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| Bishop Camillo Ballin, MCCJ |
Media theorists like to talk about the power of a "narrative,"
meaning a storyline that's often more influential than reality in
shaping perceptions. For instance, violent crime rates in the United
States are at historic lows, yet popular psychology, shaped by Quentin
Tarantino and "CSI," remains gripped by a narrative of pervasive danger.
Pope Benedict XVI recently returned from his fourth trip to the
Middle East, where there's a strong Christian narrative these days:
decline and possible extinction. Given the steep drop in the native
Christian population, some fear the region will soon be a "spiritual
Disneyland," full of holy sites but empty of flesh-and-blood believers.
There's certainly reality to that, yet the narrative of decline
obscures an equally important truth. In some parts of the Middle East,
Christianity is actually booming, and those folks deserve some
attention, too.
Read the rest of this entry at The National Catholic Reporter >>
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