Have Christians cornered the market of "good"?

[Mijoy2]

I am Catholic, albiet an occasionally disturbed one. I make every effort to go to Mass every Sunday and more. Regularily go to confession and read and attempt to learn more and more about my faith each and every day. One may even suggest I am obsessed over it. The following post is in no way meant to be insulting to my faith, it is simply my perception and my experience. I’d like to know the thoughts of some others who frequent this forum. Thanks much.

I believe the following numbers are at least in the ball park, the accuracy of these numbers are not the subject of this thread.

There are, I believe approx:
1 billion Catholics and close to 1 billion Protestants in the world out of approx. 6 billion people. This leaves approx 4 billion people who are either of another religion or atheist.

My contention is:

Of the 4 billion people remaining I would contend there are many 100s of millions of people who are as charitable, loving, righteous, as any Christian. People who would be no quicker to hurt, either physically or emotionally another person as any Christian. People who would lay down thier life for the life of another as quickly and without reservation as any Christian. People no more likely to commit adultry or participate in cheating against another individual as any Christian. People who are as warm and loving to thier fellow man as any Christian.

This is a thought I ponder as I go through life. I work in an environment of great diversity. Hindus, Buddists, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Christians, Agnostics…more. In terms of warmth, friendliness, genuine caring, charitability, lending of oneself, I do not notice Christians cornering the market in any manner on the concept of ‘goodness’. Yet our faith teaches us we are on the winning team.

Does anybody else have trouble reconciling this? When working (for example) with a Jewish collegue of mine I feel guilt thinking I am living “truth” and he is incorrect in his beliefs. I feel it is not humble to feel this way. Especially when I humbly notice and admit he is of greater intelligence then I and I know he spends as much time attempting to learn about his faith and study it’s truth. He is amazingly charitable and kind. Yet he simply has come to another conclusion. How do we reconcile this??

 

[Charles]

I think your concerns are reconcilable, at least they are for me.

Yes, we Catholics are in the winning team. We have been given the complete deposit of faith and with it an obligation to share our faith with the world.

That said, God gives everyone access to his Truth. And everyone subconsciously perceives and acts on his truth to a greater or lesser degree. Everyone is inherently called to “goodness”. God makes himself visible to everyone who is willing to just look around at His creation.

We continue to have an obligation to share the complete deposit of faith whenever and wherever possible, but we should not approach others who do not share our faith in a vain, self-righteous way. God is already working on and with them, we are but another tool in his toolbox.

 

[Poisson]

I think that God, when creating us, has given us the ability to know right from wrong and has written it on our hearts. This is a gift he has given to everyone from the Christian to the Jew to the Muslim to the athiest. As a result there are many non-Christans who are chose the good and many Christans who don’t. As a people Christians are not any better at chosing right than anyone else because sometimes it takes courage and courage has little to do with religion.
What separates us from others is our ability to be reconciled with God when we chose to violate that which is written in our hearts. Many “good” people will not go to heaven because they have not been reconciled for those times they have failed.
You’re right we are not any better thank God for the gift of reconciliation.

 

[martino]

When God created man he said it was “very good”, as we are created in his image and likeness. Being good should be natural to us and really has nothing to do with salvation. We are not called simply to be “good”, we are called to be “holy”. Holiness is a different thing as it is mainly concerned with sin and is not a relative matter. Can someone be a good person and vote in favor of abortion? Or even perform an abortion? Can someone be a good person in public and something different when nobody is watching? Being good may certainly win you the esteem of men, but without holiness it does nothing for you in the eyes of God.

 

[JimG]

Thank heaven that “goodness” is not limited to Catholics. God gives everyone a natural conscience and the ability form it, to learn to distinguish good from evil. The church claims no monopoly on goodness, only the possession of the fullness of truth. Having the advantages of the truth and the life of grace, we should be better people but often are not. We do have a greater responsibility to do good: From those to whom much has been given, much will be expected.

JimG

 

[csr]

He hath not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them. Alleluia. :bible1: Ps 147.

It isn’t so much that Christians have “cornered the market”; Christians follow Christ, Who is God, and God has indicated how He wants to be followed: in particular the sacraments are necessary, and the moral and faith teachings are necessary.

What I find is that individuals may seem very nice, but when you poke around ‘under the hood’ you find, inevitably, sin lurking as goodness. The good person who would lay down his life for someone doesn’t have the fullness of the truth revealed to him, and likely supports one sexual evil or another, or one form of indifferentism or another. And, that good person, at some point, will be a bad example and in some way promote that evil. Many of the nicest people I know support contraception. They directly contribute to the culture of death.

It is possible to live the natural law, apart from Christian teaching, but I suspect this is virtually nonexistent today. Perhaps someone on a desert island. We have a fallen nature, and given the extraordinary space given to decadent sexuality today, in commonplace dress, on television, and in every aspect of the public square, it is probably rare to find someone able to live the natural law. Even something supposed to be wholesome – the Olympics – is in fact characterized by extensive exposure of essentially nude bodies. Young women throw their extremely exposed bodies about, permitting near-total viewing opportunities, of every curve, whether they are standing still or performing. One immediately hears the complaint: “But how are they to perform except in skin-tight aerodynamic leotards?” It is uniquely Christian, and true, that morality must come first, prior to worldly concerns.

Sin is absolutely rampant, and only the Catholic Church teaches the whole truth. I am extremely doubtful that anyone outside of it really has much of a chance. Even many Catholics are themselves decadent and indifferent today.