HAS THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION RUN ITS COURSE?

My 1970s’ upbringing in an Evangelical Christian family, relentless pursuit of ministry, divorce, rejection by the Church, and subsequent period of restless searching (and eventual ordination) have colored much of my reflection in this post 9/11 era. I think about Jesus’ confrontations with Pharisees and other religious leaders, and consider how he might confront the same pharisaical conduct today. I look at protestant moralistic campaigns that bemoan some loss of moral authority in American society despite the fact that Protestants can blame themselves, in their own disunity, for much of the lost church authority. I can not help but think that the real solution to crime, terror, money and sex scandals, social injustice and other crises in today’s world will require prudent moral leadership.

While it might seem obvious that a divided Church can not have moral influence on the larger society, it seems for many to be of little concern. Is it not possible that the inadequacy of Church authority for the American family translates directly into fragile families, fragile communities, delinquency, crime, and social disorder? Is it not a life and death issue? If so, argumentation between Church leaders is acceptable; but Church leadership that has disengaged from such discussion, and lost interest in the effort to reunite the Church is apostasy! Such complacency must be exposed and denounced.

The simplest way I know to expose this problem is to consider the authority declared by the Roman Catholic Church in regard to marriage. While Catholic authorities do not recognize the authority of a civil court to dissolve their marriages, most protestant leaders seem helpless in the face of powerful divorce courts. We could even say that American Catholics are hindered in their efforts to maintain familial order because of conditions created largely by American Protestants over the decades.

We need to have a day in this country when all Christians come to terms with our disunity, and its devastating impact on our moral authority in American society. Until then we will continue to be plagued by a lot of moralistic campaigning and all of the bigoted judgmental self-righteous behavior that follows.