Good will to all men? Not from the grumpy atheists! (Thank God not all atheists are grumpy but there sure seems to be a lot of them)
Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteNot much for anyone to disagree with in Mr. Chaput's letter. He has big problems ahead of him, and he is going to have to undertake some serious downsizing in order to meet the new financial realities of his diocese.
I suspect declining church enrollment has hit more dioceses than just Pembroke, London, and Philadelphia. The sex scandals have been a perfect storm for you guys: not only do you have to cough up big bucks to settle lawsuits, but the scandal is also hitting the collection plate as more parishoners stay home and tune out.
Not sure I see any good way out for the Church. Liberalizing and democratizing did not work out so well for many mainline Protestant denominations, and adopting a narrow, orthodox hard line is not a big tent growth strategy.
It is a great marketing problem to be sure. Have you guys considered using one of the Madison Avenue heavy hitters like BBDO, or do you do all this stuff in-house?
Cheers...Martin