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 PrintableVersion Letter from AmericaSmells and bellsThe current story of Pope Benedict inviting Anglicans to Rome (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125615995448599769.html?mod=article-outset-box) is no doubt covered elsewhere, but it has a particular ring within the context of the US. In certain circles of American evangelicalism, being more high churchy, if not downright sacramental, has become a little bit attractive. I am told that for every one evangelical who moves to Rome, three move from Rome to evangelicalism, so it’s not as if we have a major issue, but nonetheless it does make you scratch your head. Coming recently from a part of America (New England) where the Roman Catholic churches are struggling after the disaster of the priest child abuse cases, it is — let us say — downright astonishing to find a good ol’ Bible bashing evangelical getting all funky about candles, bells, and men in dresses (I mean ‘cassocks’, excuse me, brethren). Lake WobegonYou catch some of the wistfulness even in the book Lake Wobegon Days, Garrison Keillor’s publication from his popular radio broadcasts. At one point in the book someone envies the Roman Catholic services for all the colour and festivity they have, rather than the more drab traditional Protestant worship style. But it is a little more than simply an aesthetic. There is also a remarkable doctrinal naivete. I remember one fellow who went to a Roman Catholic church for one Sunday coming up to Yale from some mega church in the South, and replying to my question ‘Did you notice any difference?’ by saying that the RC service was ‘a bit more somber’. When I asked him as a follow up, ‘Ever heard of justification by faith alone?’, he said, ‘No, what’s that?’ Here’s a highly intelligent man, from a massive mega Bible church who couldn’t spot damnable heresy if it came over and smacked him in the face. I’m not on an anti-RC rant. We actually bought a former RC building from the diocese of New Haven, Connecticut, and turned it into a Baptist church, of all things, much to the graciousness of the diocese. One of our tactics in explaining why we might be a good option was to mention that the last former RC building which had been sold in the New Haven area had been turned into a strip joint. We might be Baptist, but it could be worse. They were very open to our offer, and I am grateful for that. St. So-And-So and the MafiaBut I also remember an astonishing conversation with the former, now deceased, priest in charge of the building we bought, explaining how grateful he was that another building over which he had charge had not been destroyed when a tree next to it had been struck by lightning. ‘St. So-And-So’, he said, ‘protected it.’ ‘Surely’, the colleague with me asked, ‘You mean God protected it?’ No, the priest said, ‘St. So-And-So’. Mind you, this was the same priest who explained to us that the reason why there were no (ahem) ‘people of colour’ in that neighbourhood was because the Mafia don kept them out. To this day I’m still not sure which part of that sentence I was more offended by. Anecdotes do not make a theological argument. But still. I mean really. Talk about a dog returning to its vomit. The RC may be conservative on homosexuality and gender issues, but so are the Mormons. And the RC may have a ‘long ancient heritage’, etc., but then the Celtic church in Britain was around before them, as was the Armenian apostolic, and others beside — and if something being old was an ultimate argument for it being best then my cell phone would still be the size of a brick. Pass me the BibleLove your RC neighbour. But don’t join with them. And, by the way, when our RC altar was ‘de-commissioned’ before we moved in to occupy the building in New Haven, we found that all that had been taken out was a small piece of the top side of the altar about the size of a match box, perhaps slightly bigger. When we enquired what it was we found out that it was the relics. A commissioned altar has relics; de-commissioned no dead relics. Pass me the Bible and keep the candle to yourself, I say. Josh Moody,
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