Cafeteria Christianity

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

"Cafeteria Christianity" is a derogatory term used by some Christians, and others, to accuse other Christian individuals or denominations of selecting which Christian doctrines they will follow, and which they will not.[1][2]

First use in print

The first use in print appears to be in the magazine The Month in 1992; however, a related term, cafeteria Catholicism, had already appeared in E. Michael Jones's Fidelity Magazine in 1986.

Another early use was Richard Holloway in an interview in the Third Way in September 2001.

<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

You get cafeteria Christianity, a kind of shopping for ideas you approve of. They turned out to be right for the wrong reasons, because I think that once you admit that there are in scripture large sections that by our standards are not just inappropriate but scarcely moral - such as the justification of slavery...

— Third Way, September 2001

Interpretation

Cafeteria-style means picking and choosing, as if "sliding our food tray along a cafeteria's counter",[3] referring to some Christians' making a personal selection of Christian teaching, "picking and choosing the stuff you want and discarding the rest".[4] The term implies that an individual's professed religious belief is actually a proxy for their personal opinions rather than an acceptance of Christian doctrine. The selectivity implied may relate to the acceptance of Christian doctrines (such as the resurrection or the virgin birth of Jesus), or attitudes to moral and ethical issues (for example abortion, homosexuality, or idolatry) and is sometimes associated with discussions concerning the applicability of Old Testament laws to Christians and interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. "The idea is the moderates pick and choose the parts of the Bible they want to follow."[5]

Cafeteria Christianity is somewhat related to latitudinarianism, the position that differences of opinion on church organization and doctrine are acceptable within a church.

As the Christian version of "cherry-picking theology", it is seen as a result of postmodern reading of texts, where the reader goes beyond analysis of what requires interpretation, adopting an approach where "anything goes".[6]

In The Marketplace of Christianity, economists Robert Ekelund, Robert Hébert and Robert Tollison equate Cafeteria Christianity with self-generated Christianity, i.e. the religion of many Christians which "matches their demand profile" and "may be Christian or based in other areas of thought." They conclude that "Christian religious individualists have existed in all times."[7]

Usage

Since the cafeteria Christian may be someone who wants "to reject the parts of scripture they find objectionable and embrace only the parts they like",[8] the term can be used ad hominem, either to disqualify a person's omission of a Christian precept, or to invalidate their advocacy of a different precept entirely.

Equated with "Christianity Lite", it is sometimes used to deride the mass-appeal subculture of megachurches.[9]

Cafeteria Catholicism

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Main article: Cafeteria Catholicism

The related term "cafeteria Catholicism" is a pejorative term applied to Catholics who dissent from Roman Catholic moral teaching on issues such as abortion, birth control, premarital sex, masturbation or homosexuality. The term has been in use since the issuance of Humanae Vitae, an official document that propounded the Church's opposition to the use of artificial birth control, which many Catholics quietly practice, and advocates natural family planning. The term is less frequently applied to those who dissent from other Catholic moral teaching on issues such as social justice, capital punishment, just war, or global warming. Conservative Catholics argue this is because these areas of Catholic teaching are less clearly dogmatically defined by the Magisterium, and therefore open to debate.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. "Yet a danger does still remain. It is the danger of "cafeteria Christianity," which lets people mix and match traditions any way they want, without discipline and without accountability. Unless we transcend cafeteria Christianity, our practices will be more sarabaite or gyrovague than Benedictine".
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Winters, Michael Sean (2009-01-30). "The Crowded Catholic Cafeteria". Slate.com.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Cafeteria_Christianity&oldid=280764"