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...
It is this kind of thing that keeps young families from attending Mass. Parents need to bring their children to church so that they learn how to behave during Mass. If they are not welcome they will never learn. I'm not bothered by crying babies at church or chatty toddlers. It bothers me much more when I look around my church on Saturday night or Sunday morning and see that everyone who attends Mass is either bald or has white hair. When the age 50+ crowd has passed on, there will be no one attending Mass. This kind of unwelcoming attitude towards babies and children doesn't do anything to convince young families to start coming to church!
ReplyDeleteI agree the priest probably should have stayed silent on the matter during mass but I can sympathize with him and he would have been within his rights to approach the parents after mass to kindly suggest they take screaming baby out in the future. They really should have known better.
ReplyDeleteI remember a Christmas Eve service where the exact same thing happened in our church. I was never so happy to see the end of mass and never more disconnected from the celebration of the Eucharist. It was torture and I don't know how our Priest managed to get through it. Everyone in the congregation was irritated, distracted and happy to leave.
As the author suggested, if a handful of cheerios or some books don't tame the situation, a walk to the back or a retreat to a quiet area does the job. Its how we dealt with our children when they became a distraction at mass. I would think its simple common courtesy to remove a screaming child from a Church or any other occasion where their screams would interfere with or distract from the event.
As the author also noted, screaming babies are not the only poor judgment calls you can see in church these days on the part of the congregation.
Cheers
Paul