Marketing guru Bob Pritchard talks with reporter Ashley Hall about marketing for the Catholic Church

“BOB PRITCHARD: The Catholic Church is all about guilt, it’s judgemental, the website looks like something from the Da Vinci Code, half of it’s in Latin.

ASHLEY HALL: The marketing guru Bob Pritchard says the Catholic Church could learn a thing or two about recruitment from the Hillsong Church, where membership lists continue to grow.

BOB PRITCHARD: And if you look at the Hillsong website on the other hand, it’s contemporary, it’s sophisticated, it’s fun. It’s all about training you for a life of significance and, you know, your life of significance keeps flashing up. It’s all about you, it’s not about God at all.

ASHLEY HALL: Archbishop John Bathersby is planning to do exactly that.

JOHN BATHERSBY: We should be able to learn from all those things. But I think, ultimately I think we’re still in a growing process.”

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1973960.htm

“We’re quite devastated by the whole thing,” Mr Hell, a Catholic father of three, said.

Mr Hell admits that he volunteered the idea of changing his son’s name to his wife’s maiden name of Wembridge, a suggestion that was welcomed by the principal of St Peter the Apostle primary school Michael McGrath.

But after mulling it over Mr Hell decided against the name change and was then told that Max would not be able to attend the school.

“We are victims of our name,” Mr Hell said.

“The school has turned around and said Max can go there but why would you want to go there after being victimised.”

The primary school said today that the Hells were looking to enrol Max at St Peter the Apostle School from a state school “because of a range of matters that were impacting on the child”.

“The issue of a change of surname of the child was an initiative of the parents which they believed would assist the child in the transition of schools,” the school said.

After discussions between the parish priest and principal, St Peter the Apostle School has made an offer of enrolment to the student.

“The school is working with the family in the best interests of the child.”

However, Mr Hell, who says an offer for his son to now attend the school came only after he went to the media, is adamant that Max won’t be going to the school.

“I’d rather go to another school – we had no problem with the public school but we just wanted to further Max’s education,” Mr Hell said.

Mr Hell, of Austrian heritage, says the name means light or bright in German.

“It’s 2007, not 1407, it’s not the Dark Ages,” he said.

Mr Hell said the family is now looking at moving to Geelong, his wife Sue’s home town, to find a school for Max.”

From http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22042826-29277,00.html

http://www.theforgottenways.org/wp-content/uploads/ffe2-07statusreport06.pdf

I suppose because I end up talking to atheists with a chip on their shoulder I’d developed the “reactive” hypothesis… I guess the “chipless” atheists aren’t so noisy!

I really appreciate your taking the time to think about it and respond… I’m always interested in how people tick and what their journeys are like.

Actually, I don’t really relate to all those Christians who’ve “always believed” and never seriously questioned it, because I doubted absolutely everything and attempted to construct a faith from absolute first principles… a rather eccentric “truth seeker”. I found myself in a group last year of people in Christian ministry training… one was an ex-Buddhist, one was an ex-Hare Krishna, one was an ex- atheist, and I sometimes felt like… “ah, here are my people”! Those slightly odd people who seem driven by a search for truth and spiritual fulfilment and test out everything.

In terms of the areas like virgin birth etc… I think because my starting point was the “big” questions rather than the little ones, they didn’t strike me as particularly problematic… having decided the best explanation of life the universe and everything was that a Creator was behind it, it just didn’t seem too hard to me that a Creator could rustle up a sperm for a special occasion if He/She wished to! Perhaps for others… questioning the little things at first leads to doubting the big things?

I’ve been thinking it over very carefully and my best explanation is that I’ve just never actually believed in God. Plenty of Christians in my family, including ministers etc and I went to church as a child, but so far as an actual ‘belief’ in God - no, never have believed. On the intellectual side of things, again everything I’ve read whether on religion, science or philosophy, has just confirmed my not believing. I suppose strictly speaking I could say I am agnostic, in accordance with Dawkins or Russell’s writings in this respect.

I’ve just been talking this over with my husband - he’s also an atheist - and he said roughly the same; he’s never believed in a God, no ‘bad’ experiences with religion, just no belief. Husband’s background as a child didn’t really include much in the way of religion, but again he says that nothing he’s seen about any religion has changed his viewpoint, but rather that it has strengthened his atheism. The quote above from Catherine Deveny actually rings very true here, from the occasions when I’ve been talking about passages from the bible with my husband (bearing in mind I’m more familiar with them than he is!).

I’ve also realised recently just how much of Christianity’s teachings that I disagree with (putting aside the question of belief). Although I agree there is good; for me there is too much that is not.
HTH
Rosy

Where I live it’s a fairly “anglo” suburb, so more “new age” than religions other than Christianity. Crystal power, angel cards, consulting mediums, “the journey”, astrology, past lives, meditation, etc. etc. Plus belief in God, but not in a churchy way. (having said that, there are quite a lot of “practicing” Christians at the local school…just that kind of area maybe?)

I’m interested in the thinking that led you to atheism (rather than the more common apathy, agnostism or default C of C position) if you’re happy to share this… it does strike me as a far more deliberate (hence thought about) position than the “no real interest” default positions.

Regarding agnosticism being more prevalent than atheism, I think it’s possibly easier for someone to say that they are agnostic, rather than atheist. In the past I’ve described myself using both terms, depending not only on my viewpoint at that particular time, but also the circumstances in which the question arose. Never forgetting of course, the wonderfully useful ‘no we don’t really go to church much’, which is usually addressed towards the CoE vicar at weddings/christenings/funerals/church fetes etc.

I think it’s also possibly the case that if someone has no real interest in really thinking about, or discussing, religion/philosophy (call it what you will) but they don’t necessarily want to be seen as being ‘religious’ it can be an easy or quick answer for them to say they are agnostic. The other ‘default setting’ as it were (certainly it used to be the case here in the UK) is for everyone to say they are CoE, even though they have never been inside a church other than for weddings etc.

By spiritual are you referring to ‘New Age’ type beliefs or religions other than Christianity?

I consider myself lucky to have friends and family who cover a wonderfully wide range of viewpoints on religion/belief/lack thereof, and I value their different outlooks on life.

Another prejudice shattered!

I’m guessing you’re a bit of a thinker to have come to this position without it being reactive… (here comes another sweeping generalisation)… I find agnosticism (”maybe there’s something out there, maybe not”) is a lot commoner than atheism. I also find belief in something spiritual (although more often, not in a religiously conventional sense) is more common than agnostism in the chicky mumsy world I tend to inhabit. What’s your take on this? Do you talk about it much?

My observation is that such beliefs are a distraction from understanding reality. Whatever beliefs you have, you still need an intact and functioning mind to have them. Why not use your mind to observe and understand reality directly? Instead of clogging up your mind with metaphysical theories of an uncertain nature.