David Ancell / Wednesday June 25, 2003
In my recent debate with some rather confused Catholics, I’ve encountered two “arguments” that we must be aware of when talking to them. The reason that we must be careful with them is that we must be careful of attributing any sort of logic to them. They are really emotional rather than logical arguments.
First, the “a loving God wouldn’t do that argument.” This can be found in many places, such as the Skeptics Annotated Bible (link found on Fr. Bryce Sibley’s blog). The argument takes many forms such as calling something “offensive to women” or “absurd” or “cruel” or some other variation thereof. The problem with such an argument is that it makes one’s personal emotions the standard by which God is to be judged. If we feel bad about something, then it can’t be of God. This argument neglects the fact that our loving God deisres our eternal happiness above all things and sees a much bigger picture than we do.
The other one is an argument that I will call the “it’s all about us” argument. In it, an article of faith may be rejected because “it’s not my experience of God.” Perhaps one doesn’t go to Eucharistic Adoration because it is “not their experience of God.” This holds absolutely no water since the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord and therefore is objectively God himself. If you don’t experience him there, then you have a problem. Other arguments of this nature may be complaints that the Church has not allowed “open debate” on an issue. Did it ever occur to such people that if God declares something, then it isn’t open for debate? Others view dissent as disagreement with what “the faith community says.” This makes the Church’s teaching out to be nothing more than an opinion formed by a group of people who have no more idea of what they are doing than the person making the argument. Needless to say, that ain’t true.
The simple answer to both of these is that God is not subject to our personal feelings and preferences. We may not like some of the Gospel, but it is as Christ has taught. Either we accept it or we don’t. To reject even one part of the Gospel is to make the entire Gospel subject to our own personal opinion. It also endangers the very soul that God is trying so hard to save.
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