After a long vacation for Memorial Day weekend, I'm now back
and ready to write again. Over the
weekend I listened to some Catholic radio talk shows (I know, boring right? It was a long drive and it wasn't actually a bad station) and it made me think about
the difference between the image that comes to mind and the reality of the entity. You see, so many of us have been raised with
stories and even teachings about different ideas or theories, but so few of us
ever actually investigate them. This is
true of atheists, Christians, villagers in a third world country, or basically
any culture and society. Certain ideas
are passed down and images painted of a view that effectively distorts our
ability to communicate with somebody from that way of thinking. It's very apparent in the Catholic and
Protestant circles. Images of Catholics
often involve people worshiping Mary and nuns smacking kids with rulers. Now, these images and many others have been
ingrained in the Protestant to a point that makes it very difficult to overcome
and actually have communication.
If a Protestant hears a Catholic mention Jesus for some
reason they are shocked and act as if somehow that Catholic has moved toward
Protestantism by simply discussing Jesus.
The images formed from stories from long ago, some probably completely
based on nothing but fairy tales and others maybe loosely on some incidents
that became much bigger in the telling than they were in reality, have so
overcome the mind of the Protestant that communication is a barrier. I will say that this goes both ways though,
as recent conversations with Catholics have shown that often what they believe
of Protestants is not what Protestants (in general – if there is such a thing
anymore for Protestantism) believe.
Now, I'm not sure if there are other ways to break through these false beliefs that hinder communication, but I know what helped me. For me, it was a
matter of continually asking “why” until the answers began to surface and more
questions that needed answers came with them.
Continually seeking out answers led to a deeper understanding of the
reality of Catholicism versus the distorted caricature that I knew as
Catholicism. Now I probably haven't overcome all of the misconstrued
stories surrounding Catholicism, so I'm not the perfect example of openness. I have however spent a lot of time discussing
beliefs with Catholics and asked many probing questions to get beyond the
barriers that hinder us from communicating and finding the reality of the
belief system. Unfortunately, most
people will probably not seek answers due to the whole stigma about intelligence
and rational thought that permeates Protestant churches (see my other article
here).
When you look out at the world around you, you will
notice these caricatures everywhere. The
liberal media has done it effectively with conservatives. Even conservatives turn on conservatives
buying into the lies painted by the liberals.
Catholics do it to Protestants, lumping everybody into the one big
Protestant lunatic bin. Because of the prevalence of these falsities breaking through
these distortions is a difficult task. It is possible but it ONLY happens when people decide
to ask questions of their OWN beliefs first.
A liberal will not be convinced by a conservative until a liberal asks
the hard questions of LIBERALISM and then the lies they've been told of
conservatism will be exposed. The
strongest Catholics I know are those who have questioned Catholicism, put it to
the test (and some even embraced Protestantism for a period of time) and then after much investigation understood Catholicism on a deeper and more intimate level than ever before. Most people will not take that step however;
they will always scrutinize the other view and never investigate their own. Perhaps this has to do with world views. Maybe it's the idea that you have to be
intelligent to understand answers to questions.
Or maybe, it's a fear from exposing oneself to the harshest critics and
reality that comes from being the person to scrape your own beliefs across the
coals. Whatever the answer, it will take more than accepting the images as reality to communicate effectively.
