Christendom

From The Globe and Mail:

Prime Minister Jean ChrÈtien risks burning in hell if he makes same-sex marriage legal in Canada, a Roman Catholic bishop from Alberta warned yesterday. “He doesn’t understand what it means to be a good Catholic,” Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary said in an interview. “He’s putting at risk his eternal salvation. I pray for the Prime Minister because I think his eternal salvation is in jeopardy. He is making a morally grave error and he’s not being accountable to God.” …A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said yesterday that Mr. ChrÈtien’s primary responsibility is to serve the Canadian public ó not his church.

Christendom is dead, and the church is the last to know it. We still expect that when the church speaks, political leaders and the public will sit up and take notice. We quote God’s Word as authoritative, and are surprised when people look at us with bemused expressions. The Bible may be clear, but that carries about as much weight with them as Uncle Harry’s ramblings at the last family reunion. Christendom is dead, but Christianity isn’t. We have to get used to not being in power, of moving back to the margins of society as – well, as the church did in the first century. This isn’t all bad, but it will be bad as long as we think we can still speak and society will listen. We’re not in control anymore. I’m not sure it was always a good thing when we were.