← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Walter Yannis
Thread ID: 17927 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2005-04-23
2005-04-23 18:32 | User Profile
April 23, 2005 With Pope Benedict's Ascent, American Cultural Conservatives Scored a Big One By Richard N. Ostling [URL=http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBKYDA3W7E.html]The Associated Press[/URL]
Now that Americans have had a few days to absorb the election of Pope Benedict XVI, it's clear that conservative Christians - whether Roman Catholic or not - feel they've won another battle in the nation's culture wars. Liberals seem to ready to concede the point, but they aren't happy about it. The Vatican bells had barely stopped clanging when the Rev. John Thomas, president of the left-leaning United Church of Christ, was denouncing the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Though Thomas once served as his denomination's envoy to other Christians, he abandoned all pretense of the politesse that's expected at such ecumenical moments.
"Cardinal Ratzinger's long tenure in the Vatican has been marked by a theological tone that is rigid, conservative and confrontational," said Thomas, whose denomination will consider a resolution supporting same-sex marriage at its July convention.
The pope has lacked "the warm pastoral heart" that bishops need, Thomas charged, his "harsh treatment" of liberal theologians as head of the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog agency was "profoundly troubling" and his attitude toward non-Catholics has been "narrow," "constrained," "insensitive" and "demeaning."
In other words, this pope is no liberal Protestant.
A competing assessment: "Faithful Christians ought to be thrilled," declared Charles Colson, the prison evangelist who's among the best-known members of America's largest Protestant group, the Southern Baptist Convention.
Colson is especially pleased because, as he sees it, America's cultural elite is alarmed by the cardinals' choice. He praised Ratzinger's recent sermon against moral relativism, which amounted to a papal campaign platform. He also agreed with the pope that Western civilization is doomed if secular trends persist.
It's significant that Colson is scheduled to appear Sunday night in Louisville, Ky., for a "Justice Sunday" rally where conservative Protestants will denounce what they call "out-of-control courts" and Democratic filibusters to block U.S. Senate votes on nominees to be federal appeals judges.
Underpinning that event is disquiet over rulings at both the state and federal level in such matters as same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case and numerous abortion disputes.
While the pope is no Protestant, conservative evangelicals see him as a powerful ally in such matters and Benedict's track record suggests they're correct.
As a cardinal, his Vatican office notified Catholic politicians in 2003 that they shouldn't support laws that contradict fundamental moral teachings on matters like abortion. A follow-up decree added that it's "gravely immoral" not to oppose legal recognition of same-sex unions.
In the midst of Catholic John Kerry's presidential campaign, Ratzinger wrote a confidential letter advising the U.S. hierarchy that a bishop has the ultimate right to deny Communion to politicians who disagree with the church but should meet with and warn them first.
Another factor in the new pope's relationship with Americans: Benedict has better command of English than any other modern pope, and probably knows more about the U.S. religious situation than any of his papal predecessors when they were elected.
While Catholic liberals believe it would be both wise and just for the church to loosen up on doctrinal demands, Benedict might draw the opposite conclusion from U.S. Protestant trends.
Since the mid-1960s, liberal denominations like Thomas' United Church of Christ have suffered a steady slide in membership, while conservative groups like the Southern Baptists have continued to expand. And in the past generation, Southern Baptist agencies have actually moved from moderate conservatism to stricter conservatism.
Penn State historian Philip Jenkins noted in his book "The Next Christendom" that the same trend is true globally.
While flexible, modernized churches stagnate, evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity are growing in the developing world - as is Islam. These groups have been dogged in preserving doctrinal and moral tradition.
If Benedict plays to conservative Christians in the United States, he'll be working with the growth sector of the religious world today.
2005-04-24 07:03 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis]Another factor in the new pope's relationship with Americans: Benedict has better command of English than any other modern pope, and probably knows more about the U.S. religious situation than any of his papal predecessors when they were elected. [/QUOTE] But how's his Espanol?
[QUOTE] ââ¬Â¢ Percentage of the Catholic growth in the U.S. that Hispanics have accounted for since 1960: 71.
[/QUOTE][url="http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/11406657.htm"]http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/11406657.htm[/url]