Who Am I to Judge? Show Notes Part I Welcome to this month’s book club. All this month of November we’ll be reading: Who Am I to Judge? Responding to Relativism with Logic and Love by Edward Sri If you have ever heard people say: "Don't be so judgmental!""Why are Christians so intolerant?"Or "Why can't we just coexist?" Then you’ll find a lot of value in reading this book. Today, morality has been switched out for personal preference and taste. All decisions in life have been obscured to mean nothing more than picking a dish out from a menu. It’s all about the self, these days and if you have anything to say about it, you’re judgmental, intolerant and you’ll be publicly and socially ostracized for it. This was my own personal experience in high school and in college. Being someone who had religious, Catholic beliefs I knew how to live out my beliefs but not how to stand up for my beliefs without being called intolerant. That is why I picked up this book and decided to read it along with the Catholic Café Book Club. _____________________________________________ Before coming across this book, I came across the 8-part series of Who Am I to Judge? On Formed.org. If you have a subscription to Formed, you also have access to the 8-part video series as well as the printable study companion for this book. The lecture series is taught by Dr. Edward Sri in a university setting and it’s very engaging. I hadn’t finished the series when I found this book at my local parish, and I decided it was time to pick this book and take the argument against relativism more seriously. So, about the author: Edward Sri has a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He founded the program called FOCUS which stands for Fellowship of Catholic University Students. And now he is professor of theology at the Augustine Institute. _____________________________________________To give you a basic overview of this book, Part I is titled “The Challenge” as in the challenge of dealing with relativism in our modern day lives. It consists of chapters 1 & 2 Part II is titled, “A New Vision” and consists of chapters 3 - 7 And finally, part three is broken into 7 small chapters also called 7 keys for responding to relativism as well as a conclusion. So, what is Relativism? Well, the book describes relativism as, “the idea that there is no truth, that each individual decides for himself what is true and what Is right or wrong. A relativist would say that all truth claims are subjective, merely reflecting one’s personal feelings, opinions, or desires. You can have your truth, and I can have my truth, but there is no the truth to which we are all accountable.” To compare this with the google definition of relativism, google search defines it as, “the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.” Another thing I would like to point out what Pope Benedict has to say about relativism in our modern culture and society. Quoting a journal entry in Duke Press, “In the last homily he gave before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger described modern life as ruled by a “dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely” of satisfying “the desires of one's own ego.”” Relating to the Catholic churches fight against relativism, I wanted to share with you this article from 2005 regarding the Catholic Church and Relativism. It reads, “The new leader of the Roman Catholic Church has denounced moral relativism, the idea that moral principles have no objective standards. Pope Benedict XVI has characterized it as the major evil facing the church. Some observers believe he is taking a stance in the tense cultural wars in the United States.” I pointed out the article from NPR and the quote from Pope Benedict because I feel that they relate to my own personal battle with relativism in my own life. I’m 29 years old. I went to university to study English and psychology and my husband studied computer science in 2015. We both know firsthand what it’s like to deal with relativists in the classroom, in the workplace and among our friends and relatives. For me, it’s not uncommon to hear sayings in everyday speech like: "You do you""There's my truth and there's your truth""Live your truth""But I'm not hurting anybody""That's the way he/she is""I accept myself as I am" And for me, it’s been increasingly difficult to exist among my peers with my Catholic beliefs without keeping my beliefs to myself. I am hoping this book will teach me how to live out my faith without being a closeting Catholic among my relativist friends and family. _____________________________________________So, to recap the schedule for this month’s book club: Week 1: Basic Overview of the Book & Author (this podcast) Week 2: Part I (Chapters 1 & 2) ...
