  
When the Faith becomes a 'Toaster!'
When someone no longer considers the True, infrangible Faith a precious invaluable treasure, then they can consider themselves 'Toast!'
"When a priest or bishop compromises on abortion, divorce, priestly celibacy, homosexuality, contraception, and other areas, he is merely rationalizing away from his duty and toward keeping spoiled, disobedient, selfish, arrogant customers happy, which tends to keep wallets open. When humanists and liberals focus on "people" and 'personal rights' over Divine Law, they are making the customer the new god of the sale. ... When the clergy bends and twists to accept disobedience, revolt, insolence, immaturity, and abomination, all in the name of filling the pews, that clergy has sold the Treasure of the True Faith and the souls of the faithful to perdition! Those people who point to empty pews as a sign that a faith is wrong are bowing at the altar of quantity over quality."
Editor's Note: We are pleased to introduce another respected writer to The Daily Catholic cadre of Traditional writers with the addition of Gabriel Garnica. Heaven is once again under attack by those who would seek to ignore and overthrow God's majesty and authority. Gabriel Garnica, educator and attorney, will submit regular insights and commentaries to remind and help guide readers toward a deeper and more assertive faith. Touching on topics and issues ranging from personal faith, doctrine, education, scripture, the media, family life, morality, and values, Gabriel's notes will be music to tradtional ears but unpleasant tones to those who have bought into the misguided notions so prevalent and spreading in today's Catholic world.
For Sale: 1962 Catholic Faith, with modern trim, updated accessories, ignored traditions, vague additions allowing ample wiggle room, and a politically correct crucifix on the dash. So as to not offend our atheist, agnostic, modernist, humanist, feminist, homosexual, New Age, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, Protestant, and liberal friends, this model has been updated to allow for features representing and respecting their traditions as well. Although initially designed along the lines of an ancient, durable model, this version has been completely updated and recast to cater to the whims and tastes of a new customer base. This model has been redesigned with three themes in mind.
First, personal freedom, which is represented in a multitude of optional features open to personal taste and choice. Second, self, which is shown by the model's oversized ego compartment and undersized reverence trunk. Lastly, diversity and tolerance, which is shown by the fact that the model actually twists and bends to fit and accept anyone regardless of their background, sincerity, or motives, all in the name of charity, mercy, and respect, of course.
You better hurry and get one soon, because this beauty has been designed to sell fast!
Faith For Sale
The references to buying and selling are numerous in the Bible; one does not need a PhD in Ancient History to realize that, as in the present day, commerce was a vital and ever-present part of daily life in those days as well.
There is nothing innately wrong with commerce, as long as it is carried out following God's Laws. However, when the mentality of commerce spreads to areas where such thinking does not belong, we have a problem. Even a cursory view of today's religious and spiritual landscape reveals the tragic fact that the mindset of the marketplace has infected the relationship between people and their Creator. Perhaps at no other time in history has faith become so much a commodity to be packaged and sold like some toaster at a flea market. Struggling to keep and attract customers in an ever shrinking market, various faiths do the dance of the sale, degrading the sacred to a series of slick sales lines. Tragically, our Catholic faith is no exception to this destructive trend!
The Agents of The Sale
Once one allows the mindset of the marketplace to invade one's faith, the three main agents of the sale quickly infect the mind, the liturgy, and the practices of that faith. Each agent, so strategic in the realm of sales, becomes equally sinister when applied to the previously pure soil of our faith.
The Customer is always right. This sales axiom points to the notion that in order to sell an item one must cater to the desires, whims, and tastes of target customers. Powerful sales techniques can even shape those tastes to fit a pre-designed agenda, and then flood those tastes with further stimuli to create a circle of satisfaction. It is usually not a good idea to contradict or openly oppose customer desires, as sales depend on getting into the good graces of the customer. This strategy is then covered up with rationalizations and euphemisms which further please the customer while making the salesperson look good. When a priest or bishop compromises on abortion, divorce, priestly celibacy, homosexuality, contraception, and other areas, he is merely rationalizing away from his duty and toward keeping spoiled, disobedient, selfish, arrogant customers happy, which tends to keep wallets open. When humanists and liberals focus on "people" and "personal rights" over Divine Law, they are making the customer the new god of the sale.
Increase Customer Base. It makes sense that if all one is looking to do is "sell" an item to as many people as possible, anything which will increase the number of potential customers is a good thing. Applied to faith, however, this philosophy becomes a recipe for dilution and surrender of the true flavor of one's faith. Eventually, this slippery slope of increased tolerance and welcomed "diversity" results in an unrecognizable stew quite foreign to the soup which has fed the faithful for centuries. Again, this corruption of tradition is accepted because protecting tradition was never the goal. Instead, getting bodies into the pews was the focus, no matter what the souls in those bodies look like. When the clergy bends and twists to accept disobedience, revolt, insolence, immaturity, and abomination, all in the name of filling the pews, that clergy has sold the Treasure of the True Faith and the souls of the faithful to perdition! Those people who point to empty pews as a sign that a faith is wrong are bowing at the altar of quantity over quality.
Modify and Adapt...If one is to keep up with customer needs and wants, one must modify and adapt along the way, being willing to and even welcoming change with the times. Salestalk has little respect for a stubborn hold on outdated, old-fashioned notions. Those modernists who constantly seek to "renew", "update", and "revitalize" our faith are surrendering to the measures of this world rather than standing firm to the standards of The Almighty.
Popularity is a Road to Perdition
When our sacred faith becomes nothing more than a toaster to sell, we lose the sense of its value, of its integrity, and of the treasures contained within.
Instead of focusing on the adoration, the glorification, the praise, the gratitude, and the atonement with which we should approach our God, we instead look at numbers, statistics, popularity, selling points, popular opinion. Just as Adam and Eve stopped looking toward God and began to look at each other's nakedness once they had revolted against their Creator, we will also begin to focus more on each other than on our God Who rightly deserves all of our attention. When our faith becomes just another item to sell, to decorate, to make attractive using human standards, it loses its attractiveness, its beauty in the eyes of God Almighty.
Popularity has never been and will never be God's standard of holiness, sacredness, and salvation. Christ never sought it, actually sabotaged it, and died without it in the eyes of a confused world. The history of The Church shows that the way of God is usually the least popular path to take, and that popularity can often be the apple on that tree in Paradise which will take us further, not nearer, to our God. Today we see a Catholic faith which has increasingly surrendered to popular opinion, to popularity, to the tastes and whims of this secular world. In doing so, it has lost its purpose, its path, and its duty of saving souls. It is ironic that a society, a world, so intent on separating God from daily life should be so blind to the fact that God has always sought to separate Faith from the marketplace, where it does not belong. We must each ask ourselves if we have sold our faith, sold our souls, and sold out our God for the sake of buying what this world is selling us!
Gabriel Garnica
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