The next church.

April 15, 2009 by Dan Hooper.

I am still muttering internally about what to think about “Evangelical Catholic.” Is there a convergence there, if you take those terms as group names? We certainly saw at least an opportunisitic convergence last fall with the convergence of Rev. Rick Warren’s flavor of church-ianity being “in sync” with the Catholic bishops, all trying to defend traditional matrimony.

At the time I thought that Mormons, the traditional African-American churches, and Catholics each had something in their own dark past they wanted to play down by claiming the high moral ground about marriage (”Why Yes Won“).  In countless discussions since then with other marriage equality people, I have more reason to believe I was right on that. True “family” values, as experienced in those sectors, are not morally high values. Everything from polygamy to broken homes to child molestation is found there. Of course, those were not ideals, and not even the majority of families in those faith traditions, but I believe each of them wanted to play down their own sad failings/scandals by noisily carrying the flag for traditional marriage.

Everybody, it seems, is carrying different flags now. Faith experiences are shifting. We’ve juggled what emergent churches mean for everyone else, what conversion might be in the 21^st century, and why the larger world still admires Jesus and despises his followers. Every day I see new “Religion” headlines in print and on the net, and most of what makes the news in the world of religion either saddens me or makes me wince.

What is becoming of the Christian church I knew and loved and respected?  Is it now only a shrill, homophobic, legalistic finger wagging at America to return to “traditional values” that it has already left behind and even helped to undermine? Is the mega-church going to be the prevailing symbol of the Christian church in its last chapter of history?—a feel-good, prosperity club mesmerized by flashing lights and pop/rock Christian love songs? Is it strident allegiance to traditional bigotries, even while realignment with Nigerian or Sudanese bishops triggers lawsuits over the ownership of pricey upper-class properties? Is it televangelists owning private jets, buying diamond mines in South Africa, and operating ecologically offensive power plants in Southern California, in order to pay for “family programming” on TV?

In digging around more on the internet to see what “Evangelical Catholic” might really mean, in addition to some enlightening and thoughtful articles I also found a lot of smaller outfits —too small to be called “denominations”—which describe themselves as “evangelical catholic.” Some of them resemble “Old Catholics” or other off-brand splinters from the Roman Catholic Church: denominational side-shows. Others have clearly invented themselves out of thin air with the name of a single bishop who traces his consecration to somebody somewhere that could be thought of as legitimate.

Some of these groups are also rigid, inflexible, strident and legalistic, even while they think they can claim the moral high ground. Some of them are stridently anti-feminine and anti-women’s-ordination while still lauding Mother Mary as Queen of Heaven.

Clearly, the House of the Church needs a thorough Spring cleaning. Some realignment is probably good, because many of these communities, large or small, seem to have lost their way and floated into religious back-waters.

“What is truth?” asked Pontius Pilate. Jesus could have answered that question but it’s clear many of his people today cannot. I don’t like being negative, but I feel like I know what “the truth” is not. It is not fighting over church real estate, yanking congregations out of church bodies over single-issue disputes, denouncing lesbian or gay couples in order to puff oneself up. It is not shopping through a whole cafeteria of ecclesial orders, “communions” and episcopates in order to find a bishop one is comfortable with. It is not turning the call to discipleship into the name of a rock band, or reducing the Gospel to a sound byte or a bumper sticker.

Clearly I don’t have the answer as to what the Christian faith should come to be in the 21^st century, but I know whom it should resemble. What is truth, when it comes to faithfulness to the way of Jesus? It is the process, the search, the walk of those who carry his cross even if they haven’t yet discerned where that cross will be planted or how much blood will be shed. Maundy Thursday is still on my mind, with its call to obedience in love. We are not called to govern one another, to rise above one another, to criticize one another, or to compete against one another. We are called to love one another and keep following Jesus into the places of this world where our own egos will be forgotten and God’s mercy and love and grace can be lifted up.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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