COMMENTARY
Tension Within Religion: Christianity’s Two Main Sects
By Cat Clark
Being raised Catholic in a non-denominational household taught me how to ask questions. And not just any questions, but the hard-hitting questions on religion that most theology teachers would prefer their teenage students not ask.
It would happen almost every year during my 13 years of Catholic education. We’d reach the lesson on purgatory, confession or mortal sins and I would have a number of questions about what is fair.
Why? Why do I have to go to church every Sunday, if I can watch it on TV? Why can’t I just confess my sins directly to God? Does Purgatory really exist? It doesn’t talk about it in the Bible. If God loves everyone, then why can’t divorced people receive the Eucharist? So, what’s wrong with crop tops? Why can’t I have my ashes scattered at sea?
In ninth grade, my theology teacher really disliked questions, especially ones I asked with as much as sass as I could muster without being given a detention. After dealing with my endless badgering about purgatory’s existence, my teacher made me sit in the front of the classroom away from my friends, so she could keep a better eye on me.
At the time my questioning may have come off as smart alecky, but looking back, I realize I was just testing my educators. My religious upbringing was not like most. My father was Catholic and my mother was raised Catholic before changing sects and becoming non-denominational — or, as she would say, just Christian. After my parents’ divorce, my mother remarried. My father passed away three years later of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. So during the day, I would go to Catholic School and take religion classes, and on Sundays, I went to a non-denominational Church and learned different practices.
Although Christianity is the largest religion in the world with over 2.1 billion followers and the time of Martin Luther is long over, Catholicism and Protestantism in the United States still have underlying tension and conflict.
Growing up in both worlds, I personally witnessed a tension that seemed to divide Christians. From teachings to tradition to practice, the two main sects of Christianity push and pull like twins.
The first sign of tension I noticed was the “us versus them” mentality. Many Catholics identify as Catholic before they identify as Christian. Let’s just say this doesn’t sit well with some Protestants.
One day at dinner, I distinctly remember my mother lecturing my sister and I about how Catholics are Christians first. When I brought it up in school and at church on Sunday, my friends were confused. No way. Catholic is separate from Christian, they argued.
More tensions arose at Christian summer camp, where my counselors and fellow campers would interrogate me about Catholicism and its teachings, trying to reach an understanding of what it is. The “boring” masses versus the “exciting” worship services was another source of tension that served as a form of division and a bragging right.
The conflict between the two groups didn’t only exist in my conversations with friends, teachers and family, but also in myself. The questions I brought up in class and at church centered on conflicting teachings that differed in the two sects. In the Catholic church, people who are divorced cannot receive the Eucharist — the most important part of the Catholic faith. Although this religious rule is changing and Pope Francis has even spoken on it, the change is slow and possibly impossible. As a child of divorced parents, I felt and still feel pain knowing that people like my mother and my father, if he was alive, would be excluded from the most important moment in mass. Arguing with my theology teachers was my way of rebelling, but also of questioning teachings that I felt excluded those I loved from my faith.
I would also question the reasoning behind Confession or penance. I was questioning. I was confused. And I wouldn’t stop raising my hand or pouting until someone finally explained it to me.
I know this may sound like I’m just ranting about Catholic teachings, but a kid listens to their parents, I would learn one thing come home from school and hear about another or be told the Church was wrong and this was right. My fellow campers and Sunday school classmates would do the same.
Eventually, my questions were answered through a theology teacher who allowed me to ask as many aggressively-worded questions as my little heart desired.
My tension between the two religious parts of my childhood and faith may have been put to rest, but the U.S. still has a tension that rears its ugly head every so often. For instance, when Pope Francis said that Donald Trump was not a Christian, Republicans were quick to criticize and dismiss him and Catholicism.
Since Pope Francis’s Papal inauguration in March 2013, the news media, for the most part, has had extremely positive things to say about him and the Church. For instance, when Pope Francis spoke of tolerance toward the LGBTQ community and divorced Christians, the media immediately lit up with excitement over his open-mindedness, but then, reported on his real stance — tolerance, not marriage. In regards to Christianity as a whole, the American media covers it without real controversy, as long as Christians are not protesting Christmas trees on Starbucks’ cups.
