A growing number of Christians in the United States are convinced the nation is in a spiritual crisis. Crime is on the rise. Singleness and isolation are on the rise. Mental health issues, suicide, depression, and despair have set in. Secular society has rushed towards unbridled hedonism pouring pornographic literature into elementary schools and sending drag queens to proselytize kids. Cities are collapsing. It all is speeding up. The church seems in retreat and the pagans emboldened.
This past Tuesday, Apple unveiled its new iPhone and Apple Watch line up. In the middle of the pre-recorded presentation, Apple’s CEO led a ten minute skit about Apple’s commitment to the environment. Mother Nature, cold and cruel, showed up in the room demanding a report. Apple bragged about its carbon neutrality. The company has, without government fiat, fundamentally transformed its business practices to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
A lot of viewers thought it notable that Apple would spend ten minutes in a scripted skit about Mother Nature and the company’s policies. They treated the matter reverently, religiously, and solemnly, but with humor. This is a progressive, secular company that worships creation instead of creation’s Creator.
There is another angle to observe. This is a company whose leadership and employees are committed to worship and have aligned their company towards that worship. They did not try to seize government to demand everyone do what they have done. They just did it. They practice what they preach. They have not bullied everyone else. They have not used the state to enforce the change they sought. They did it with their own money in their own practice. They should be commended for that.
In the American church, as the United States moves beyond Christendom, a lot of online Theo-bros squabble about Christian Nationalism and ardent Catholic oriented social-conservatives write about the need to use the government to force cultural changes more compatible with faith. All of them and the rest of us could learn a thing or two from Apple. That company has mirrored, in their creation worship, the practices of the early church. They just did it. They sought to reflect their Eden to the rest of us. Apple seeks an actual garden paradise. Christians should seek, in their lives and businesses, communion with Christ.
Chick-fil-a did not need government fiat to close on Sundays. No Christian’s business does. Provide a good, family friendly work environment with reasonable hours and good pay, putting employees ahead of profit motive, and draw people to your business. Spend time discipling your children, making sure they are grounded in their faith so that when they go into the world, they reflect the faith and do no waiver from it.
Too many American Christians are used to having political power. As they lose it, they should reflect on the beatitudes. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matt. 5:5 (NIV). Perhaps Christians in and out of politics should stop wielding politics like the world. Perhaps Christians should abandon looking for political saviors to spare them from spiritual problems. Perhaps Christians should be less willing to compromise on who they support while living in fear of the other.
Too many Christians have been willing to compromise their values, their views of leadership, and their views of character. They claim they do not want a priest, just a President. They got that in 2016. Since then, they have gotten drag queen story hour, a massive number of states embracing abortion until birth through changes in state constitutions, and transgenderism off the chains. Maybe, if we are quiet, we could hear God whispering. We have the King of all Creation on our side. We do not need to compromise at the altar of politics. Instead, we need to reflect Christ.
Christians in the early church drew people to them not by wielding power, but by wearing a smile in the face of adversity. They loved their neighbors, earned their trust, and turned a pagan empire into a Christian kingdom. The meek, very literally, inherited the Roman Empire. Perhaps, here in the United States, we have been doing it wrong and have time now to model our lives locally to get it right nationally.
Pope Francis said there is a “very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” in the U.S. Catholic church, that is “backwards” and has led the church to replace faith with “ideology,” according to a new transcript of the comments released Monday.
The remarks came during a private meeting with Portuguese members of his Jesuit religious order during a visit to Lisbon on August 5, per a transcript of the meeting published by the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica.
A Portuguese Jesuit told Francis that he struggled during a recent sabbatical year in the U.S. after coming across many Catholics, including bishops, who were critical of Francis’s papacy and today’s Jesuits, at which point Francis commented on the “backward” reactionary attitude in the U.S. church.
“Doing this, you lose the true tradition and you turn to ideologies to have support. In other words, ideologies replace faith,” he said.
“The vision of the doctrine of the church as a monolith is wrong,” he added. “When you go backward, you make something closed off, disconnected from the roots of the church.”
“I want to remind these people that backwardness is useless, and they must understand that there’s a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals,” he said.
Francis has drawn criticism for his stance on a number of issues, including his calls for gun control and his opposition to the death penalty. He’s come under fire for his emphasis on social justice issues and for his support for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples.
“Homosexuals have a right to be part of the family,” he said in Francesco, a 2020 documentary about his life. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.”
However, Francis’ comments were in reference to civil unions and did not condone those unions within the church.
Francis has responded to previous criticism by saying it is an “honor” to be attacked by Americans.
This was quite predictable to those Catholics who were not happy with Francis’ replacement of Pope Benedict, who was conservative enough to be known as Pope John Paul II’s “Rottweiler” before he became pope. Francis is an adherent of the Marxist “liberation theology” that started to rear its ugly head in the church in the late 1970s.
It is, of course, amusing to be lectured about alleged backwardness or about what our democracy should do by the head of a religious dictatorship. I am now a member 0f a church that, for all its faults, had the sense to divorce itself from its parent church not long after Americans divorced themselves from their British overlords. Maybe American Catholics should read the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer appendices to create their own non-Roman Catholic church.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 