Mary:
The site also claims that we should love as Jesus taught and leave the ‘fear based’ approach of mainstream Christianity. I find this almost hilarious. Mainstream Christianity is all about love!
Dear Mary,
I haven’t read enough of the website to defend or attack it, but I actually didn’t find that particular assertion humorous.
The reason is that it is so true for so many Catholics, especially in the recent past. I know because my parents’ teachings in Catholicism was largely based in threats and rewards, not love. If you ate meat on Friday you were going to hell. If you ate or drank past midnight before receiving the Eucharist you were going to hell. Your non-Catholic friends are going to hell if they don’t convert. If you missed Mass you had better be incredibly sick or you’re going to hell. If you said a bad word or thought a wrong thought you just might go to hell. Confession, confession, confession, and you’d better get there before you die because you neeeever know when He will take you. Good little Catholics in those days were steeped in fear, and every moment they felt they were walking on eggshells. This was not the type of fear as in peace-bringing “awe” of the greatness of the Lord, but the type of fear that brought about anxiety.
Thankfully this has gotten better in the last few decades, but it has not gone away completely. There are even traces of it in the Act of Contrition where we say we regret our sins because of our dread of the loss of heaven and pains of hell. Then, almost as an afterthought, “and also because they offend you.” If it were all about love and not about fear of punishment and desire for reward (a.k.a. behavior modification) then we would simply regret our sins because they offend, rather than please, God, and leave it at that.
I ask your indulgence in changing your statement to, “Mainstream Christianity is ostensibly about love.” In practice, whether it achieves that status varies highly from one parish to another, one sermon to another, one teacher to another, and from one day to the next.
Listening to criticism is an excellent way to discover ways to become better. They may be wrong, but sometimes not. Maybe everything else on this web site is wrong, but I cannot categorically dismiss that the “fear-based” approach, though more subtle than it used to be, is alive and well.
Alan
