Rekha Basu, a columnist for the Des Moines Register, recently wrote a rambling article about the big tent concept. The term big tent often applies to political parties and their need to be inclusive of many different populations and views (unless you are a pro-life Democrat in which case you are not very welcome in the Democrat Party). The term has been tossed around by media and political pundits frequently in recent months regarding the need for the Republican party to have a big tent to survive (which, by the way, I oppose but will not get into here). But have you ever heard it applied to a religious denomination? Well read Basu’s column and you will.
Basu posses the following question. “Should there be an ideological litmus test for membership in a faith? Who gets to decide whether Catholics whose views differ from the Vatican’s can call themselves Catholic? Does the bishop?” This is in reference to the scolding of Patrick Kennedy by his bishop, the Most Reverend Thomas Tobin. Bishop Tobin stated, in other words, that Kennedy was incorrect to think that he is fully Catholic when he supports abortion and public funding thereof. The Bishop simply responded to an attack by Kennedy against the Catholic Church for opposing health care legislation that expanded access to and/or funding for abortion (read more here). Bishop Tobin was simply attempting to continue a previously private conversation with Kennedy in an attempt to redeem his soul and guide him back to the church and Christ. As Kennedy’s bishop, it is his responsibility to do so.
Ms. Basu implies in her article that Bishop Tobin has no right to define what is Catholic but instead should be left to the individual members of the faith. She quotes from an ultra-liberal (and in my opinion anti-Catholic) organization named Catholics for Choice, that claim a bishop has no right to tell Kennedy that he is “less of a Catholic” (Tobin used Kennedy’s words). Why? I don’t have a direct answer, but I believe it is because they also disagree with the moral teachings of the church. They believe the Catholic faith, i.e. Vatican, should not dictate to its faithful that it is a mortal sin to murder an innocent unborn child.
So should the Catholic church follow the U.S. Democrat and Republican parties and implement the big tent approach to their faith? Should the Vatican release a statement saying that Christ was wrong to tell us we should obey the commandments? Should they begin a listening tour to determine what the liberal “Catholics” believe in an effort to reform the faith to meet their lower moral standards?
Basu concludes her article by saying “Ideological purity sounds nice. But a party, like a religion, is no more than the people who sign up for it. For good or bad, the rest is negotiation.” Well there is our answer. The wise Basu has spoken! Pope Benedict XVI take note! Bishops take note! Parish priests take note! The central tenets of the Catholic faith is up for negotiation. No more homilies telling us what is right and wrong. No more reading from the Bible as it may instruct us as to what is moral. Reform now! Let’s all just come to church every Sunday (or once a year or what ever feels right) and join hands and admire our wondrous self-worth, wisdom, and the eternal human spirit. But do not talk to your fellow congregant as you can’t be allowed to tell them what you think is moral and correct. The Catholic faith has now been declared as a faith of one, from one, and for one.
This reminds me of the Ayn Rand novel The Fountainhead. Howard Roark, an out of the mainstream architect, is asked to build a non-denominational temple called the Temple of the Human Spirit. The temple intends to capture the essence of religion. The essence of religion, according to the man wanting to construct this temple, is:
”The great aspiration of the human spirit toward the highest, the noblest, the best. The human spirit as the creator and the conqueror of the ideal. The great life-giving force of the universe. The heroic human spirit.”
A church not of or for God but to man. Basu, Kennedy, and the Catholics for Choice have asked the Catholic church to become just that. A Church to each one of our own human spirits, to celebrate the beliefs we have, and to celebrate the great things that we can do (such as killing our unborn).
I do not know where to begin. Instead of responding to this absurdity I will simply pray, God help us.
