Alright, as with most dissertations this one is holding nothing back. WARNING: Critical Thinking is strongly advised!
So what does the Catholic Church have to do with Marketing?!
I want to start by saying everything.
I don’t usually put jargon in this blog as it is all-too-often misinterpreted and/or misleading but according to the detailed Pew multi-country survey in 2014, 69% of the Latin American population is Catholic… How did they manage that?
While 19% is Protestant, rising to 22% in Brazil and over 40% in much of Central America. More than half of these are converts.
Right off the bat we see a spiritual monopoly taking place. This is no coincidence, but rather the effect of years of top-notch marketing being administered, that so caused the influx in Roman Catholicism. Thus the regression of older and more American Native denominations. This is great for the Catholic Church of course… however if the Pope’s end is too convert everyone to Catholicism, he may want to take another approach… Lets take a look at the consequences of monopoly marketing in the Western religious perspective:
This is taken from a reddit thread wherein someone asked: How many others were turned off from the idea of Religion by attending Catholic school for years?
The answers are stark, but nonetheless honest…
“My mind went back to a conversation I’d had years ago with an old friend. He was a long-lapsed Catholic, but he had decided to send his son to a Catholic school. When I asked him why, he said one word: “Inoculation.” His theory was this — all religions and cults were dangerous, and he did not want his son involved in any of them. The problem was, if he raised his son with no religion at all. Then the boy might well fall prey to the first religion or cult that he came across later, just out of curiosity and naivety.
If he was a Catholic, on the other hand, he would at least know a religion from the inside. And in my friend’s opinion, Catholicism was the laziest and most stagnant of the western religions. Hence the simplest for his son to rebel against while growing up. And having seen through the nonsense of one religion, he would never then fall prey to another. He would have had his inoculation shot, and would now be immune.”
– 2016 Australian author Andrew McGahan
Another One
“I like to think I was always an atheist, but Catholic school sure didn’t do much to make belief appealing. At % years old, I “learned” about God for the first time. Apparently he watches us all the time, yes even on the toilet and while we’re sleeping. As a survivor of sexual abuse, I found this creepy rather than comforting. Strike one.
Then we understand the process of how Satan gave us free will, which even then I now see, was an amazing gift, and for his troubles, was literally demonized. Obviously they couldn’t explain evil to little children. So they just told us we had to hate him because God said so, I was having trouble fitting in at school. So I understood a thing or two about people shunning you just because someone else told them to. Strike two.
Then we got into Cain and Abel. Abel killed a bunch of innocent animals just to say, “Hey God, you’re awesome and I love you.” And God, rather than being appropriately horrified by this psychopathic display of affection, fucking liked it. And proceeded to punish Cain for “only” giving him some vegetables instead of murdering something. That planted the seed that would lead me to go vegetarian a few years later. Big ole’ strike three there.“
– 2016 Author Unknown
…So, first off these poor souls have not only turned to Atheism in adulthood, as if believing The World is aimlessly rushing towards nowhere somehow frees them from the bondage of a God that wants them to do good. But second, they learn the oldest stories in humanity either; at the wrong age/time, or conveyed through the wrong context/speaker.
In the latter paragraph he undermines and misses the point of Cain and Abel’s story. Wherein Cain did not bother with putting in as much effort as did his brother Abel for a sacrifice to a being he couldn’t even see or touch. If he had only continued reading, he would’ve learnt later on that Cain kills his brother Abel. After he falls prey to the same sort of cynical thinking that’s made these poor souls turn so far from the idea of a God.
This is what makes Anakin Skywalker turn into Darth Vader in Ep. III Revenge of the Sith. “From my perspective the Jedi are Evil.” From his Critical Thinkers perspective… (I don’t know why I’ve had that memorized all these years, I knew it would come in quote-handy one day) “From this Critical Thinkers perspective” Atheists all-too-often render their thoughts useless, by thinking they think so critically…all of the time, they leave no room for improvement of critical thought. While the worlds Greatest thinkers, those philosophers who thought so hard. Who literally changed the lives of everyone around them by merely thinking, are able to entertain even the strangest and absurd of thoughts. Be they true or not.
“Humans are spiritual beings, trapped in physical forms”
The only thing a philosopher is sure of in this world is that he knows nothing, relative to how much there is to know.
This is Why the best teachers teach their students How to Think, rather than What to Think. We all have biases and our own perspectives from paradigms, but to be able to entertain the opinions and viewpoints of others is true Critical Thought, and not undermining the powerful nature of human spirituality by forgetting to make the connection that The Bible; rather than being the Word of God, is merely Man’s attempt to interpret the Word of God, and thus subject to fallibility.
The Greeks were the first culture we know to incorporate Human imperfection into their Gods. Socrates, (often credited as the world’s first philosopher) was the first to say Gods really shouldn’t act like this…
If you are reading this blog there’s a good chance you’ve heard of The Apology of Socrates by Plato, this is Plato’s account of the Trial Socrates gave before the Athenian court (Apology from Greek; Apologia ????????, originally meant “speaking in defence”)
Socrates, might then be credited as one of the World’s first religious martyrs… An ancient Martin Luther if you will.
And perhaps The Catholic church’s authoritarian marketing methods might then be the cause of that denominations future demise…?
Cheers,
Mackenzie Andres
Founder | Head of Copy
THE BLOCK BARD
Home
WARNING: You Are NOT Ready to Advertise to Your Audience Until You’ve Downloaded our FREE 1-Page Dream Customer System Called the “Plan-0 Market Method”
This is the First sheet we make every Client fill-out before working with us… just hit GET IT NOW
WE INVEST IN DREAMS
Guaranteed Marketing Services™
~ Hi there!
We love finding new, excellent sales professionals to feature in our blog. If you hold a sales, marketing, or revenue-oriented title, you are welcome to submit a pitch — or get the conversation going on topic ideas.
But before you submit, please make sure you read our B&G Content Guidelines We know they look long, but they actually take only a few minutes to read. If you’d like us to spend our time working with you, please invest a little of yours in reading those guidelines.
Once you’ve read the guidelines, send your pitch to contact@theblockbard.com.
We often find great ideas in unexpected places. The next article published on THE BLOCK BARD ‘Business & Growth’ could be yours!
Mac
