{"id":586,"date":"2013-05-15T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T13:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=586"},"modified":"2020-01-21T19:12:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T19:12:16","slug":"surprising-chrisianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"Surprisingly Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYour services are quite nice really,\u201d said a surprised visitor to my parish the other day as she left the Church. \u201cYour parishioners are really friendly,\u201d said a non-Catholic friend visiting for a weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder what they expected?\u00a0A gang of grim and po-faced papists? A bunch of happy-clappy Christians out to convert the globe? A weird world of mumbled Latin Masses and autocratic clerics telling their congregations exactly what to believe and how to behave?<\/p>\n

\"Harold-Bishop_Ian_Smith-1987-1991-and-1996...-1-\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christianity \u2013 and especially Catholic Christianity \u2013 has moved on since then, but you can\u2019t be surprised at such prejudices and stereotyping. I was trying to remember the practising Christians portrayed in the various soaps on telly. I can only think of Dot Cotton together with the odd wet vicar in Eastenders<\/em>, and Harold Bishop and Mrs Mangel (now that’s going back a bit!) from Neighbours<\/em>. We are portrayed, then, as bumbling and judgemental neurotics, not to be taken too seriously: hardly a positive presentation of the Christian community.<\/p>\n

Recently I did a question and answer session with a group of ten year olds from a local school who were surprised to discover that, although a Catholic priest, I can still smoke (I don\u2019t) and drink (I don’t anymore) and stay up past ten o\u2019clock at night (I do quite a lot).<\/p>\n

Their whole image of any organised religion was to define it from a negative viewpoint: religion is about what we can\u2019t do, or at least about what we shouldn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I accept that Christianity is often portrayed in a \u201cThou Shalt Not\u201d framework. The Ten Commandments are an obvious example. But the \u201cNo\u201d of Christian ethics is always and only ever the reverse side of a much bigger \u201cYes\u201d. It is the \u201cNo\u201d said to the persistent moth about the electric light bulb: no, because without it the moth will kill itself by its frantic hitting against the burning bulb; no, because instead there is on offer a bright and sunny day to be explored and enjoyed.<\/p>\n

The season of Easter for Christians is a reminder of the radical \u201cYes\u201d that is at the heart of our religion. Having fasted for the forty days of Lent and celebrated the gruelling and terrible events of Calvary, Christians now bathe for fifty days in the reflected glory of the Resurrection.<\/p>\n

\"lenten<\/a>Easter is overwhelmingly positive: it is about life\u2019s victory over death, about the forgiveness of our sins, about a new beginning for each of us, and about our welcome into a vibrant and loving community which awaits the outpouring of God\u2019s own Spirit at Pentecost.<\/p>\n

Christianity, especially in this Easter season, should be a religion of enjoyment and laughter and life. It should be surprisingly fun. Our world is being transformed by Christ through us, but that positive message will never get across if we are content to play the stereotype: if we linger too long at the level of the gossipy, dour, and judgemental Mrs. Mangel.<\/p>\n

BY SEAN CONNOLLY<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYour services are quite nice really,\u201d said a surprised visitor to my parish the other day as she left the Church. \u201cYour parishioners are really friendly,\u201d said a non-Catholic friend visiting for a weekend. I wonder what they expected?\u00a0A gang … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-previous-comment","category-previous-prayer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Harold-Bishop_Ian_Smith-1987-1991-and-1996...-1-.jpg?fit=255%2C203&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}