BusterB: Why Jesus?

It's odd being Christian in a secular society, doubly so being Catholic Christian. At work, at home, and wandering around the streets, I wonder if the majority of people don't look at churches and wonder what's the point? Why do people turn to Jesus? Why do people go to church? What do they get out of it? On top of that, there are the Catholics, who are, in a way, the radicals of the Christian world: the least secular of the major Christian faiths.

I imagine that other people wonder about this because I used to wonder about it, too. That is, I wondered about it until I reached about thirty-five, when my wonderings turned instead toward the secular society of which I was a part, and I started to wonder what was the point of that.

Here I was, wandering about in a secular, materialistic, commercial world. I was making money (very good money at the time), buying things, traveling, eating good food, drinking good wine, and being well entertained. I wasn't a dot-com high flyer by any means, but I had more than enough for myself. Most things in the most stores were within my reach.

However, I started to wonder: is this all there is to life? Spending money, eating well, having moderate amounts of fun, and then one day I'll die. What's the point? Who will remember me? Who will care? I suppose that some people by this point have children, and they're the answer to that question, but what's the point even then? Raise children so that they, too, can have fun? In a way I'm fortunate (or unfortunate, depending upon your point of view) that I wasn't fabulously rich, having sex every weekend with a new, hot-looking woman, and living the high life. In that case I might not have bothered thinking about what it all meant.

What I was missing was a sense of purpose, a goal to shoot for. I looked around the society I lived in. I looked at what other people had as goals. I looked at what "society" said I should be doing with my life. I found many answers.

For the most part, society says, "Have fun. Enjoy life. Taste every experience, for tomorrow you may die." I found this unsatisfying: if I die in the end, what does it matter whether I enjoyed life or had a miserable life? It's not as though, in death, I will be sitting around reliving my best moments. Anyway, halfway through my life I hadn't had any "best moments" and it seemed unlikely there would be a significant improvement.
I saw people inventing their own purposes. In Vancouver we have crystal worshippers, followers of long-dead religions like Wicca, white Canadians descended from English stock taking yoga and trying to pretend they're Indian, and the inevitable screaming feminists, who are simultaneously religious fanatics and atheists.
I saw people shooting for fame and power, which at twenty looked like a good idea, but at thirty-five seemed increasingly unlikely. Besides, how many famous, powerful people seem to have a purpose? If a tenth of what you read in the supermarket lineups is true, their lives seem pretty aimless to me.
Then there was my long-time dream: to further the knowledge of humanity... to put my stamp, however small, on a brick in the pillar of human knowledge. My time doing university research taught me that the academic pursuit of knowledge was more political than politics itself.

After all of this fruitless looking around, I looked at the church. I thought of going back to my mother's church, the United Church of Canada, but the prospect wasn't encouraging. The United Church is the most democratic church this side of the Unitarians. They adjust their beliefs to suit the fashion of the day, and in fact "our" church was rife with in fighting and politics. If I wanted direction and purpose I was looking in the wrong place.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, seemed appealing. They had rules, strong beliefs, and although not everyone managed to follow those beliefs, at least they were proclaimed. I needed a beacon, a road marker. Even if I had trouble walking the road, at least I would know where it was. That is the key for me: secular society says, "If you can't follow the road, just move the signpost so it points where you're already going." The Catholic Church says, "No, this is the road. This is the signpost. Do your best to follow it."

That said, now that I'm within the Church I find that there is too much soft-pedaling for my liking. If you read the Bible, and I mean really read the message without getting hung up on the exact wording, Jesus has some harsh instructions for us. Spend your money, your time, and your energy helping the less fortunate. The more you have, the more responsibility you have. Every dollar you spend, every minute you spend, think about how God would want you to spend it. Don't live to please yourself: live to please God. Don't concern yourself with your life on earth; concern yourself with the life to come afterward. This isn't rocket science, nor is it some wacko interpretation of Scripture. It is, instead, perfectly logical and can be derived from a few simple precepts.

However, even in the Catholic Church, priests regularly tone down this message for public consumption. Yes, look after the poor, but look after yourself and your family first. Yes, concern yourself with eternal life, but don't forget about your life here on earth. They claim that the Bible needs interpretation, but I find the message perfectly clear, and not always what is proclaimed.

That said, I feel that I'm better off in the Church than out of it. At least I can hear someone talking about God, even if I disagree with them. It's more refreshing in here than it is out there in the giant party that is our society. As I said, I was looking for purpose, and I don't think there's a better prescription for life than the one laid out in the New Testament, even if I'm doing a lousy job following it.

P.S.: In that list of life purposes I forgot an important one that I came across in my university days. Nihilism is the idea that you can avoid being a hypocrite simply by not believing in anything. "Sure, I steal; I'm violent; I take the low road. However, I never claimed otherwise, so at least I'm not a hypocrite." It seems to me that that's a lot to give up simply to avoid hypocrisy. For my part, I'd rather be accused of hypocrisy but be struggling to better myself, than to give up on bettering myself only to avoid being called a hypocrite.

Why Jesus? Up Are Islamic Terrorists Insane? Faith Why Are Religious People So Weird? Why Jesus?
	It's odd being Christian in a secular society, doubly so being Catholic Christian. At work, at home, and wandering around the streets, I wonder if the majority of people don't look at churches and wonder what's the point? Why do people turn to Jesus? Why do people go to church? What do they get out of it? On top of that, there are the Catholics, who are, in a way, the radicals of the Christian world: the least secular of the major Christian faiths. I imagine that other people wonder about this because I used to wonder about it, too. That is, I wondered about it until I reached about thirty-five, when my wonderings turned instead toward the secular society of which I was a part, and I started to wonder what was the point of that. Here I was, wandering about in a secular, materialistic, commercial world. I was making money (very good money at the time), buying things, traveling, eating good food, drinking good wine, and being well entertained. I wasn't a dot-com high flyer by any means, but I had more than enough for myself. Most things in the most stores were within my reach. However, I started to wonder: is this all there is to life? Spending money, eating well, having moderate amounts of fun, and then one day I'll die. What's the point? Who will remember me? Who will care? I suppose that some people by this point have children, and they're the answer to that question, but what's the point even then? Raise children so that they, too, can have fun? In a way I'm fortunate (or unfortunate, depending upon your point of view) that I wasn't fabulously rich, having sex every weekend with a new, hot-looking woman, and living the high life. In that case I might not have bothered thinking about what it all meant. What I was missing was a sense of purpose, a goal to shoot for. I looked around the society I lived in. I looked at what other people had as goals. I looked at what "society" said I should be doing with my life. I found many answers. For the most part, society says, "Have fun. Enjoy life. Taste every experience, for tomorrow you may die." I found this unsatisfying: if I die in the end, what does it matter whether I enjoyed life or had a miserable life? It's not as though, in death, I will be sitting around reliving my best moments. Anyway, halfway through my life I hadn't had any "best moments" and it seemed unlikely there would be a significant improvement. I saw people inventing their own purposes. In Vancouver we have crystal worshippers, followers of long-dead religions like Wicca, white Canadians descended from English stock taking yoga and trying to pretend they're Indian, and the inevitable screaming feminists, who are simultaneously religious fanatics and atheists. I saw people shooting for fame and power, which at twenty looked like a good idea, but at thirty-five seemed increasingly unlikely. Besides, how many famous, powerful people seem to have a purpose? If a tenth of what you read in the supermarket lineups is true, their lives seem pretty aimless to me. Then there was my long-time dream: to further the knowledge of humanity... to put my stamp, however small, on a brick in the pillar of human knowledge. My time doing university research taught me that the academic pursuit of knowledge was more political than politics itself. After all of this fruitless looking around, I looked at the church. I thought of going back to my mother's church, the United Church of Canada, but the prospect wasn't encouraging. The United Church is the most democratic church this side of the Unitarians. They adjust their beliefs to suit the fashion of the day, and in fact "our" church was rife with in fighting and politics. If I wanted direction and purpose I was looking in the wrong place. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, seemed appealing. They had rules, strong beliefs, and although not everyone managed to follow those beliefs, at least they were proclaimed. I needed a beacon, a road marker. Even if I had trouble walking the road, at least I would know where it was. That is the key for me: secular society says, "If you can't follow the road, just move the signpost so it points where you're already going." The Catholic Church says, "No, this is the road. This is the signpost. Do your best to follow it." That said, now that I'm within the Church I find that there is too much soft-pedaling for my liking. If you read the Bible, and I mean really read the message without getting hung up on the exact wording, Jesus has some harsh instructions for us. Spend your money, your time, and your energy helping the less fortunate. The more you have, the more responsibility you have. Every dollar you spend, every minute you spend, think about how God would want you to spend it. Don't live to please yourself: live to please God. Don't concern yourself with your life on earth; concern yourself with the life to come afterward. This isn't rocket science, nor is it some wacko interpretation of Scripture. It is, instead, perfectly logical and can be derived from a few simple precepts. However, even in the Catholic Church, priests regularly tone down this message for public consumption. Yes, look after the poor, but look after yourself and your family first. Yes, concern yourself with eternal life, but don't forget about your life here on earth. They claim that the Bible needs interpretation, but I find the message perfectly clear, and not always what is proclaimed. That said, I feel that I'm better off in the Church than out of it. At least I can hear someone talking about God, even if I disagree with them. It's more refreshing in here than it is out there in the giant party that is our society. As I said, I was looking for purpose, and I don't think there's a better prescription for life than the one laid out in the New Testament, even if I'm doing a lousy job following it. P.S.: In that list of life purposes I forgot an important one that I came across in my university days. Nihilism is the idea that you can avoid being a hypocrite simply by not believing in anything. "Sure, I steal; I'm violent; I take the low road. However, I never claimed otherwise, so at least I'm not a hypocrite." It seems to me that that's a lot to give up simply to avoid hypocrisy. For my part, I'd rather be accused of hypocrisy but be struggling to better myself, than to give up on bettering myself only to avoid being called a hypocrite.