Religious fanatic

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nas_matko

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My friend asked me these questions:

Sometimes my habitual catholic friends are calling me fanatic, because I am trying to obey God’s laws and I do not agree with “mainstream” attitude - cohabitation without marriage, abortions, anticonception.
  1. Who is fanatic and how is man becoming one?
  2. Is “hiding behind” God’s laws fanatism?
  3. How to find out that I/somebody else is fanatic?
Can you help me to answer?
 
I don’t really have anything to offer other than I don’t think you are a fanatic for obeying God’s rules. The world today is so immoral, and society makes people who are trying to be good and holy out to be fanatical. I think about the times when things were taboo - unfortunately now everything is so desensitized. My only advise to you is to keep on keepin’ on. 🙂
 
Thanks for your support for my friend, but I think he is looking for more concrete answer - definition of religious fanticism if there is any etc.
 
I think, that is when being strict to the law surpassess human compassion or understanding or common sense.

There is a difference between being a fanatic and being steadfast. Fanatics are people you cannot reason with or cannot percieve reasoning with.
 
I would say what stops a catholic from being a fanatic is if his faith is in complete accord with the papal magisterium of the church. And if he submits his will to it if he finds a difference. In other words he accepts and embraces all matters of faith and morals taught by the popes. This is how we can be sure we’re right in our thinking. Fanatics are extremists they shoot off to the left and right, but God is in the middle and so is the church. It’s normal for us to be right wing etc. But on the faith we can’t swing to the side.
Check out this article on the wikipedia for a detaled explaination-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_fanaticism
 
Nas_matko, from what you’ve said, you don’t sound like a fanatic. Following God’s laws is nothing other than practicing and following the religion that you say you do. Stick with the Word of God in the scriptures, magisterial teaching, and in Sacred Tradition and you’ll be OK.

For my part, I would tend to think of fanaticism as being an undue hostility. The trouble is that most fanatics would call their hostilities towards others completely legitimate and even necessary. What a fanatic calls reason is anything but.

One thing that we must bear in mind, however, is that being extreme in our faith is not necessarily a bad thing. A great many Saints went to their deaths proclaiming the Gospel. Such devotion, such love, is necessarily extreme. One does not face persecution or submit to a life of humility lightly.

At least as far as Christianity is concerned, extreme faith requires Love. It requires the grace of God and follows the example of Christ, the Son of God, who lived and died for us. Unfortunately, belief in what the Church actually teaches has become something of an extreme in some places and is sometimes branded as fanaticism. This need not be a fanatical belief; it does not need to lash out at others; it must be bound up in Love.
 
Thanks John, I came across that wikipedia article already, but somehow I have no trust in wikipedia. Even in this article their arguments are based on utilitarianism, which is a modern form of the Hedonistic ethical theory which teaches that the end of human conduct is happiness, and that consequently the discriminating norm which distinguishes conduct into right and wrong is pleasure and pain. (quoting from Catholic Encyclopedia)
 
nas_matko

Basically, a religious fanatic is one who is constantly in people’s faces, with their religion. Sometimes its judgemental and cruel.

Catholics are not exempt from religious fanaticism. I’ve known a few in my day and watched them destroy their lives and lose the little amount of faith they had.

Jim
 
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