The Role of the Church in Modern Culture
Last week the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church elected Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to be the next Pope. Bergoglio immediately chose to be known as Pope Francis paying tribute to St. Francis of Assisi. Bergoglio, during his tenure as Cardinal of Argentina, had a reputation for modesty and humility.
As a Cardinal, he eschewed the trappings of the office. He made his home in a simple apartment in Buenos Aires. He rode the bus to work each day and cooked his own meals. He has made similar gesture as he has assumed the Papal office.
He is also the first Pope from Latin America. This is particularly noteworthy as nearly 40 percent of the adherents to the Catholic faith are Hispanic, and Latin America contains more Catholics than any other region of the world.
In our own state, Roman Catholics now comprise nearly a fourth of our population supplanting my United Methodist tradition as the second largest denomination in our state. The growth of the Hispanic population is our state is seen as a major factor in the growth of Catholicism in our state.
The new Pontiff, while fairly liberal in the realm of economic matters, holds fairly orthodox views in theological matters as well as his own social issues. In sum, he follows the orthodox teachings of his church. The fact that the new Pope holds conservative views on matters such as abortion or gay marriage seemed to frustrate many persons in the press last week.
Commentators in many of the major media outlets lamented the fact that the Pope Francis remained committed to the teachings of his church. Many pundits said the Pope’s views were at odds with the views of many persons when it came to many of these hot-button social issues and the Pope was out of step with the modern culture.
It is not my purpose to argue these hot button social issues in this column. Nor is it my place to question the views of the Roman Catholic Church. I am not a Roman Catholic; therefore, it is not my place to offer opinions on the teaching of the Catholic Church. I will say that I have great respect for my brothers and sisters in Christ of the Catholic faith.
What I have found amusing in the past week is that many of the commentators criticizing the pope as being “out of step” do not understand the role of the church in society. The church (whether it is called United Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, or Roman Catholic) is not called by God to reflect the views of society.
Rather, the church, in whatever form it takes, is called to instruct society. The church’s role in our world is to be the voice of God’s truth to the modern world. The church is not to hold its fingers to detect the prevailing winds of popular opinion.
Instead the church is called to shape the views of society and to challenge our culture when our culture is not following the path consistent with the will of God. The church is never called to popularity but rather the church is called to faithfulness.
There have been times in our history when the church has addressed the wrongs of society. Regrettably, there have been times when the church has been a part of the corruption of the larger world.
Christ did not establish the church in order that the church compromise with evil, injustice, and oppression. There are times that the voice of the church must point out the corporate shortcomings of society.
The truth is that the church cannot always be politically correct. May God help the church to never sacrifice the truth of the Gospel on the alter of political correctness.