In a quick report from the state of Texas, I thought I'd mention that I saw a bumper sticker here that said, "PROUD CATHOLIC". Almost immediately upon seeing it, I wondered if the people manufacturing it, the store selling it, or the person who put it on their car was really paying attention to what it said. Because generally speaking, "pride" is something the Bible doesn't actually recommend for Christians.
Then again, perhaps that's the point. Maybe the bumper sticker is a form of mortification, something the car's owner put on there to remind themselves and inform others that they still suffer from the sin of pride. Perhaps there's a whole line of them--you can get an "ENVIOUS CATHOLIC", a "WRATHFUL CATHOLIC", or a "GLUTTONOUS CATHOLIC" sticker to put on your car, just to let everyone know that you still have a ways to go before you can call yourself a saint.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm pretty sure Catholicism is different from some of the other Christian faiths in that pride is NOT considered a bad thing.
I believe that's actually a problem some Protestants have with Catholicism, that they have ornate churches and have "idols" (statues of Mary, etc.).
If it was a sign for a Proud Methodist, though, then I think it would, in fact, be a nice bit of irony.
Actually, Pride is one of the seven deadly sins for catholics, so it is certainly considered a bad thing.
...but "pride" as a deadly sin isn't quite what we mean by "proud" - it's more along the lines of "false pride" or "hubris"
God doesn't mind you being justifiably proud of the good work you do. Heck, God himself looked at the universe he created and "saw it was good" - it's cool to be proud of your achievements. What's NOT cool, what is a deadly sin, is to be egotistical. If you start saying "I can do what I want because I'm better than you" - that's the false pride that's sinful. If you start thinking that you can make golden statues that would be better to worship than God. If you think you can disregard the rules Jesus tells you to follow because you know better... all that stuff is teh naughty.
So that catholic was fine with his non-ironic bumper sticker. We just misunderstand because of the word choice in the most common bible translation.
... this coming from an atheist, who happens to be interested in religion and how people interpret things. So I don't have any particular desire to defend or condemn. Just an interest in the usual misunderstanding of that particular deadly sin.
Post a Comment