
them,Ó he said.
His remarks leave me wondering if the Iraq
can possibly avoid a constitutional crisis. One big question is federalism:
will Iraq really be one, united country, or will it be a loose system of
independent regions?
If this question sounds familiar, thatÕs
because it is: it was precisely this constitutional question of Union vs.
Confederacy that triggered the American Civil War. We should never forget this
tragic fact: our Union was not born in peace, but in a horrific fratricidal
war. We can only hope and pray that Iraq does not follow our bad example.
The PopeÕs pull. Alongside the conventional view that religion
remains largely a private matter with little public impact, there emerged the more
recent notion that the new Pope, lacking John Paul IIÕs charismatic
personality, would be unable to command the same kind of public attention.
But the turnout for World Youth Day in Cologne
in August proved: first, that religion can indeed Òdraw a crowdÓ for the right
purpose; and second, that the last four popes (John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul I
and John-Paul II) have together succeeded in making the papacy the most
visible, arguably the most popular, and perhaps even the most beloved
leadership position on earth—a status it has not had for centuries, but
which no longer seems to depend on either the personality of the occupant or on
his political powers.
In all these examples the lesson seems to
be the same. Never take conventional wisdom too seriously. When you read the
papers or watch the news or hear the opinions of others, always be ready and willing
to reflect on the facts and seek the truth that lurks behind the commonplace ideas
that everyone else takes for granted. The truth will set us free –but
only if we bother to find it.
© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2005
Send Your Comments and Questions to bfswain@juno.com
Dr. SwainÕs
opinions do not represent the views of this parish or any other official body.
Bernie Swain has
devoted more than 30 years to adult spiritual formation in dioceses in the US,
Canada, and France. Since 1991 he has maintained a private practice as trainer,
teacher, and consultant to leaders in parishes and other religious
organizations. He holds degrees in theology and political science from Holy
Cross, Harvard, The University of Paris, and The University of Chicago.
His writings include Liberating
Leadership (Harper & Row,
1986) and more than 200 articles in periodicals such as The National
Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, The Miami Herald, The Catholic Free Press, The
Pilot, Harvard Theological Review,
and Liturgy.
A lifelong layperson,
he lives in Boston with his wife and three children. Visit his website at:
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