{"id":1396,"date":"2013-07-10T14:36:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T19:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithonthecouch\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2013-07-10T14:36:07","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T19:36:07","slug":"why-doesnt-the-catholic-church-just-get-with-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithonthecouch\/2013\/07\/why-doesnt-the-catholic-church-just-get-with-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Doesn’t the Catholic Church Just Get with the Times?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Contraception, abortion, women\u2019s ordination, gay marriage.\u00a0 These represent just a few of the issues\u00a0the Church is regularly criticized for being on the \u201cwrong side\u201d of.<\/p>\n

So, why can\u2019t the Church change?<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s episode of More2Life Radio<\/a> was titled, \u201cStand Your Ground.\u201d\u00a0 We looked at the challenge of knowing when we need to draw a line in the sand and when we need\u00a0to be more flexible.\u00a0 Part of that discussion involved an interview with Bishop Jeffrey Montforton of Steubenville (former rector of Detroit\u2019s Sacred Heart Seminary) about why the Church can\u2019t just modernize.<\/p>\n

The answer to both questions (when do we change and when can the Church change) is really the same.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u00a0all comes down to knowing\u00a0who\u00a0you are.\u00a0\u00a0As a Church or as individuals, you\u00a0can change the things that don\u2019t jeopardize the core of your mission\u2013the heart of your identity\u2013but you can\u2019t\u00a0change the things that do or you cease to exist in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n

Catholics have been given a special gift.\u00a0 God has shared with us, directly, his truth, his\u00a0vision of what the world was intended to be and is destined to become again.\u00a0 He has communicated to us what he intended the world to look like from the beginning of time and he has tasked us with the mission of doing whatever we can to make the world fall more in line with that vision.\u00a0 In other words, it is not the Catholic Church\u2019s mission\u00a0to look more like the world.\u00a0 It is the Catholic Church\u2019s job to make the world look more like the Catholic Church\u2013a community of love dedicated to using our time, treasure, talent and selves to work for the good of others and, in the process, become the best version of ourselves.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t fulfill that mission if we accommodate to the culture.\u00a0\u00a0 True, we can<\/em> change things that aren\u2019t at the center of that blueprint for building the Kingdom\u00a0that God has given us.\u00a0 We can move some furniture around.\u00a0 We can change some words here and there as long as we don\u2019t tamper with the meaning behind those words.\u00a0 But we can\u2019t be a prophetic sign of what the world is supposed to be by allowing ourselves to become\u00a0what the world already is!<\/p>\n

But, of course, there are objections to this.\u00a0 I can think of two huge ones off-hand.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Oh, Sure!\u00a0 The world should look just like the Church!?!\u00a0 You mean we should all be pedophiles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Answer:\u00a0 <\/em>I\u2019m glad you brought that up.\u00a0 This is a perfect example of how the Church accommodated to the world.\u00a0 Seriously, what\u2019s more worldly than committing sexual sin and covering it up?\u00a0 In fact, the reason the world is so angry at the Church for the scandal is because it didn\u2019t behave like Church.\u00a0 The world WANTS there to be a sign of goodness in the world (the world hates it, but wants it all the same\u2013like kids and rules).\u00a0 The world NEEDS a sign of grace in the world and for the world to think that the Church isn\u2019t a sign of grace is infuriating to the world.\u00a0 The relationship between the world and the Church is like the relationship between an abusive husband and his wife; the more the wife tries to accommodate to her abusive husbands expectations, the more the abusive husband comes to hate the woman.\u00a0 Only when she stands up to his abuse is there any hope.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 But Catholicism is just one brand of Christianity.\u00a0 Lots of other Christians have modernized their teaching<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Answer:\u00a0 <\/em>Yes, well, that\u2019s what happens to the branches that fall off the tree.\u00a0 Jesus Christ created a Church (Matt 16:18) and entrusted to that Church the vision of what the world should look like.\u00a0 It is the Church\u2019s job to pass that vision\u2013that Tradition (capital T)\u2013\u00a0from one generation to the next.\u00a0 Apostolic succession is the means of transmitting that vision.\u00a0 Those Churches that preserve Apostolic Succession maintain the Tradition, the vision of what the world must become.\u00a0 Those Christian and Christian-flavored\u00a0sects that cut themselves off of the apostolic vine lose the Tradition and end up taking their cues more from the world than from Christ\u2019s original vision.\u00a0 At best, the messages of these various latter-day Christian sects\u00a0represent\u00a0 the seeds sown on rocky soil.\u00a0 Their work sprouts buds that quickly die if they are not transplanted into more fertile soil (Matt 13).\u00a0 In fact, we see exactly this.\u00a0 Sociologists of religion show that there is immense turnover in Evangelical mega-churches.\u00a0 Their gospel-lite message attracts new seekers but their disconnection from the vine causes the new shoots to starve and die.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s the best case scenario.\u00a0\u00a0 At worst, these sects sow weeds that threaten to choke out the vision, weeds that will be gathered up with the wheat but then burned on the last day (Matt 13:24-30).<\/p>\n

Belief in the Sun-god.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In his encyclical, Lumen Fidei<\/em><\/a>, Pope Francis quotes St. Justin Martyr as saying that \u201cno one ever gave his life because of his belief in the Sun.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s because worship of the sun-god was a secular religion.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t exist to challenge the culture.\u00a0 It existed to give people a safe way to vent their spiritual feelings.\u00a0That vision of church is what most people imagine church to\u00a0be even today.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That has never been the mission of the Catholic Church<\/em>.\u00a0To paraphrase Flannery\u00a0O\u2019Connor, if that\u2019s all church is then to hell with it.\u00a0 \u00a0We exist to hold up the truth.\u00a0 To be a sign for the Truth and, if necessary,\u00a0to be willing to die to defend that Truth.<\/p>\n

The Church cannot change because if it changes it ceases to be Church and becomes an exercise in what Cardinal Ratzinger once referred to as \u201cspiritual auto-eroticism.\u201d God know, no one needs more of that.<\/p>\n

The Right Question<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When we encounter some teaching that offends us, annoys us, irritates us; some teaching that the Church stubbornly insists it can\u2019t change and makes us say, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t the Church change that already?\u201d\u00a0 it is best to recognize that the better question is, \u201cWhy is this teaching so central to God\u2019s vision of what the world must become and, having discovered that, how can I get on board and do my part in promoting that vision?\u201d<\/p>\n

We do not ask how we can change the Church.\u00a0 We ask how the Church can change us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contraception, abortion, women\u2019s ordination, gay marriage.\u00a0 These represent just a few of the issues\u00a0the Church is regularly criticized for being on the \u201cwrong side\u201d of. So, why can\u2019t the Church change? Today\u2019s episode of More2Life Radio was titled, \u201cStand Your Ground.\u201d\u00a0 We looked at the challenge of knowing when we need to draw a line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[35,168,67,288],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","tag-abortion","tag-contraception","tag-gay-marriage","tag-womens-ordination"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Doesn't the Catholic Church Just Get with the Times?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Contraception, abortion, women's ordination, gay marriage.\u00a0 These represent just a few of the issues\u00a0the Church is regularly criticized for being on the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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