07 January 2009

QotD for 7 Jan., 2009

On the fate of the Church in the West, Counterlight writes in a comment thread over on Preludium:
I think that as goes Spain these days, so goes the rest of the West (including the USA); a greatly shrunken church dominated by fanatics who accelerate shrinking church attendance by alienating the rest of the population; a church that wears a heavy millstone of rightwing and reactionary politics around its neck in an increasingly cosmopolitan country.

Pretty much sums it up as far as I'm concerned. And although I'm quite certain TEC will stand as a thoughtful and liberal-minded counterpoint to that, I fear that thoughtful and liberal-minded Christianity will remain a smaller sect within a small sect.

2 comments:

Missy said...

I'm hopeful. As a progressive Catholic I see those harsh reactionary folks--because they make themselves so visible. But I also see a lot of people like me who work and hope for the Church to return to it's better, truer self.

David said...

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that there are people out there like you! My parish is full of 'em :)

I just don't think that there are nearly enough Christians of this sort to change the course of the Church appreciably. There's just too much inertia in the intellectually / theologically shallow, politically far right-wing direction.