The Interim
Support for abortion “rights,” radical feminism, homosexuality, environmentalism, earth-based religion, New Age philosophies, sexual liberation, gays in the pulpit…
Although liberal Christianity, as characterized by these aspects and others, has been making rapid inroads in the last few decades (particularly since the 1960’s), the roots of the crisis within Christianity can be traced back centuries.
Some might put the start of the decline in Christian orthodoxy as being marked by the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Western (Roman) Catholic churches in 1504. Others would point the finger at the numerous heresies which emerged during the Middle Ages as the Renaissance and humanistic thinking flowered, in tandem with the increasing corruption and laxity with which many clerics carried out their responsibilities during the medieval era.
Still others would say Martin Luther and the Reformation marked a severe fragmentation in Catholic thought, especially as numerous Christian and pseudo-Christian denominations and cults sprang up in the Reformation‘s wake.
A good case could also be made for the eighteenth century as being the starting point of the Christian crisis, when many scholars and theologians began to question or downplay the authority of biblical scriptures as well as basic tenets of the faith, such as the virgin birth of Christ. These questioning had their effects upon Christian seminaries and subsequent generations of Christian ministers.
Cultural upheaval
The again, it cannot be overlooked that the crisis in Christianity reached a fever pitch with the sexual revolution and other cultural upheavals of the 1960’s, when many young people cast off the strictures of faith and tradition in favor of a new-found hedonism made possible by the economic boom which followed the Second World War.
Those young people moved on to positions in Western society’s power points and the consequences upon our social and cultural mores as a result have been dramatic; open acceptance of abortion, homosexuality, common-law relationships and so on. As Operation Rescue found Randall Terry once said, what would have been unthinkable a scant 30 years ago has no become the norm and commonplace.
The consequences of the 1960s upheavals have also been dramatic upon religious entities, however, as numerous Christian churches and denominations have embraced philosophies not dissimilar to Western society at large. Other churches, meanwhile, have been cowed into silence on addressing and combating the degeneracy’s of our era in fear of increasingly influential and militant liberal activists.
The decline in Christian orthodoxy may be illustrated no better than in the example of the Unitarian-Universalist Church, which was formed from the union of two very liberal Christian bodies.
This church professes absolute freedom of belief … According to Dr. Robert S. Ellwood of the University of Southern California; most of the church’s members would reject doctrines on the Trinity or the divinity of Christ if they were asked about them. They would even reject a belief in God, he says. Instead, Unitarian-Universalist would favor a religion based on human’s needs and ends (if such a thing makes any sense).
In Canada, the Anglican Church has been immersed in a struggle in recent years brought on by a reaction to what some of its members have seen as overweening liberalism. A movement called Essentials was born in Montreal several years ago to call the church back to its roots in the basic tenets of Christianity. Among Essentials’ calls has been to use the Book of Common Prayer as a standard and to reject the acceptance of homosexuality in the pulpit.
Of course, the United Church has also been embroiled in heated debates over homosexual ordinations and the like in recent years.
Vatican II roots
This brings us to the crisis now enveloping Christianity’s oldest institution, the Roman Catholic Church. Many trace the beginnings of problems in this denomination to the implications of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which then – Pope John XXIII summoned in order to “open the windows of the Church,” as it were.
The idea was to have the Catholic Church deal adequately with the new and radically different cultural realities of the second half of the twentieth century.
Inadvertently, however, the Council opened the doors to incompatible trains of thought which are now making themselves present on a disturbingly large scale. One of the key developments has been the diminution of priestly powers in favor of increase participation by laity. This has translated into a situation where lay people with radical and heretical ideas are now gaining access to positions of influence within the Church.
In recent years, these lay people have utilized their newly bestowed influence to affect Church activities, if not in the upper echelons, at least at grassroots levels. It was thus only a matter of time before these lay people would seek to gain ultimate power and thus strip the Pope, bishops and priests of whatever authority they have left.
That time had apparently now come. Petition drives led by laity have been held in Europe, calling for a loosening of Church stands in a number of sensitive areas, particularly sexuality and clerical authority.
A similar movement has been under way since last year in the U.S., where a group calling itself We Are Church is in the midst of trying to collect a million signatures in support of its platform for a more liberal church.
In Canada, a group of lay Catholics calling themselves Catholics of Vision launched a petition drive last October in support of a platform which centers on “freedom of conscience,” including: married priests, women priests, the election of bishops by people in the pews, freedom for divorced and remarried Catholics to re-enter the Church and take communion, a review of the Church’s approach to human sexuality, including artificial birth control, an end to “discrimination” against homosexuals and freedom from censure for theologians.
Like-minded groups
Catholics of Vision is said to have the support of reform-oriented groups such as the Coalition of Concerned Canadian Catholics, Corpus (an association of married priests), and the Canadian Network for Women’s Equality and Dignity (a homosexual Catholic group).
The petition effort, due to conclude this May, is being led by Saundra Glynn, a retired separate school trustee from Dufferin-Peel and former religious education teacher. She claims her roots of her discontent date back 14 years, when her daughter came home crying to her because she was told girls could not be altar servers.
“I hope the Pope in Rome is humble enough to listen,” says Glynn, adding that no target has been set for the number of petitions to be collected. The ultimate goal is to create “meaningful dialogue” with Church leaders, she says.
The drives by Catholics of Vision and We Are Church have drawn a counter-reaction as orthodox Catholics stand in support of the Church’s traditions, which have been place for many of its almost 2,000 years.
These traditionalists have launched a counter-petition in support of the authority of the Pope, the Catholic Church hierarchy and they Church’s stands on issues including sexuality and a celibate priesthood.
When will it all end? Not anytime soon, it would appear – which can only mean bad news for those on the pro-life front who would like to see a strong, assertive and unified Christian stance on basic issues of human life and sexuality.
