Thanks to the atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation and the New York Times for reminding the rest of the world what that anti-Catholicism is still fashionable in America. As Charles Lewis at Canada’s National Post reports:
The American culture wars are never far from the surface but on Friday they moved to a new level with the publication of a full-page advertisement in the New York Times that blames the Catholic Church for most of the world’s ills.
It is titled: “It’s Time To Consider Quitting the Catholic Church.” The ad features a cartoon of an insane bishop, screaming at the top of his lungs over the issue of birth control pills. To the right is a disgusted looking woman with her arms crossed saying, “It’s hard to swallow.”
The tag line at the bottom of the page says: “Please, Exit En Mass.”
The NY Times ad comes across either as an excuse to spew bigoted hate speech and ridicule towards the Catholic Church, or as a sign of desperation and instability in FFRF:
Parody translation of the FFRF ad at:
http://sytereitz.com/2012/03/translation-of-ffrf-quit-the-catholic-church-nytimes-ad-or-its-not-easy-being-free-from-religion/
Of course maybe it would be better if all the “liberal, nominal, or progressive” Catholics (or any other lukewarm Christians) did just quit the church. It would make the battle lines more clearly drawn.
I know what Jesus said about people who are lukewarm, but I am not anxious to drive anyone out of the Body of Christ. There is always the chance that God will speak to them through a sermon or a Bible passage or the example of another church member (or directly via the Spirit!) and bring them closer to Him if they are attending worship and Bible study and exposed to prayer and the fellowship of others.