This past Sunday Pope Francis spoke about the Paris attacks and said unequivocally that anyone who uses God’s name to justify violence and hatred is guilty of blasphemy.
He made a similar statement a year ago during his historic visit to Albania. Speaking to government leaders there he said: “Let no one consider themselves to be the ‘armor’ of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression! May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all, the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom!”
Public statements like these are one of the reasons I admire Pope Francis. He talks straight about the challenges facing the church and all religions. Recently he boldly criticized “religious fundamentalism” that he says exists in all religions, calling it “idolatrous,” a warning I think Catholics and Protestants and members of all faiths should take quite seriously.
Yet, as inspiring as Francis is, the credibility of his words has the potential of being damaged by the fact that he is the head of a church that is itself guilty of the things he often criticizes.
Consider human dignity and human rights. The Catholic Church is unbowed in using religion against women of the church in its perpetuation and defense of an all male priesthood.
In the 21st century arguments against women priests simply ring hollow.
Male hegemony is in and of itself an indictment of the Catholic Church’s own disregard for human dignity and rights. While Pope Francis is not responsible for this hegemony, he is responsible for confronting it strongly enough to at least plant the seeds of its demise.
The same can be said of other issues the Pope faces, not least what the Church teaches about homosexuality.
But the larger point here is the fact that the Catholic Church and Protestant congregations alike continue to live under the illusion that saying one thing and doing another has no lasting consequences for them.
They could not be more wrong.
One of the reasons for church decline in the 21st century is that people in general and many Christians in particular are done with a church that prefers tradition over justice and order over the dignity for all persons.
They are done with a church that refuses to confront the fundamentalism within its own ranks that requires intellectual dishonesty to remain in it.
What is most alarming is that many of “the Dones,” as they are now called, are not only done with church, they are done with formal Christianity itself. The church losing credibility is spreading to faith itself.
I recognize that Pope Francis faces an institution as resistant to change as any on earth. Many leaders and members of his church and all churches would rather see the church die than change.
They may be getting what they want.
For the moment it seems the Pope’s own personal credibility is all he needs to have an audience that truly listens to what he says, but in the long run it will take substantive changes in his church for large numbers to continue to pay attention.
That is a reality I think all churches and church leaders should take to heart with an urgency they have thus far failed to show.
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Thanks, Jan. I could not agree with you more. It is hypocrisy that is killing the church. For every good example I can come up with, folks (mostly younger) can come up with a dozen counterexamples. And it’s not just the churches that are paying the price — it is the faith itself. We all have to do everything we can to set a better example.
Calling on all of us to be better examples is right on, Jeff. I want also to underscore your pointing to the need for leaders of denominations and congregations to do more to make the institutional church a better example as well.
Poignant commentary, Jan; especially in light of the recent events in the church formerly known ….!
I think many religious traditions are coming under similar scrutiny in this era of Palestine and ISIL. I recently read a summary of Wahhabism, the extremist Islamic tradition of ISIL, the Sunnis and the Saudis. Muhammed Wahhabi, its 18th century founder, was actually trying to “cleanse” Islam of the idolatry and decadence among various practitioners by basically discarding every teaching, ritual and social practice imparted after 950 CE; basically a rejection of irreverent modernism.
His described awakening reminded me of Moses coming from the mountain with the tablets to find his people lost in decadent revelry and worshiping a golden calf.
Of course his teachings, custom reforms and harsh punishments for any non compliance froze in time his interpretation of Allah and that of his followers so unrealistically, so inhumanely and ungodly that it only would have a minority of adherents today if not for the chaos and utter disenfranchisement the “modern west” has burdened much of the Islamic world with. We have strengthened the arguments Wahhabi argued long ago and ISIL reacts from now. All of Islam is paying a price.
It seems many people in many places are waking to the shortcomings of their religious traditions while others cling tenaciously. Thus the visceral conflicts!
Fearful humanity needs to step back bravely from its religious traditions to see the core transcendent values their founders offered, values applicable to all peoples, and ascend to the best of our capacities. Amen.
May it be so, Bob. Thanks.