As I watch so many families born into Christianity do away with Sunday Mass or services and wane from Christian moral teachings, I kind of feel responsible as it is happening on 'my watch'. It is my generation that is abandoning the faith that has been in their families in many cases, for as long as 2,000 years.

We can try to blame the liberal college professors who go way out of their way to discredit the Gospels in particular. I say in particular because religions like Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons all have easier corrections to point out yet the Cross is the crosshair for atheists in academia. We can also suggest that science arguably dis-proves claims made in the Bible (although I, myself haven't seen one that is some kind of game changer).

However, we Christians must take the blame for the rise of secularism and other religions in the West in this new century. My very own Roman Catholic Church is riddled with disgraceful criminal behavior at very high levels.

Never mind the legion of pedophiles in the priesthood, what about the bishops and cardinals who abetted them by simply relocating them to places where their actions and reputations were not yet discovered by the unsuspecting communities (parishes) who offered them instant respect and reverence only to learn too late what monsters were hiding behind the cloth, preying on their little boys, often driving them to suicides, insanity and/or drugs and alcohol.

I love my church. I will die a RC. I know 99% of those ordained are incredibly virtuous people who help in every way each day they are alive. But they seem to have been muted by the powerful scandal. Still dazed in the corner by the blow from Satan perhaps. My faith teaches me to believe that God would not allow a pope to teach falsely to the masses but just on matters of faith or morals alone.

Even though a man might be voted by the princes of the church to be God's vicar, the Bishop of Rome and successor to the throne of Peter, it's not to say that God wouldn't allow a devious person to be Pope. History has proven that. The only promise Christ made was that his church would prevail until he returns."And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.." Matthew 16:18

To this day though, I have not heard a statement by the church that offers a true promise of repentance or even a plan for the faithful to see that it will never happen again. Not the pedophelia because that is a tough one to stop as an institution. I mean the church must prove to us that they will never again turn a blind eye or offer a coverup at any level of the church ever again. For decades, our clergy was looked at with respect and as a just and righteous voice in the community to resolve problems in both family and more impersonal social issues.

The laws of government tells us what we can and cannot do as citizens within jurisdiction and the church tells us what we should and shouldn't do as humans in a fellowship with the rest of humanity.

The Roman Catholics have their issue. Many protestant evangelists have been outed as profoundly greedy hypocrites others with infidelity issues. I've read once that hypocrisy is the devil's favorite flaw in men. Some newer religions have been caught re-writing the doctrine or "God's word" as they've been embarrassed with easily debunked prophesies that never came to fruition.

Taoists, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims all live in Western Civilization, free to worship as they will but as Mahatma Gandhi once said, "If Christians would act as Christ taught them to act toward one another, there would be not one Hindu in India."

Today, where can we look for inspiration? Where is the moral clarity? Where are the great evangelists? If Christianity is the right answer and has any hope for the future, we need a hero or a miracle soon...but will there be anyone left to pray for either one in time?

 

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