I've been writing a lot lately, but yesterday I read an article that got me thinking. The article, which can be found here-
link to the article-is an article which I think is very good but which is lacking something. Take some time to read it, because realistically anything I say after this point won't make sense if you don't.
In other news, this blog goes on longer than I usually like to write. Hopefully it keeps you entertained all the way through.
Lillian Daniel, the author of this article, makes a very good point-I believe-in critiquing the view of Marcus Mumford and many like him (see, for example, Jefferson Bethke, of
Why I hate religion but love Jesus fame) that they want to follow Christ without being labeled Christians. Being Christian, they say, has led to wars, hatred, and legalism; or, in Marcus' case it puts you in a culture which he doesn't want to be a part of. Following Christ, they argue, leads to peace, love, and freedom.
Now I'm not going to dispute the simple argument of the negative things the Church has done as spoken of by someone like Jefferson, because others have done it better (this is a good place to start, and to be honest end, for that discussion-
The Smackdown from Bad Catholic). I'm not going to continue that discussion, but rather discuss the point of Mumford (by the way, I love his music, this is not an indictment of that) and his idea of the Christian culture, by pointing him to one culture which is not perfect, but I believe is where the true answer to his question lies.
In many ways this article is good, but I think it falls short in that the community that she is encouraging others to join tends to fall into that same narcissistic idea that loving Jesus but not religion does-you basically make the rules yourself. Let me explain; the current state of Christianity in today's culture is that there is an almost uncountable number of Protestant denominations (
How Many Protestant Denominations are There) and that it is growing each day. This number, along with the number of people who claim to follow Jesus but do not identify with any particular denomination or religion shows that things are in disarray. Christ prayed that "they all may be one" (John 17:21) and yet what we see today is anything but that.
Listen, I don't want to argue here as much about Catholicism vs. Protestantism on matters of doctrine particularly, but the reality is that doctrine influences the way that faith is lived out, and so it is unavoidable. What I want to point to with this discussion is my observation that the number of people who start their own denomination, switch from one to another, or simply leave the mainstream culture of Christianity shows a simple fact-this whole being Christian thing is
really hard to do on your own.
What this article gets right is that we need community, we need the brokenness of our brothers and our sisters because without their brokenness we end up worshiping ourselves instead of Christ.
What the article gets wrong, I believe, is where this community is found.
In my experience, many Christians of all denominations have a passion and a love for the person of Jesus Christ, and they desire to seek Him with the guiding help of others--and this seeking leads to a jump from this denomination to that, from this Pastor to that one, from this theological school to that. All this shows me is that when you follow a doctrine that says all you need to know is contained in a Book which has the Word of God delivered through all different kinds of letters, writings, stories, parables, and metaphors, it is really hard to figure out what it all means.
Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) comes from a wonderful love for the Word of God transcribed in Scripture and passed down for 2,000 years to us today. What Sola Scriptura misses, however, is how to understand what is really being said in that Book, because in practice it's not that easy to figure out. The greatest evidence for this (or at least good evidence which I would like to point out because it's on my mind) is the daily splintering of Christians into more and more denominations, more and more groups, more and more people turning away from their brothers and sisters in order to try and follow Christ on their own.
And this, my dear friends, is why I love the
Church. The Catholic Church, the Church which has continued since the death of Christ in an unbroken chain (
Here's your Popes), a Church which has faced schism and heresy and scandal and sin and come through on the other side thanks only to the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This Church isn't here today on the merits of its people or its leaders, because we all know if that was the case it would have been gone very early, but it is here on the merits of the God who created it when He was man in the person of Jesus Christ.
For me, I
need this Church. I need a Mother who can calm me, shut me up, and hand me a tradition of 2,000 years of sinful people working together through the grace of a God who is so passionately in love with His people that he doesn't leave but rather He continues to work through our sinfulness, our brokenness, our stupidity, and our insanity to hand down the Tradition and teaching that He gave us when He was here on earth to die for us.
I think this Church is the only correct response to Marcus and Jefferson and the like: you are right to say that none of those 33,000+ denominations are the best way to foster a personal relationship with Christ; for that, you need to go back to the one He started when He handed the keys to Peter (Matthew 1:18-19). This is a Church which continues to try-through the brokenness of its people-to point each and every person back to the God who gives each of us new life through His death & Resurrection.
As a final disclaimer, I want to make sure it is clear that this wasn't written to hate on other denominations. Rather, I hoped to explain one of the many reasons I love my Church so much and to express my hope that others can find their way home to Her, our Mother. I wrote to explain why I need the Church, and maybe in the process remind some others of the same thing.
