A Time For Choosing
We are in a post-Christian era, no doubt. But in recent years the church has moved from simply being viewed as irrelevant to being viewed as dangerous and has come under active attack. I wrote about it Tuesday and again yesterday. In both instances I urged the church to repent its own participation in its own demise. The evidence keeps mounting of a church under attack – from within and from without.
Yesterday we noted the story of a pastor being charged with manslaughter for the death of a person being baptized by drowning. Some new information has become available. In light of the new information, the pastor was unwise to conduct the baptism – but my comments from yesterday regarding the prosecutors looking for an excuse to criminalize religious activity are not altered by the new facts. A lack of wisdom is not criminal.
Today a story emerges concerning a group of nuns being forced to care for the dying in accordance with their declared, as opposed to biological, gender. Interestingly, this comes when just earlier in the week I ran across an article saying the judicial tide had turned regarding gender identity cases. This new case will be interesting as its not the usual fair of men, dressed as women competing in women’s sports – it’s about religious exercise. The law at the heart of the case:
In 2023, the New York State Legislature passed Bill S1783A, the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, and People Living with HIV Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights.” The Senate website says this law “prohibits a long-term care facility or facility staff from discriminating against any resident on the basis of such resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.”
Apparently in New York State to force a dying biological male, identifying as a female, to use facilities designated for males is discriminatory. Can such a ruling be anything other than direct persecution of the church?
Now, this all started on Tuesday when I noted that the Roman Catholic Church is experiencing an immense revival among young people while the mainline denominations are dying rapidly and near extinction. This is a move that defies the contention that young people simply have no trust in institutions, generally. You cannot get much more institutional that the Roman Catholic Church.
Where Roman Catholicism stands out in this instance is precisely in the issues of sexuality. While the mainline denominations have fallen over themselves to try and seem “relevant” by conducting gay marriages and declaring that homosexual practice is not sinful, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions have stayed the course of history and upheld traditional views of marriage, family and sexuality.
The church is meant to stand apart from the world. It would seem Catholicism and Orthodoxy have chosen this non-conformist course while the mainlines have sought conformity – and young people seem to be voting with their feet. There is a deep distrust of institution among the young, but it is defied for the sake of this non-conformity. It would seem the key to the hearts of people is not “relevancy” but truth. It is not institutions generally that are untrustworthy, it is institutions that insist on conformity ahead of truth.
The future of this nation is going to be fascinating to watch unfold. The nation was founded, in no small part, by people that sought freedom from a Roman Catholic Church that denied their Protestant faith. Yet here we are, 250 years later, watching Protestantism die and Catholicism rise. As the Protestant churches of today are very different than those of the founding, so is the Roman Catholic Church. It will be most interesting if it is the Catholics that preserve the faith.
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