Since writing a blog earlier in the week
about a recent episode of Glee someone has brought to my attention the .jpg)
musings
of Ian Brennan, the co-creator of Glee on being a
Catholic.
Incredibly, Glee was given an award by a
Catholic group in the US. The decision was so incredible that Brennan himself
was surprised to receive it.
At the award ceremony, Brennan expounded on
his vision [1]
of religion and Catholicism.
For example, he said how bothered he is when
he sees “bishops deny communion to people whose beliefs they don’t
approve of”, or when people use the term ‘cafeteria Catholic’ for those who pick
and choose which Catholic beliefs they accept.
Here he cuts to the heart of his version of Catholicism (and
religion): “I think that being Catholic is a lot like being Jewish. I believe
that it is not a set of beliefs, but a heritage, a two thousand year meditation
on the very idea of belief. I consider this its enduring beauty. I believe that
therefore, almost by definition, you can disagree with most things the Catholic
Church does, and still be Catholic.”
What Brennan seems to be saying is that
Catholicism is more a search for belief rather than a belief system in itself
and all that differentiates it from Judaism – or any religion – is the tradition
within which that search takes places. That is, Jews have those ceremonies, we
have these ceremonies. Jews have those sacred texts, we have these sacred texts,
and so on.
But he could hardly be more wrong.
Catholicism, like Judaism, like Buddhism, like Hinduism and Islam is very much a
set of beliefs. It’s not only a set of beliefs, it is also a way of life and a
way of worship, but at its core is a set of beliefs, above all in
Jesus.
Brennan’s Catholicism is a wholly
relativised Catholicism, a Catholicism that never passes judgement, that has no
clear sense of right and wrong or of truth and error, an ‘I’m ok, you’re ok’
religion that reduces Jesus to a way, a truth and a life, rather than the Way,
the Truth and the Life.
In other words, Brennan’s religion has no
objective content, nothing you can grab hold of, no truths revealed by God and
handed down from age to age.
His brand of religion is uniquely suited to
a highly individualistic age that says there is your truth and my truth, but no
overarching Truth. But his brand of religion – for better or worse – is only
remotely related to Catholicism, or for that matter to Judaism, which also
comprises a set of concrete beliefs.
(Finally, and for the record, when American
bishops refuse communion to someone, it is normally to a politician who has
publicly supported abortion. Most practising Catholics still think the right to
life of the unborn is a big deal).