Brandon Vogt - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Wed, 18 Nov 2015 07:30:06 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Brandon Vogt - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 From sceptics to shruggers: The six different kinds of lapsed Catholics https://cathnews.co.nz/2015/11/20/from-sceptics-to-shruggers-the-six-different-kinds-of-lapsed-catholics/ Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:12:06 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=79043

A recent poll, which Fr Lucie-Smith has blogged about [recently], suggests that 40 per cent of the British don't believe that Jesus was a real historical figure. Here is another depressing statistic from the US: 79 per cent of Catholics who lapse, do so before the age of 23. I learnt this from the blog Read more

From sceptics to shruggers: The six different kinds of lapsed Catholics... Read more]]> A recent poll, which Fr Lucie-Smith has blogged about [recently], suggests that 40 per cent of the British don't believe that Jesus was a real historical figure.

Here is another depressing statistic from the US: 79 per cent of Catholics who lapse, do so before the age of 23.

I learnt this from the blog of Brandon Vogt here.

Vogt is an eloquent and erudite young American who is actively trying to share his faith, challenge the dreary zeitgeist and bring back the lapsed . . . .

Vogt describes six different reasons why young Catholics leave the faith.

The first is that they are merely "cultural Catholics" who go under the label "Catholic" but who have no personal, meaningful faith whatsoever. They might go to Mass sometimes to please their parents, or at Christmas, but the label merely masks "a lifeless and decaying faith life".

Vogt thinks it is easier to talk to an atheist than a cultural Catholic, as the atheist at least knows he/she isn't a Catholic. According to Vogt, most US Catholics are in this category.

The second group are the "shruggers" - complacent people who simply shrug their shoulders at the big questions in life.

They are too mentally lazy to care about faith. They need to be convinced that knowing the purpose of our lives does matter and that responding with "whatever" is ducking their responsibility to engage with profound questions. I suspect this might be a hard category to reconvert.

The third group is "I am spiritual but not religious" - those who reject doctrine or religion but who still believe in a higher power and who still pray.

For this group, watching a sunset is a spiritual experience as valid as anything else; what you feel is all that matters. Continue reading

Sources

From sceptics to shruggers: The six different kinds of lapsed Catholics]]> 79043 Get tweeting - now! https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/10/28/get-tweeting-now/ Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:30:13 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=14453

Get tweeting now! Why on earth would a church be terrified of using the new media? As Brandon Vogt, author of The Church and New Media says, if biblical stories have used pillars of fire, bright stars, burning bushes and a talking donkey to get the point across surely blogging, Facebook and Twitter are tame Read more

Get tweeting - now!... Read more]]> Get tweeting now! Why on earth would a church be terrified of using the new media? As Brandon Vogt, author of The Church and New Media says, if biblical stories have used pillars of fire, bright stars, burning bushes and a talking donkey to get the point across surely blogging, Facebook and Twitter are tame in comparison.

Read Sande Ramages's Blog

Sande Ramage is a blogger and An Anglican priest. She says her spiritual freedom has been hard won and is just as hard to maintain.

 

Get tweeting - now!]]> 14453 The Church and the new media https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/08/05/the-church-and-the-new-media/ Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:30:57 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=8501

A recently published book by Brandon Vogt "The Church and New Media" is described as "not Danielle Steele or John Grisham, but this new book by blogger Brandon Vogt is a fascinating and — dare I say it? — provocative piece of work, though in this case "provocative" means "provoking thought." In his review Greg Kandra says the Read more

The Church and the new media... Read more]]> A recently published book by Brandon Vogt "The Church and New Media" is described as "not Danielle Steele or John Grisham, but this new book by blogger Brandon Vogt is a fascinating and — dare I say it? — provocative piece of work, though in this case "provocative" means "provoking thought."

In his review Greg Kandra says the book has a foreword written by Cardinal (and blogger) Sean O'Malley, and an afterword by Archbishop (and blogger) Timothy Dolan. There are chapters by Fr. Robert Barron, Mark Shea, and Lisa Hendey, among others. The reader gets a vivid and revealing glimpse at how social communication in the church is carried out these days — with everything from Kindle to Facebook to podcasts thrown into the mix.

The Church and the new media]]> 8501