And to think, I considered the salvation of souls!

This is the first in a series of posts I hate to have to make.

The Catholic Courier is officially a less trustworthy source than Wikipedia.

http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=88&articleid=108675&cfid=1797499&cftoken=77341329

"Loughlin noted that students may be more willing to try new things and join new groups when they are in a group of their peers.

"The goal is to give them experiences and faith and skills that they bring back to their parish experience," Loughlin said."

NEW IN 2009: THE PARISH EXPERIENCE! Activities include a scavenger hunt entitled: Where the heck is the Tabernacle?, a prayer labyrinth, and an opportunity to come together as a community by holding hands and sitting on couches, rather than archaically kneeling for the consecration! Get your tickets today!

All joking aside, the phrase "parish experience" gives me the heebie-jeebies. After all, would this parish experience include readings of The Shack?

Let's discuss the book that's mentioned in our CATHOLIC newspaper...

“I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it”

“When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this created universe, we now became flesh and blood”

"Evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence."

"Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want.... We carefully respect your choices...."

"'Are you saying I don't have to follow the rules?'...

"'Yes. In Jesus you are not under any law. All things are lawful.'

"'You can't be serious! You're messing with me again,' moaned Mack.

"'Child,' interrupted papa, 'you ain't heard nuthin' yet.'...

"'...enforcing rules [says Sarayu] ...is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.'"

"That made Mack smile. This lady was fully enjoying herself...“We created you to share in that. But then Adam chose to go it on his own, as we knew he would, and everything got messed up. But instead of scrapping the whole Creation we rolled up our sleeves and entered into the middle of the mess—that’s what we have done in Jesus.... When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. ...flesh and blood.".

"Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims.... I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters.”

HUH?! These are all quotes from Papa, the black female God character, Sarayu, the Holy Spirit character, and the Jesus character. Of course, I suppose William Young's writing is just as good as divine revelation...you know, even though it's...kinda...sorta...heresy

If anyone finds this book encouraged by someone in your parish, please give them a smack of the crozier!

Back to the article and the main point of this post

"The goal of the essay contest -- and of campus ministry in general -- is to engage students in genuine conversation, Father Smith said.''

HUH?!

The point of ministering to college students is to engage them in conversation? That's it?! That's why Newman Centers/Clubs/Communities exist?! Remind me to shake the hands of Richard Hunt over at RIT and Brian Cool over at U of R. They are actually doing their jobs! We must stop criticizing them. After all, it appears they don't need to seek the salvation of souls, only genuine conversation.

-Arialdus