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Back at the beginning of Lent, Ally decided to give up Facebook for the 40 day feast of self-denial (She didn’t quite make it). It was a cool idea, because not many people would come up with something so modern, but it was also interesting because she’s not even Catholic! Well it turns out she’s not the only one, it’s actually becoming pretty common among young, non-Catholic Christians:

Fasting, and giving up chocolate and favorite pastimes like watching TV during the 40 days before Easter are practices many evangelical Protestants have long rejected as too Catholic and unbiblical.

But Lent — a time of inner cleansing and reflection upon Jesus Christ’s sufferings before his resurrection — is one of many ancient church practices being embraced by an increasing number of evangelicals, sometimes with a modern twist.

I’d say giving up Facebook qualifies as a “modern twist.” They also offer up a few theories as to why Evangelicals would be adopting traditions from the Catholic church that they rejected for so long:

Experts say most who have taken on such practices have grown disillusioned with the contemporary, shopping-center feel of the megachurches embraced by baby boomers, with their casually dressed ministers and rock-band praise music.

Instead, evangelicals — many of them young — are adopting a trend that has come to be known as “worship renewal” or “ancient-future worship.”

I don’t think it’s so much of a rejection of megachurches, because they seem to have been on a pretty steady decline for a while no, I think it’s simply that more people have been exposed to other ideas and liked a few of them.

I wonder what the Catholic Church has to say about this. For better or worse the Church has always come down hard on “Cafeteria Catholics,” who accept some aspects of the Church but reject others… so it would be interesting to know what the think about non-Catholics adopting Catholic traditions.

Personally, I’m just happy that not quite so many people will look at me weird when I say I can’t have meat on Friday.