Oy.
I appreciate the efforts of the Diocese of Brooklyn to call people to the Church, but I am not sure this is the right approach.
Is trying to make the Church seem cooler the answer? The Church is timeless and when properly explained, I think that is a very attractive thing. I don’t know if trying make Jesus into a Converse wearing hipster is the answer. It is a very narrow message with a short expiration date, is that how you sell something timeless and universally true?
What do you think?
April 25, 2013 at 3:06 pm
It reminds me of cardinal Carlin's buddy christ.
April 25, 2013 at 3:07 pm
Not only narrow, but "forced", "faked", "Nixon doing disco". It is one thing to show how a timeless truth is relevant to the present, but a complete disaster to attempt to camouflage a timeless truth in a present fad.
Everyone sees through these artificial attempts, and it is simply embarassing. Just teach it straight up.
April 25, 2013 at 3:08 pm
"The soul becomes deadened by the spirit of the world, and possessed by sin that lives in the world. The entire structure of our Church services, with their tone, meaning, power of faith, and especially the grace concealed with them, have an invincible power to drive away the spirit of the world. In freeing the soul from the world’s onerous influence, it allows the soul to breathe freely and to taste the sweetness of spiritual freedom." …St. Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894)
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2013/04/orthodox-christian-services-restore-the-soul/
KM
April 25, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Young people have finely honed BS detectors. I find it more effective in conveying the Truth to young people if I tell it all, unvarnished: the joy, the suffering, the depth of love. But that doesn't make for a good bus stop ad.
April 25, 2013 at 4:11 pm
No trying to use gimmicks to make the Church and the Faith attractive to the young or to people in general is doomed to failure as it was in the recent attempts to attract vocations. The reason is you can't trivialize the Faith by the modern culture's standards and this was done by many after Vatican II and it ended up with priests and nun's going to "sensitivity training" and the "human potential movement" God help us.
April 25, 2013 at 4:20 pm
Dukakis in a Tank worthy. Bleah.
April 25, 2013 at 4:25 pm
Oy vey.
April 25, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Silly. Doomed to fail. More than a little embarrassing.
April 25, 2013 at 5:23 pm
Dumb it down a little more… This is a ridiculous ad campaign. If you want to see how a church really grows, check out "Where Heaven Meets Earth" on April 30 on EWTN, 4:30 Eastern, 5:30 Central time.
This documentary shows how celebrating the faith in all of it's history and glory has taken a parish that might have been closed, to one that is thriving in just a few short years.
http://www.stpeterchurch.net
The film makers web pages are: http://www.storytel.org/
That is how you grow a Catholic parish. Full disclaimer, this is my parish.
April 25, 2013 at 8:06 pm
This is both patronizing and cringe-making, perhaps an excresence of the youth ministry milieu, "reaching the young where they are," and so on. We know where they are; we need to tell them the Truth, not talk down to them.
– Mack in Texas
April 25, 2013 at 8:43 pm
Marketing the Church as contemporary, modern, trendy, etc. rather than what it is -salvation which requires deep thinking, prayer, devotion and self control, makes me think of our university. We wanted more rude to so we lowered standards for admission. Guess what, we got more students. These student were supposed to bring in more meh, but guess what. Net loss. They required extra services, remedial courses, social workers, administrative staff to deal with their "issues". What we should have done is say, we have a 150 year old reputation as one of the best science institutions of higher Ed and if you want to work hard and get a degree from here, then you will be one of the few, the proud, etc.
you get the idea. You get what you deserve and I fear these types of adds may…MAY bring in re people who wear t shirts and jeans to mass.
April 25, 2013 at 9:37 pm
The Episcopalians had a campaign like this some years back. Since then, their membership has declined greatly. I don't think the ad campaign was the sole reason, or even a reason for the decline, but it certainly didn't help them at all.
April 25, 2013 at 9:41 pm
I think Cardinal Dolan should tell them to deep six this idiocy immediately. Ya think ? Ahhahahahaha……
April 25, 2013 at 10:34 pm
….a new coarse in remedial education theology
for sheep….WHO DON'T KNOW THEIR SHEPARD!
….really…..
….how about simply….
….just trusting and believing in our faith because Jesus said so!
April 25, 2013 at 10:46 pm
Don Draper would tell Peggy that the last thing people are thinking about when seeking a new religion is its founder's need to bathe.
April 26, 2013 at 1:12 am
Anon 4:41, Card. Dolan is not in charge of the Brooklyn Diocese. That would be Bishop DiMarzio.
April 26, 2013 at 7:46 am
to Amy Giglio, Sorry and thank you.
April 26, 2013 at 9:25 pm
When we will we learn that every time we dumb down the Church and her teachings so ss to appeal to the young, all we accomplish is driving them further away?
April 27, 2013 at 2:40 pm
Not only is it lame, but I shudder to think how much parishioners' money was spent on it.