Byzantine Catholic Family Matters

On the Marginalization of Religion in American Life

Trinity College’s Program on Public Values published a study earlier this year which shows that secularity is growing in the United States with 15 percent of Americans professing no faith up from just over 8 percent in 1990 and 14 percent in 2001. The percentage of Americans professing that they are Christians is now 76 percent, down from 86.2 percent in the early 1990s. Related data from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate indicates that roughly one in three persons who identify themselves as Catholic actually attends Mass at least once weekly. This contrasts with the three in four who did so in 1958. That churches of all stripes are being shuttered is not surprising; Christianity has been marginalized, and so many of us have been insidiously caught up in that marginalization. We bemoan the fact that many young adults are no longer to be found in church on Sundays – “once they are out of high school, they disappear” is a line I have heard more than once. However, it is probably the last thing and, regrettably, the only thing left to go. If we attend Sunday liturgy and send our children to Sunday school because they will learn good values and it will instill discipline in them, something is missing. If we belong to a parish primarily for the social and fundraising events sponsored by the parish, again, something is missing. That something is making God the central being in our lives – our Lord, our friend, our guiding light.

Rather, religious faith and practice, if not irrelevant, too often have become nothing more than two from among a much larger cafeteria style selection of things that we might have or do to make us feel good. The 2008 Stress in America study by the American Psychological Association lists turning to prayer and attendance at religious services as two techniques people might employ to deal with stress. The study showed that less than 37 percent of those people surveyed turned to prayer and only 21 percent attended religious services during times of stress. The most popular stress reduction techniques are listening to music (62 percent) and walking or exercising (47 percent). This is instructive; if God was central most people’s lives we would expect more people to turn to prayer and religious practice during times of stress. Instead, God is marginalized.

A recent series of essays by August Turak in Forbes magazine looked at what made the business ventures of monastic communities so successful. Monasteries strive to be self-sufficient, self-supporting. Though their business ventures do not take up the largest portion of their days, monks seem to succeed in business. Mr. Turak has spent much time over the course of many years with the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina and found a number of key characteristics to the way they operate their businesses. Most important to my mind is the monks’ sense of mission. Mr. Turak found that though they have several business operations – producing and selling mushrooms and timber, for example, the monks of Mepkin are "in the business of serving God by serving one another and their neighbors." The monks are mushroom farmers and foresters second; they are servants of God first. Their lives, then, are organized around loving and serving God, one another, and their neighbors.

Praying in community, in private, and attending daily Mass are not mere choices or whims for these monks. These are conduits to the Divine which help these men love and serve God, one another and their neighbors. Unless those of us who call ourselves Christians can orient ourselves toward God and to the love and service of one another and of our neighbors, the religious faith and practice will be seen as nothing more than choices – like listening to music, surfing the net, watching TV, or drinking.

As I write these words, my neighbor, a man of faith, is in Guatemala in the midst of a week away from his busy medical practice and young family, where he and his brother are with a group building homes for the poor. When God is not marginalized, when God is central in our lives, we are better servants, and we take risks and do what seems, in the absence of God, nothing more than "ridiculous." Doing the "ridiculous" in light of our faith can serve as a beacon for our children -- it sends the message that their faith is important and has a very important relevance to the way they live, serve God, one another and their neighbors.