If you hope that other people (the hierarchy, the conservatives, the whoever) will open their hearts and minds enough to accept that they might be wrong about some aspect of their faith, you must yourself be willing to admit the same thing about your own beliefs.
We all think we’re right. We cannot all be right, and we may all be wrong.
Purgatory is one of those not-very-nice, unscientific, anti-modernist ideas. IF the subject ever comes around liberal Christians (it hardly ever does), it seems like the response is something like, “No one really believes that any more.”
I used to not, either. But now I do.
I wish I could say that I came to my belief because of deep reflection and study, or that I was won over by some theological discourse, or that the truth came to me in prayer, or that I assented in faith to the doctrines of the Church. But none of that is the case.
What did it for me was “Dream of Gerontius” by John Henry Newman.
SOFTLY and gently, dearly-ransomed soul,
In my most loving arms I now enfold thee,
And, o’er the penal waters, as they roll,
I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.And carefully I dip thee in the lake,
And thou, without a sob or a resistance,
Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take,
Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.
Angels, to whom the willing task is given,
Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest;
And Masses on the earth and prayers in heaven,
Shall aid thee at the Throne of the most Highest.Farewell, but not forever! Brother dear,
Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow;
Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here,
And I will come and wake thee on the morrow.
I could be wrong, but it seems that most people hold non-orthodox positions because they have been overly influenced by modernity. They don’t believe in the supernatural stuff (Virgin Birth, miracles of Jesus) because it’s somehow anti-scientific. They don’t believe in Purgatory or Hell because it isn’t very Politically Correct. They believe in Universal Salvation because, you know, everyone’s pretty much nice and all.
These are beliefs by default, and betray a disengagement with doctrine rather than a disagreement with it. The dissent of Otherwise Orthodox comes from an engagement with doctrine, dogma, and tradition.
My belief in, for example, the need for female ordination does not stem from a PC-infused conception of fairness or power-sharing. It is a Christological issue for me, and is a position I came to through prayer and engagement with Catholic tradition, specifically Eucharistic Adoration.
I think this is an important distinction because it means that if I want other people to agree with me (doesn’t everyone want that?) I should support and encourage deeper and fuller engagement with orthodoxy and tradition. If my heresies are, in fact, true, then I should have faith that a framework of (what I take to be) true- that is, the liturgical and theological traditions of the Church- should lead people to also believe those things.
It is only through engagement with traditional orthodox belief that heresy makes sense.
Theology, like politics, is often very polarized. You’re either a liberal or a conservative, a progressive or a traditionalist, orthodox or heretic.
Besides the problems of tribalism (us against them) there is also a problem of opinion-clustering based on your tribe- if you believe a particular thing about birth control (for example), you must also believe some other particular thing about something completely unrelated, like the death penalty.
In theology and religion, particularly in and around Catholicism, those opinion-clusters go something like this:
Liberals (or progressives) are:
While conservatives (or traditionalists) are:
Is this an absolute? No. Are there plenty of people who don’t fall completely in one place or another? Yes.
And that’s exactly the point.
There is no particular reason that certain opinions must cluster together. There is no clear line that could be drawn between one’s belief in something like the Virgin Birth and one’s tastes in liturgical music. And yet, we find that people with a particular belief in this thing over here are remarkably likely to believe in that thing over there.
This makes perhaps the least sense with liberals and progressives. From a conservative point, it makes sense that one’s opinions would conform closely or exactly with (somebody’s version of) orthodox belief. But what about the so-called free thinkers? If I have rejected one particular belief that I’m “supposed” to hold, why should I jettison the whole package? And if I do that, what exactly is the point of continuing to identify as belonging? Why work to change an institution you have no business belonging to? Is there a difference between actually disagreeing with the Church, and simply ignoring it?
Otherwise Orthodox is a way to find a path through the chaos of modern dissent. Otherwise Orthodox means that I believe in the truths passed down by the “great cloud of witnesses.” I believe in traditional doctrines and dogmas. I am willing to accept, in faith, those things within my tradition that confuse, baffle, mystify, or otherwise make no sense to me.
Except.
Except for those things which I KNOW are wrong. Except for those things, I am otherwise orthodox.
90% orthodox, 10% heretic.
This is different than simply not believing in something.
Most Catholics don’t believe in the True Presence. That doesn’t make them heretics, it probably means their just uninformed. On the other hand, a friend of mine (who taught at a Catholic School) left the Church because she did’t believe in the True Presence, and felt like a hypocrite for acting like she did. That doesn’t make her a heretic either, that makes her a Protestant.
Otherwise Orthodox means I’m not uninformed, and I’m not a Protestant. My beliefs are not due to intellectual laziness, or progressive bandwagoning. I’m not a warmed-over modernist or a groovy, anything-goes liberal.
What I am is an orthodox (Anglo-)Catholic, who believes in (what I understand to be) the core tenets of the faith. Except I disagree. I dissent.
I have to.
There is no place in traditional orthodoxy for feminism. No place for the ordination of women. No place for God who is my Mother, my Sister, my Beloved.
There is no place in traditional orthodoxy for Ecumenism, for open communion, or for Universal Salvation. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christian unity means that everyone will eventually be Roman Catholic.
There is no place in traditional orthodoxy for my gay brother, my possibly-future-priest wife, my adoptionist mother, my Zen-Catholic father.
So other than those things. Otherwise. Besides all that.
Otherwise orthodox.