Responding to "Choose Your Own Adventure Christianity"

[Weareyoung]

It seems like a lot of Christians and even some Catholics are increasingly practicing something I call “choose your own adventure Christianity.”

It is based on conforming to society instead of having a firm unchanging definition of Christianity and morality. And most of the time it takes the suffering out of love.

This mentality might use the concept of forgiveness to nullify any real negative consequences and ramifications of your actions whether for popular approval or to do what feels good. It can also be studying the principles and “laws” of Christianity so much that you can find “loopholes” and complex arguments to justify unethical or sinful actions. An example of this would be citing bible verses that talk about “God is love” to justify homosexual or other immoral actions or even to encourage it. (I’m just using this as an example, so I don’t want the focus of this thread to be on homosexual actions because frankly I’m tired of debating something that really shouldn’t be an issue.) Also it can involve saying we have no right to objectively judge what a sin is or even point it out to other Christians (Catholics), because God alone is the judge.

How can we as Christians or Catholics keep from falling into this mentality and encourage other Christians and Catholics not to? Is there any strong argument against “Choose Your Own Adventure Christianity”? How should we respond to it, if we have to respond to someone who practices this or if they try to impose this mindset on us?

Keep in mind 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

“For we are the aroma of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the latter an aroma of death that leads to death. To the former an odor of life that leads to life.”

 

[kch86]

That’s a difficult question because picking and choosing beliefs is quite often a symptom of a deeper problem. You do not pick and choose beliefs if you are absolutely certain of the veracity of Revelation. So I believe that picking and choosing may be an expression of subconscious doubts.

I don’t know how other people see this. When I was an atheist, even though I did not believe in an objective morality, I did believe in an objective reality and that the universe was governed by immutable laws that I had to conform myself to. Even then I was disturbed by the modern tendency of people to question reality and view it entirely in subjective terms. And so I did not feel free to pick and choose my beliefs about the laws of physics. So if my opinion were that gravity does not exist, I would still fall and die if I jumped off a tall building.

I hated falsehood and had an extremely strong conviction in seeking and accepting the truth, no matter how much I didn’t like it and no matter the consequences. And as a carry-over of that mindset, now as a Christian, I do not feel free to pick and choose my beliefs about the laws of morality either. If my opinion were that sexual morality did not apply to me, I would still offend God and face the consequences if I chose not to submit to His moral law.

Establishing that God did exist, that He did reveal Himself to mankind, that I, as a human being did not necessarily fully understand Him and that He had the right to demand of me things that I didn’t necessarily understand or agree with was enough for me to submit and grudgingly accept Christian morality out of obedience. Truth sometimes hurts and it isn’t always what I want it to be. God is my Creator and I have no right to impose my own personal feelings on Him. Of course, later I learned that God has my own best interests at heart and my obedience turned into trust, and as I learned yet more, that trust eventually turned into understanding.

So I think the Christian can avoid falling into the trap of picking and choosing by asking himself:

Is there such a thing as truth?
Can truth be something I don’t want it to be, or must it match my own personal opinions?

 

[virtueseeking]

It seems like a lot of Christians and even some Catholics are increasingly practicing something I call “choose your own adventure Christianity.”

It is based on conforming to society instead of having a firm unchanging definition of Christianity and morality. And most of the time it takes the suffering out of love.

This mentality might use the concept of forgiveness to nullify any real negative consequences and ramifications of your actions whether for popular approval or to do what feels good. It can also be studying the principles and “laws” of Christianity so much that you can find “loopholes” and complex arguments to justify unethical or sinful actions. An example of this would be citing bible verses that talk about “God is love” to justify homosexual or other immoral actions or even to encourage it. (I’m just using this as an example, so I don’t want the focus of this thread to be on homosexual actions because frankly I’m tired of debating something that really shouldn’t be an issue.) Also it can involve saying we have no right to objectively judge what a sin is or even point it out to other Christians (Catholics), because God alone is the judge.

“Choose your own adventure Christianity” sounds like a positive forward progress. The term I think you are referring to is “cafeteria” Catholicism. I do not mean this as a criticism or correction, by no means.

This revolves around rationalizations. If only, but, they did this, etc. Most remember what rationalizes their actions. They conveniently forget the spiritual works of mercy, one of which is “Admonish the sinner”. There are underlying reasons for these and it is not only to remind your “neighbor”, but by practicing these they keep ourselves in check. Most no longer even attempt this because you are labeled judgmental. First of all they usually do not even know the meaning of the word and are using it improperly. The point most forget is that “you” did not label that a sin…GOD did. My response to most that like to call everyone judgmental, and give “excuses and rationalizations” is “God gave us the Ten Commandments, and He did not give “me” the power to excuse anyone from any of them“.

kch86
So I think the Christian can avoid falling into the trap of picking and choosing by asking himself:

Is there such a thing as truth?
Can truth be something I don’t want it to be, or must it match my own personal opinions?

Yes, should one want truth they must first accept their own, in God’s light.

 

[Weareyoung]

“Choose your own adventure Christianity” sounds like a positive forward progress. The term I think you are referring to is “cafeteria” Catholicism. I do not mean this as a criticism or correction, by no means.

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It’s not a positive foward progress in any means if you believe God’s or the Church’s word law and teaching can be interpreted objectively in any way when you understand the book series I’m referring to.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_your_own_adventure

This book series allows the reader to determine the book’s plot by flipping to different pages. On average these books have about 40 distinct endings. Imagine if that’s how the Bible or the Catechism worked. It’s not meant to work like that. So that’s my point. Do you understand how this term is relevant when referring to these books now?

 

[englishredrose]

It seems like a lot of Christians and even some Catholics are increasingly practicing something I call “choose your own adventure Christianity.”

It is based on conforming to society instead of having a firm unchanging definition of Christianity and morality. And most of the time it takes the suffering out of love.

This mentality might use the concept of forgiveness to nullify any real negative consequences and ramifications of your actions whether for popular approval or to do what feels good. It can also be studying the principles and “laws” of Christianity so much that you can find “loopholes” and complex arguments to justify unethical or sinful actions. An example of this would be citing bible verses that talk about “God is love” to justify homosexual or other immoral actions or even to encourage it. (I’m just using this as an example, so I don’t want the focus of this thread to be on homosexual actions because frankly I’m tired of debating something that really shouldn’t be an issue.) Also it can involve saying we have no right to objectively judge what a sin is or even point it out to other Christians (Catholics), because God alone is the judge.

How can we as Christians or Catholics keep from falling into this mentality and encourage other Christians and Catholics not to? Is there any strong argument against “Choose Your Own Adventure Christianity”? How should we respond to it, if we have to respond to someone who practices this or if they try to impose this mindset on us?

Keep in mind 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

“For we are the aroma of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the latter an aroma of death that leads to death. To the former an odor of life that leads to life.”

By being faithful to God and others can see by our actions and words together with each other show how being real Christians means something. That life aint always a bed of sweet smelling roses etc That we do have arguments and dissappointments and are just like everyone in the world. Just that we believe in God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and our love of God shines through in all we do and say even in our darkests hours, people see how we call upon God to guide us through

 

[virtueseeking]

It’s not a positive foward progress in any means if you believe God’s or the Church’s word law and teaching can be interpreted objectively in any way when you understand the book series I’m referring to.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_your_own_adventure

This book series allows the reader to determine the book’s plot by flipping to different pages. On average these books have about 40 distinct endings. Imagine if that’s how the Bible or the Catechism worked. It’s not meant to work like that. So that’s my point. Do you understand how this term is relevant when referring to these books now?

Weareyoung
It seems like a lot of Christians and even some Catholics are increasingly practicing **something I call **“choose your own adventure Christianity.”

It was not clear to me that this is a publication of some sort. The wording to me came off as a personal conclusion. My apologies…blessings