Yes, church about God

Tag: canada

"The church has so little to do with God."

That was one person’s comment on a story last week about the Diocese of Antigonish liquidating parish assets to pay for sex abuse lawsuits involving priests.

The reader joined others in denouncing the Roman Catholic Church for hanging on to its corporate wealth while asking individual parishioners to sacrifice the property they had accumulated in the name of the church over decades of hard work.

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The whole sex abuse lawsuit issue seems unfair on so many levels that it’s no wonder people question the presence of God in the church.

The bodies, minds and spirits of innocent children were assaulted by adults in positions of authority and trust.

That betrayal extends to those children’s parents, who were raised to never question the church’s authority.

Parishioners in economically depressed communities gave willingly of their time, talent and treasure to further the church’s purpose of spreading God’s word, education, health care and help for the poor. Now those unsuspecting parishioners have to pay for the misbehaviour of the people they entrusted with their hard work and sacrifice.

The organizations that authorized abusive priests to lead and instruct innocent people has, if the rumours are to be believed, untold earthly wealth parked in Rome and other hiding places.

The truly faithful, both priests and lay people, are being smeared by the same brush as those who deviated from their avowed purpose.

One might well ask what God has to do with all that.

And what about a church that believes that throwing money at a problem will fix it?

Money can buy psychotherapy and recover years of income lost due to spiritual, mental and physical distress. Money can train church leaders to recognize people and situations where abuse might happen, and prevent it from happening again.

Money has constructed beautiful buildings as expressions of praise and as places of public worship.

Money is a means to an end so it’s not much good stored in a vault, or siphoned into useless projects or property that serve very few and ignore the needs of many. Think of cavernous buildings used a couple of hours a day on one or two days a week by a handful of muttering people, while the homeless and hungry sit on the curb.

And then there are the church rules about who can do or say what and when during worship, what and when a believer can eat or drink, and how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. The rules are as obsolete as many of the church buildings and the equipment therein.

What does all that have to do with God?

People who are deeply involved see their churches as vehicles for doing and sharing God’s word. They know churches are not perfect because they are made up of humans, a collection of sinners who believe their lives can be changed for the better by following Jesus.

People on the outside looking in expect churchgoers to be perfect because they go to church, but people go to church because they know they are not perfect and they seek something better than themselves.

The church hasn’t done a good job of witnessing if Joe Q. Public can observe the antics of a few and state, "The church has so little to do with God."

But I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the church would welcome the assistance of anyone with certain knowledge about anything that does have to do with God.

( mgraham@herald.ca)

Monica Graham is a freelance writer living in rural Pictou County.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Religion/1183735.html