My initial title was too long...
“What happens to organized religions when you start mixing with people of other faiths?”
So I was just thinking about this today.
... before I start with my anecdotal stories I want to state up front that I know my experience is NOT true everywhere in the world... or even in this country (the USA). Even in my region, the Northeast, there are still closed-mixed bigoted people. So I know what I say isn’t universal, but it does seem as it is becoming the new norm. (... and. I think it’s good.)
So I was raised Catholic, went to a Catholic school, and really never interacted with anyone on an intimate basis who wasn’t Catholic. I’m sure there were some neighbors, coworkers, shop-keepers, etc. who were not Catholic... but they were probably mostly some form of Christian.
(One big exception was my uncle, who married my aunt... he was non-practicing Jewish... but we never really talked about religion.)
Now, as a child I was told that the ONLY PATH TO ETERNAL LIFE (i.e. Heaven) WAS THROUGH JESUS. This is a tenant of Catholicism (even today), and true of most other religions. My teachers and priests would make exceptions for other Christians... saying that they could go to heaven because they acknowledged Jesus as the one true son of God. No one else could go to Heaven. Not debatable. (A big reason I started questioning my faith was when as a child I learned Gandhi wasn’t Christian and I asked if he could go to heaven, and my Priest said “NO”.
Now today, my daughter’s experience is much different. She does go to a Catholic school like me... but unlike my experience many of the kids who go there aren’t Catholic or even Christian. She had a small birthday party with just her closest friends a few years back, attending were 3 Catholics (1 devout Catholic and 2 kinda Catholic In Name Only), 1 Muslim girl, and 1 Jewish girl. That’s her core friend group. They teach Catholicism at the school and all kids (regardless of religion) must take the class... but they are not heavy-handed when it comes to other religions and the emphasis is more on spirituality, the history of the Bible / Bible stories, and the teachings of Jesus in terms of the ideas he taught versus his existence as the Son of God.
The whole basis for most organized religions is that you need to basically get the blessings of the organized religion, the hierarchy, in order to achieve the right ‘state of grace’ and then (and only then) can you pass into heaven. Throughout history there’s always been a very strong “us and them” mentality, promoted by the religions, to separate people of various religions and sects.
... but when you start associating with people of other religions, and you grow up close friends with people of other faiths, and you love these people.... how can you believe your church leaders when they tell you the friend you love can’t go to heaven?
... I don’t even think the churches around here go into it... yes if you press a priest he kinda has to say the “sole path to heaven is through Jesus”.... but how do you do this in a Catholic school when you have Jewish and Muslim kids in class. You don’t!
So how will this impact religions in the short term? long term?
Will these olde religions die? Or will they evolve? Can they evolve?
I think if I told my daughter the full doctrine of the Catholic Church tomorrow she’d think it was blatantly ridiculous.... and if I said (Whcih is part of the doctrine) that you can’t “be truly Catholic and pick-and-choose the parts of the doctrine you like... it’s all or nothing” she’d drop it before she believed her friends were less heaven-worthy then herself.
Thoughts?
