Is is the Church's place to provide answers?

[Abira]

Hi… I want to hear peoples views on this from various denominations.

As I am right now I feel as though it is my place to question everything and think about how I feel about given issues. Sometimes however I feel like I just want a simple answer, to be guided by something which is set in stone rather than take sole responisibility for all my moral choices all the time. I’m coming from this from a more personal angle rather than a theological angle but I’m open to your ideas.

Is it the church’s place to give answers or our own place…or somewhere in the middle. Do you feel differently about this question depending on your denomination/ belief system within Christianity?

Take care.

 

[FCEGM]

Hi… I want to hear peoples views on this from various denominations.

As I am right now I feel as though it is my place to question everything and think about how I feel about given issues. Sometimes however I feel like I just want a simple answer, to be guided by something which is set in stone rather than take sole responisibility for all my moral choices all the time. I’m coming from this from a more personal angle rather than a theological angle but I’m open to your ideas.

Is it the church’s place to give answers or our own place…or somewhere in the middle. Do you feel differently about this question depending on your denomination/ belief system within Christianity?

Take care.

It is the Catholic Church’s “place” to instruct us in the way of Faith (what to believe) and Morals (how to live according to our Faith). We are, though, to “make our own” - through prayer and the sacramental life - the teachings of Christ through His Church. In this way what we are taught does not remain something exterior to us that we accept (perhaps for fear of God’s disfavor which is, however, an authentic step in growing in faith), but truly reflects who we are interiorly as persons transformed by the grace of God in Christ; thus what we believe and how we behave will arise more and more out of love, God’s Divine Love planted in our heart that urges us on in faithfulness.

 

[Liberian]

Abira,

It is most definitely the Church’s place to give us answers–to state objectively that this is morally right and that is morally wrong. It is the individual’s job to recognize how the Church’s objective teachings apply to his specific situation. For example, if a person is thinking about assisting in an abortion, it is the Church’s job to state that “abortion is morally wrong and assisting in an abortion is morally wrong” while it is the person’s job to recognize that he shouldn’t drive a particular young woman to a particular clinic.

• Liberian

 

[LilyM]

Abira,

It is most definitely the Church’s place to give us answers–to state objectively that this is morally right and that is morally wrong. It is the individual’s job to recognize how the Church’s objective teachings apply to his specific situation. For example, if a person is thinking about assisting in an abortion, it is the Church’s job to state that “abortion is morally wrong and assisting in an abortion is morally wrong” while it is the person’s job to recognize that he shouldn’t drive a particular young woman to a particular clinic.

• Liberian

Yep, that’s about the size of it.

It’s part of being a mature follower of Christ that you sufficiently internalise the principles he and his Church teaches that doing the correct thing (or a correct thing) in any given situation becomes basically a no-brainer.

Still working hard on this for myself though