Is Your Kid On...

[Gabriela]

...Traditional Catholicism?

 

[URL=http://s813.photobucket.com/user/jesigler/media/IsYourKidonTradCatholicism_zps4f1756de.jpg.html][/URL]

Edited December 27, 2014 by Gabriela

[Era Might]

The gateway drug to atheism.

[Norseman82]

rotfl  rotfl rotfl rotfl

[Nihil Obstat]

The gateway drug to atheism.

No.

[Not A Real Name]

The gateway drug to atheism.

 

That would be the abandonment of reason or obstinacy in sin.  Usually it's obstinacy in sin. 

[puellapaschalis]

Whahaha!

[Amppax]

The gateway drug to atheism.

 

Why do you say that? 

[Era Might]

Why do you say that? 

 

Young people are prone to fanaticism of all sorts, but they eventually crash and burn when they realize the fanaticism hasn't solved the problem, and they are then disillusioned/disenchanted with their new form of faith as they became with their old form. Much the same way that marriage is the gateway drug to divorce. Human beings are always looking for perfection, and then tragically disappointed when they don't find it. Not that gregorian chant and similar things are fanatical in themselves, but in the context of the OP they usually reflect a young person in search of a more pure Catholicism...when they are disillusioned, they may become even more hardcore fanatics (sedevacantist, Eastern Orthodox, etc.) or just give up the whole quest altogether (atheism).

[Nihil Obstat]

Traditionalism is not fanaticism.
I know a lot of young Catholics who ended up atheist. Not one was traditional.

[Nihil Obstat]

Basically your knock against traditionalism is nothing more than rehashed Hegelianism. It is unoriginal and inaccurate.

[Era Might]

Basically your knock against traditionalism is nothing more than rehashed Hegelianism. It is unoriginal and inaccurate.

 

I have no idea what that means. Anyway, I have no "knock" on traditionalism other than seeing it for what it is, a refuge for people who want a purer experience of their religion that they do not get from the religion as it is practiced by the contemporary religion itself. It's not unique to Catholicism. Many Jewish and Muslim young people pine for a more "observant" and formal religion. Part of it is youthful idealism, part of it is the alienation of the modern world where religion is a disembodied private affair and young people have to construct a religion of the past as a way to make up for that lack of communal authenticity.

[Era Might]

Traditionalism is not fanaticism.
I know a lot of young Catholics who ended up atheist. Not one was traditional.

 

I could name a few on this phorum alone. Traditionalism is not a monolithic ghetto in Catholicism, but I'd say in general, it is a step toward fanaticism, or more benignly, toward a yearning for purity, perfection, an idealized past. Another, more positive, way to frame it, rather than "fanaticism" is "idealism." Young people are idealists, generally, and so "purer" movements like traditionalism are appealing, though can easily go off the rails and lead them from idealism to fanaticism.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Era Might

[Nihil Obstat]

So for you a desire to "be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" is basically fanaticism.
Yeah we get it, you lost your faith. I mostly ignore your cynicism, but I am less inclined to ignore it when you start attacking the things that matter quite a lot to me.

[Era Might]

So for you a desire to "be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" is basically fanaticism.
Yeah we get it, you lost your faith. I mostly ignore your cynicism, but I am less inclined to ignore it when you start attacking the things that matter quite a lot to me.

 

I haven't attacked anything. Simply commenting on the original post, which reflects something true about the sociology of traditionalism. Not sure what's cynical about what I've said. I see it as a positive sign that youth are idealistic, just unfortunate that they have to retreat to the past to find an environment worthy of their idealism. "Traditionalism" is rarely a good sign in society, it reflects as badly on the past as it does on the present. Both have failed to pass on anything living to the young, i.e., a real tradition that is not a nostalgic ghetto.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Era Might

[Era Might]

So for you a desire to "be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" is basically fanaticism.

 

When it takes the form of a dualistic world that begins and ends in 1962, yes. Movements have their purpose, sometimes are overzealous, but can be positive if they operate in a real environment and evolve. The early fanaticism of the martyrs and ascetics was dynamic, but the church could hardly maintain that eschatological fanaticism, it had to adapt in real and changing environments. I think non-traditionalist contemporary movements face just the same problem as traditionalism, the world for them begins and ends in 1962, and whereas traditionalism loses the spirit, these liberal movements lost the body.