Opinions: Church should not be an annoying obligation

 by Garrett Cleverly
 published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008

As a regular churchgoer who is Catholic, I get frustrated with a certain group of people who give religion a bad name, especially when such small easy steps could be taken to fix their image. These people are called "Christers," the combination of the words Christmas and Easter.

Obviously, these are the two most important holidays to any Christian, and personally they're my favorite — great food is cooked and spending time with the extended crazy family is always fun. But since I go to church every Sunday and usually sit in the front row with my family, I hate going to Christmas Eve and Easter masses.

At these two masses, the church is packed with people who you will never see again and who are completely disrespectful of the church's teachings. It's these people who give whatever faith they are a bad name, which completely turns people off of the teachings of God. And I know that my religion isn't the only one where these people exist.

However, this is still not what bothers me most about "Christers." Rather, it's the fact that these people lack understanding of the Bible and what the priest has to say. This lack of understanding in the basic messages then makes them tell other people misconceptions. The problem with this is that more people are going to listen to their mild-mannered friend talking about the Bible than the crazy guy on the side of the street yelling about going to hell for listening to rock 'n roll — everyone already knows that guy is messed up in the mind.

What I also find frustrating is that by only attending Mass two times out of the entire year, how could anyone get any meaning from church? When you try to tell people about your religion, what are you going to tell them? Most likely, it will be bad information about your beliefs and the ones of the church you "belong" to.

I'm not saying that everyone needs to go to church and follow every single rule — I rarely follow the teachings of my church and have confessed things to a priest that no one ever will. But if more people would actually attend church at least once a month, could you imagine how much more civil the world would be? I don't think the Bible is something to be taken literally, but rather as a way to help guide your life.

In fact, that is usually the misconception that people have especially when it comes to Catholics, yet I can't even recall a time when my priest told the parishioners to take the Bible literally. Instead, all he says is to try to be a good person every day, and to do unto yourself as you would want others to do to you.

I feel sorry for people who have been turned away from faith because they're missing something important in their lives; it gives people moral fiber, it gives you the hope that everything will be OK.

I have gone through times in my life when I hated God and wanted nothing to do with church. But I got over those feelings. It saddens me to think that those "Christers" will never experience God's true love all because, what, they're too lazy?

I rarely talk about my faith, and I'm sure some people don't ever want to hear it. I know it's hard to trust faith and God, especially when you can't even see them. But trust me, miracles do happen. This is why I go to church every week.

And for those "Christers" out there who think God is not there, just remember Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."

Garrett can be reached by e-mail at gcleverl@asu.edu.