faith

I recently read a blog post titled 'Freedom from Choice' from the Red Sweater Blog (a blog by Daniel Jalkut, a Mac programmer) with great interest, considering the subject matter (Steve Jobs, computing, and free/open source software). In the post, Daniel speaks about how Steve Jobs' decisions to restrict certain 'freedoms' on the iOS and Mac platforms has helped Macs, iPhones, and iPads become more focused and consumer-friendly devices.

The reason for this is that the user no longer has to worry about making a thousand decisions to accomplish a simple task.

Daniel said that Richard Stallman, a staunch 'everything must be free' software programer, "paints Jobs as a robber of freedoms, first and foremost, while neglecting to acknowledge the many liberties he brought, for example to those of us who can’t, or don’t want to build our own computing infrastructures."

This is readily apparent and admitted by those in the computing world who realize that giving people a command line/terminal and telling them to go to town is a very bad idea. Most people I know would (and do) quickly ruin their computers because of the level of control they have over them. How many people do you know have laptops that are always locking up, shutting down, or messing up due to software people installed on them, additions people made, or simply the little things people have done to their computers for the sake of making them 'their own'. (It's the same with many Android phones, in my experience...).

Is it not the same in our personal lives, in the realm of morals and faith? Everyone subscribes to some moral system or faith/religion (whether it's formalized or not), and some people (like me) choose to belong to a faith (Catholicism) which helps us make the decisions that will help us be better humans, free of the 'malware' and ailments that eat at our souls and self-images.

A lot of people don't believe this, but take the example of abortion: With the option of abortion on demand, women in desperate situations seem to have two options:

1. Have an abortion to solve the problem of an unwanted pregnancy.
2. Struggle through a nine-month, inconvenient pregnancy, and either give the baby up for adoption or struggle through raising a child, and generally live a more difficult life*.

Many people would choose number 1... it gets rid of the problem, right? However, if you're Catholic, and you realize that there is no option 1 (the ends don't justify the means), you begin to open your eyes to the additional possiblities that result from choosing life:

• You could learn to make ends meet, and become a better person by dealing with the situation and raising a child as well as you can.
• You could give a great gift to a family hoping and praying for a child by offering your baby for adoption.
• You could learn about the miracle of life developing inside the womb, and cherish that life, and increase the amount of love in your world by sharing yourself with the new life through love and nurturing.

Often, restricting your 'choices' leads to new and unforseen freedoms; on my iPad, I'm free to spend more time reading articles and news, and interacting with people, since I can't give into the temptation of constantly configuring inane system settings or managing 25 open applications like I do on my Mac. In my life, I can spend more time loving my wife and building our relationship (instead of harboring bad feelings or feeling remorse), even when it's tough to do so, because I know that divorce is not a choice.

When you give up the idea of freedom to do any possible thing, you free yourself to make easier—and better—choices.

*To every man in the world: if you're going to have a sexual relationship with a woman, deal with the consequences like a man. It's your duty to love and nurture that child, not to abandon the mother and child. Real men don't ignore the consequences of their actions. (This, ironically, is another reason why the Church wants people to wait until marriage to have a sexual relationship... it helps keep people honest, at a minimum!).

This week's St. Louis Review has a few excellent articles that I thought I should share here for the benefit of those reading this blog who may not be from St. Louis.

First is a column from Archbishop Carlson, in which he stresses the importance, and individual responsibility, of the Sunday Obligation. He definitely doesn't sugarcoat things—we need more of this from our leaders!

There is simply no excuse for missing Mass on the Lord's Day. If through your own fault you miss Mass on Sunday, you are committing a serious sin. You should not receive holy Communion until you have gone to confession. (Continued...).

Next up is a 'Dear Father' response from Fr. John Mayo, a friend of mine, concerning the need to celebrate Wedding ceremonies inside physical Church buildings (rather than having 'destination weddings' on beaches, or at otherwise secular locations):

One of the sacraments of the Church is marriage. This sacrament is initiated by a wedding ceremony. Since this ceremony is an act of sacred worship, it properly takes place in a church or chapel.

Why is the joining of two people in marriage an act of sacred worship? First, by Christ's ministry, we know that He intended to restore marriage to its original state: a lifelong commitment of life and love between a man and a woman. He not only restored it, He raised it to the dignity of a sacrament (Matthew. 19:3-12). (Continued...).

Speaking of marriage, this week the Review also had it's yearly 'Christian Marriage' supplement, which is full of great advice for those considering/planning a marriage, and for those who want to be inspired by the oldest married couple in Missouri, or a 'team' of Mizzou fans. More from the Review »

The St. Louis Review published a 'Living Our Faith' section on Technology and Faith in their most recent newspaper (Feb. 25th issue), and it highlights the fine line between faith and technology.

Two issues I have been thinking about more than others lately are technology as a distraction, and the distance between the Church and mainstream culture in implementing new tech/media initiatives.

To the first, the article reminds the reader, through the words of seminarian Gregory Carl, "Media and technology have a way ofgrabbing up a lot of your time and drawing attention to itself. In a certain sense, our object is to use this means of communication so that in due time, we can set those things aside and be in communion with Christ. There's almost a kind of dichotomy there."

I have been pondering this dichotomy for quite some time, with special consideration for my current role in the Archdiocese. How can I best be a steward of God's gifts, and a tool of evangelization, but continue to keep my priorities straight, and my attention focused on eternal unity with God?

To the second, I am quite happy to report that my quote in the article doesn't make me cringe (for once), but actually sounds half intelligent! I said "Catholic iPhone app development is going at the same rate as Catholic web devleopment... We have a lot of catching up to do." And I meant it.

Anyways, I plan on continuing both of these threads of thought in future blog posts, both here and on Open Source Catholic. I have enough compiled notes and reflections on both of these topics that I could write short books already. Who knows, maybe I'll get the time someday. For now, I will remain distracted by these glowing technological wonders around me ;-)

The article also mentions a new App to be released by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. More on that to come!