Monday, October 3, 2011

Changes are Not Coming


Last week, Facebook made some changes that cause quite the uproar. People were crazy and upset. Some said they were leaving for Google + and others were just leaving social networking all together. I kind of chuckled. After playing around with the changes for a little bit, I came to the conclusion that they were not that awful. I also thought it was funny because it seems to be a cycle. Facebook makes changes periodically and it seems like every six to eight months they make a change makes everyone angry. They want Facebook to go back to the way it was. They form groups and start petitions. They never seem to realize that they Facebook they want back is the same one they were ranting and railing about six months ago after the last changes.

Things change. Especially in today's technology driven world. When I joined the police department in 1998 all you needed to do to get into service at the begining of your shift was grab the car keys and a radio. Now, you need no less than 8 log-ins/passwords and it takes about thirty minutes to get in service at the beginning of the night and about ten minutes to log off of everything at the end of your shift.

Even things in the Church changes. In a couple of months, we are going to see lots of changes in the mass. The words of prayers will changes. Songs will change.  What we say in response will change. There is a lot of time and effort getting people ready for these changes. But, what I love about the Catholic Church is that while, yes, some things do change, the basic fundamentals of the church do not change and have not changed in two thousand years.

When it comes to facts about faith and morals the Church does not change her stance because these are truths given to us by God and truths do not change. What was wrong in the times of the apostles is still wrong today. This is very important in today's world where society is always changing.

Other religions do change what they believe based on what society tells them. There are some things that most protestant religions taught were wrong eighty years ago but today they say is perfectly okay. On a practical basis, this does not make sense. How can something be wrong today but okay tomorrow? Society makes changes on what it wants to do, on what is easy and what "feels good." God never promised that things would be easy. In fact, He repeatedly says that things will be difficult.

So, Facebook may change your news feed and add time lines. Technology may making things more difficult instead of easy. But the Church does not change truth---it cannot change truth--just because society tells her she should. Reason #13,682 why I love the Roman Catholic Church.

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