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Where is the Church? (Part 1)by Fr Gregory "Church" is probably the most abused word in the English language in the English speaking world after "love." "Church" can mean anything today from the "Church" of Scientology, to the building down the road, to journalese for anything which is vaguely Christian, (usually defined as someone saying: "We are Christians.") This indifferentism to belief, worship and life is endemic in secular culture. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses are judged not by their beliefs but by their methods. Their beliefs are generally reckoned to be Christian by the uninformed, their methods not. Then of course there is the "hypermarket" approach to religion, (religion that is, not faith). According to this view we all have different temperaments and need different "spiritualities" to match, (Myers-Briggs). These different "spiritualities" are provided by different churches and traditions within churches. The "customer" then makes his or her own choice. All choices are more or less valid and equal. Denominationalism is seen as legitimate diversity for a "pick-'n-mix" clientele. The "Church" is what all of this is together. Any one who dares to suggest that some "churches" have a firmer grasp on truth than others are written off by post-modernists as deluded triumphalists desperately seeking to bolster their own institutional status with naive fundamentalist claims. Church and dogma are now two irreconcilable opposites. In the touchy-feely, feel-good spiritual hedonism of our times whatever is true is that which meets your needs. According to this criterion you could believe that Jesus was a visiting alien and still call yourself a "church." It is difficult not to see the marks of Antichrist in all of this. The apocalyptic spirit of Christianity, derided by the "enlightened ones", but following our Lord's example and teaching has always warned about wolves amongst the sheep, men itching for some new doctrine or other, the great whore of Babylon which will even deceive the elect. Although it is important not to go overboard on this, apocalypticism can often be a good cold shower for all those (Christians?) who think that provided you love Jesus, it doesn't matter what church you belong to or what you believe so long as you are sincere and tolerant. If the cold plunge of apocalypticism is too much for a person to take perhaps the question "Where is the Church? is more astute. The first answer which presents itself from the culture is of course "everywhere" and, therefore, of course, nowhere. Let us consider this. If it is really true that the Church is everywhere then all the beliefs, practices, worship and teachings of all the profusion of bodies calling themselves "Christian" are equally valid. So if a Jehovah's Witness denies the Trinity and an Orthodox Christian affirms this doctrine and if both groups are considered to be Christian then the doctrine of the Trinity or its denial is entirely incidental to being a Christian. The end result of this generalisation of the Church is atheism, or perhaps humanism with a religious veneer. Now, of course, no group claiming to be Christian can accept this analysis without surrendering to the post-modernist claim that truth is what we want it to be and that no society can be said to be it guardian and expression. So if truth, or, just simply, God, matters to a Christian, what his/her Church teaches is vital to being a Christian. There is no avoiding the disarming question:- "Where is the Church?" It is a question whose answer is vital to belief, and in our day to the prospects of Christianity as a whole. You might have thought that this editorial was going to answer its own question ... not this month. In the next issue we shall attempt to answer that question. This article is to confirm the vital necessity of the question. Fr Gregory |
