(Yet another warning before reading this–I have not been proofreading my NaBloPoMo posts, so I apologize if they do not transition well or make complete sense.  I’m trying to just go with the flow–ha! (or not?)–and ignore my perfectionistic tendencies.  I’ve also been writing usually whilst doing other things, so my writing is very…uhm…undeveloped and rough.  I apologize for not polishing my work up more for you.)

This sort of stems from my post the other day. I should probably preface this all by saying that this is not exclusive to Catholics, I’m only focusing on them because that’s where my experience lies, and that this is not true across the board; it is a generalization, and I would like you to take it as such. In fact, take it with a grain of salt. It might be more tolerable that way. This is merely what I’ve noticed with devout, practicing Catholics.  (Also, for the sake of any and all friendships, let’s assume I’m not talking about you.  Have I written enough to try to weasel my way out of being yelled at?  No?  Maybe?  Ok, one more–don’t listen to anything I say, because I’m an idiot.  Ok.  There.)

I’m also highly distracted, so this won’t be written the way I’d like it to be; it’ll be clumsy and probably not concise in the least, so I apologize in advance.

In Catholicism–well, any Christian denomination, really–you hear a lot about evangelization.  Everyone has their own method of it, often times that method being witnessing your faith through example.  I’ve noticed that for a lot of people this basically means that they don’t evangelize at all, but this is one way of saying that they do.  Don’t be confused, I’m not judging–in this society, the topic of faith tends to be a taboo one, and one which often causes tension, if not controversy.  I generally think that witnessing one’s faith by example is the best form of evangelization, but having come from a secular background, I can also attest that while this method  can be particularly effective, it can also be very exclusionist.

You see, people who are not religious, or who do not adopt your particular religious convictions, find this quite wonderful, because they are in no way flooded with undesired conversations.  However, people never really learn about your faith either, and this makes it difficult for conversion or religious toleration/understanding to occur unless non-Catholics seek that information out on their own.  Call me cynical, but I’m guessing this doesn’t happen a lot.  I find this to be rather problematic, because even if a seed for conversion isn’t planted, it’s important to know where people are coming from.  It’s important to understand what someone believes and why.  Though, if we’re being frank, a lot of Catholics don’t even know the answer to those questions (not claiming expertise on my end of things), much less non-Catholics.

So, I’ve noticed that a lot of Catholics tend to cut themselves off from the world.  I can understand their reasons.  After all, as a whole, we’re labeled as being old-fashioned, intolerant and not with the times.  That doesn’t exactly make you want to become chummy with people who perceive you that way.  It also makes for a less dramatic existence.  It makes for an easier existence.  That means it makes for a stagnant existence.  We don’t grow in the ways that we otherwise could, not just personally, but spiritually.  It’s easy to hang out with people who share your beliefs; it challenges you to grow, sure, but it’s a different kind of growth than, say, having to defend your faith to someone who mentally invalidates it.  Anyway, isn’t it God who reminds us that we may live in this world but we’re not of this world?  Hey, He’s giving us our excuse to close ourselves off from people who don’t share our convictions!  Right?

I personally see this result in a huge lack of evangelization and a huge contribution to misunderstanding between people.  It makes Catholics come off as being cold, exclusionist and, well, arrogant.  That’s not exactly the message you want to be sending to non-Catholics, because it’s not true, but having come from the other side of things, it absolutely seems that way.

Of course, then you have the Catholics who are quite extroverted in their evangelization, the ones who speak about their faith in great length and frequency.  That can pose problems, too, because it often become a monologue at that point rather than a dialogue.  Admittedly, having a dialogue can be rather difficult, especially in print.  The point, though, is that that form of evangelization can seem acerbic at times.

I guess this all stems from my personal belief that evangelization begins with conversation and understanding.  You can’t effectively evangelize without understanding where someone is coming from, because people are different, and it’s not an instance of one argument fits all.  You need to know where someone’s coming from, you need to know what they believe and why, and you need to meet them where they are, not where you’d like them to be.  You need to listen to them, not just talk to them, because people believe in their convictions, and they have reasons for them.  It’s a delicate path to travel because people’s hearts are invested in such things, and  people who actively evangelize can unintentionally offend others because of it.

It just seems to me like a lot of devout Catholics tend to fall into one camp or the other–actively hiding away from the world (because the pugnacious non-Catholics annoy the Hell out of them–but, hey, this is good; less time in Purgatory, friends!) (That was a joke.) or jumping into the middle of things, guns blazing.  Neither approach really seems to work, at least in my personal experience, because neither really seeks dialogue and conversation, and both seem to contribute to heightened tension and misunderstanding.

Because, ultimately, regardless of how an individual identifies his or her faith, Catholics believe we are all one in Christ.  We are united by Christ’s death and resurrection, and even if we do not accept this as a personal truth, Catholics maintain that it holds as a universal truth, and one that unites us at that.  If we ever hope to change the world, we must integrate ourselves into it, and we should seek first for mutual understanding and respect.  Should that plant the seed that leads to conversion, then awesome, but if not, I dare say we’d still be yielding a positive return on our efforts.