Commentary: Give me that Old Time Religion: Choosing to be Catholic

'Give me that old time religion' is the title of an old hymn often associated with certain segments of Protestant Christianity. However, I suggest to my Catholic friends, it is our song. In this age of 'novelties' and 'Wanna Be Cool' versions of Christianity, amidst the despair occasioned by the "dictatorship of relativism", we proclaim that Truth exists and has been revealed in Jesus Christ. The fullness of that truth subsists within the Catholic Church.

Shop Holy Cards

P>CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - This past weekend the Wall Street Journal featured an opinion piece by Brett McCracken entitled "The Perils of 'Wanna be Cool' Christianity. The author recently wrote "Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide" (Baker Books), which I have not (yet) read. The opinion piece prompted this article. I live in a predominantly evangelical protestant part of Southeastern Virginia and have spent much of my life working with evangelical Protestants.

McCracken's insights are evident in the "new churches" with their new visions, new marketing and message makeovers all over my neighborhood. In a concern over the "exodus of young people from churches" he critiques the subculture I see everywhere. He writes, "as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn't megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church. Increasingly, the "plan" has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant".

"As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called "the emerging church"-a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too "let's rethink everything" radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it-to rehabilitate Christianity's image and make it "cool"-remains. There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated "No Country For Old Men."

"For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub (as is the case for L.A.'s Mosaic church, whose downtown location meets at a nightspot called Club Mayan). "Wannabe cool" Christianity also manifests itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., for example, have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an "iCampus." Many other churches now encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during their services."

Brett McCracken asks "are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? ... If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real."

This past weekend I had the privilege of preaching the Masses in my parish. At the Saturday Vigil, I mentioned I was a "revert" to the Catholic Church. It is a term coined by a friend who is a priest. It refers to the growing number of Catholic Christians, like me, who though I was raised in the Church, fell away and later found my way back home. I love being a Catholic Christian.  I choose to be Catholic. At the heart of that choice is the gift of Church. You see, the Catholic and Orthodox vision of Church is significantly different than what the author is reflecting upon in this piece. It is the Risen Body of Christ, sacramentally present, continuing His redemptive mission.

In Catholic theology we teach what the early fathers, Saints and Councils throughout the ages have all affirmed; to belong to Jesus is to belong to His Body. Our membership in the Church is a participation in the life of God; what the Apostle Peter referred to as a "participation in the Divine nature". (2 Peter 1:4) We speak of our Christian friends in other Christian communities who have been validly baptized in accordance with a Trinitarian formula as already being in "imperfect communion" with the Church. When they "come home" we do not baptize them again.

The Church is not some "thing", outside of us, which we try to "fix" or have our "issues" with, or some organization which we put together and which we can change, revamp or re-vision. The Church is Christs' Plan, integral to the Incarnation and the work of salvation. It is meant to become the home of the whole human race, the new world, being recreated in Jesus Christ, the "seed" of the coming Kingdom. Through our Baptism the Church becomes our home, our mother, the place in which we now live our lives in Christ.

We ask you, humbly, to help.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

In its treatment of this "mystery" of the Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood. [St. Augustine, Serm. 96, 7, 9: PL 38, 588; St. Ambrose, De virg. 18, 118: PL 16, 297B; cf. already 1 Pet 3:20-21] [30, 953, 1219]"

This Church is both human and divine; thus her members still sin. Sometimes evil enters and rots her from within. However, she still stands and the gates of hell have not prevailed. (Mt. 16:18) She is still the means through which we participate in the life of God. To her has been entrusted the Sacraments and the Word, the gift of a teaching office and the very means of salvation. The Church is not an optional "extra" that we add on to our lives, she is our life, because we live in Christ. From his wounded side she was birthed at the tree of Calvary, the altar of the new world. Through faith we are invited, daily, into this mystery and by grace we come to comprehend and live it.

It would have been absolutely foreign to the early Christians to consider a "Churchless" Christianity. To belong to the Head is to be incorporated into His Body through Baptism. Here are a few quotes which capture this mystery: "Let us love the Lord our God; let us love His Church. Let us love Him as our Father and her as our mother" (St. Augustine) "No one can have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his Mother" (St. Cyprian) "For where the Church is, there the Spirit of God is also; and where the Spirit of God is, there the Church is, and all grace. And the Spirit is truth." (St. Irenaeus of Lyons)

As I read this opinion piece I recalled an encounter I had years ago with a Christian friend.  "There is no plan B" I said to my evangelical Protestant friend. "The Lord has not changed His mind. His work continues through His Body, His Church, of which we are all members through our Baptism". This exchange came at the end of a lengthy conversation initiated by him. He was hungering for a deeper life, in his words, "in the Lord."

A hero in the pro-life movement, he was touched by the writings of Pope John Paul II and is a real fan of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. He is moved by the Pro-Life witness of so many Catholics. He asked me some serious questions that day. I spoke to him of the theology of communion that is the heart of Catholic ecclesiology. I could see in his eyes the interest that will lead him even more deeply along the path I have witnessed so many others walk.

This encounter happens frequently. There is a growing respect for the Catholic Church among many disillusioned Christians of other communities. For some, they have lived in an almost "Church-less" experience of Christianity; one that has so emphasized a "personal relationship" with Jesus (a vitally important truth) that often they have not experienced the "horizontal bar" of the Cross, the real implications of belonging to His Body in ecclesial communion. However, they are not alone.

How many Catholics understand the implications of their own Baptism? How many have experienced identification with the Church as a "mother", or living in the Church as a "communion"? How many have come to love the Church as "Some - One" more than some-thing? Is this all supposed to only be the experience of the "mystics", the talk of the Saints and Fathers, or, is it supposed to be the truly common experience of every Christian? I believe it is supposed to be the common experience of all Christians.

"Give me that old time religion" is the title of an old hymn often associated with certain segments of Protestant Christianity. However, I suggest to my Catholic friends, it is our song. In this age of "novelties" and "Wanna Be Cool" versions of Christianity, amidst the despair occasioned by the "dictatorship of relativism", we proclaim that Truth exists and has been revealed in Jesus Christ. The fullness of that truth subsists within the Catholic Church. We have been given this great gift of our Catholic faith to give away to others.

Consider the final insight from Brett McCracken, "If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched-and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same."

It is time for Catholics to fall in love with the Lord and His Church - and live the ever ancient and ever new faith in a dynamic way, offering it as the alternative which Brett McCracken and so many other Christians are searching for. In his own words "we don't want cool as much as we want real." Let us offer them the real "Old Time Religion", the Catholic Christian  faith.

Free RCIA classes for Students and Catechists from Catholic Online School

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'