2013-10-13       John W                   John W's previous articles

(Comments welcome here)

Aberrations of Gospel Christianity

An aberration is something that deviates from the normal way

Many aspects of modern Christianity are an aberration of Gospel Christianity

Pope Francis is currently reminding the Church that a cleric leading a luxurious life style is an aberration of Christian leadership.
See this cartoon ...aimed at people like this foolish German bishop who drives a vintage BMW and is currently having a palace built for himself

Such an aberration is easy to spot

Less easy to notice are the aberrations in the way modern Christianity, at least in the Catholic Church, is structured

Original Gospel Christianity was a local affair, with locals producing their own leaders who, like St Paul, had an ordinary job to support themselves.  Most such leaders were married men "who managed their families well". Ordinary Christians were people with a strong prayer life

But then aberration set in.  Christian leadership became the exclusive prerogative of a full-time, male, celibate clergy. And prayer became something that monks and nuns did

No one questions the enormous good that clergy and religious have done over the centuries, but maybe it's time to return religion, return prayer, return leadership to the rank-and-file, to ordinary life

The divorce, the artificial divide between "religious/clergy" and "laity" has gone on long enough. And the longer it goes, the less relevance Gospel Christianity has in the lives of more and more people, even baptised Christians

Maybe the time has come for clergy and monks and nuns to go back into the world....to incarnate themselves among the poor, themselves "living poor for the poor"

(I'd be grateful for readers' comments to develop this theme. Comments can be made at top of page)

c.f. Wilfrid Harrington re House Churches (second last section of this article)

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