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Fourth in a series by John Houk

From divine plan to intrinsic evil

What possible human activity could change so radically in the minds of Christians that it became a sin at all times and in all places after being understood for centuries as part of God’s plan and part of the natural order? A human activity that fits this description is the cultural practice of one person owning another person as property, that is the practice of slavery.

Most of us are aware that slavery existed in ancient times, including biblical times, and we are aware that it existed here until the Civil War. What is sometimes not so well known is that slavery was practiced in the Christian world through all of those intervening years. Slavery did not become black until Christian Europeans began to explore the coast of Africa in the 15th century. During these years from Biblical times to our Civil War there were numerous Church pronouncements which accepted slavery as a cultural norm and part of the divine plan for human relationships. Here are a few examples:

Third in a Series

by John Houk

This is the third in the series devoted to changes in the Church’s position on important matters demonstrating that our Church is really alive as our new pope has so forcefully proclaimed. The subject here is the science of evolution. We continue to read of various Church groups that lobby to prevent the science of evolution being taught in schools or they support including the “science” of “intelligent design” in the classroom. Our own Church has a history of evolution on the topic of evolution.

Second in a Series

by John Houk

This is the second in a series on how the Catholic Church “reads the signs of the times”. Such engagement and adaptation of teaching and practice are sure signs that the church is alive and wise enough to recognize the need for change when the time is right. Here is a brief history of our teaching on religious freedom which is both an individual issue and a social issue. For individuals we have gone from “error has no rights” to “the human person has a right to religious freedom”. For society and governments we have gone from using the “secular arm” to compel and even punish people who have fallen into “heresy” to “religious freedom must be given effective constitutional protection (by governments) everywhere”. Here are some quotes:

by Don Rampolla

No matter who is pope there is a lot of work for me to do in this world. I have a wife to love, children and grandchildren to love, 6 billion other people to love. There are wars to be stopped, peace to be made, social and economic justice to be achieved. And I have the daily tasks of living --- my share of housekeeping, shopping and income earning.

Who is pope may make a difference in the effectiveness of my efforts, for example in working for a living and in working for peace and social justice. And certainly I will have feelings about the effectiveness of my work --- seeing a large effect is certainly more satisfying than seeing a small effect or none. But whether my efforts are rendered more or less effective by the top hierarchical leadership of the Catholic Church need not be an influence on my decision to make an effort, and the enthusiasm I put into that effort. If I’m doing what I’m doing out of love for God and people then as has been said (by Mother Teresa?) faithfulness is more important than effectiveness.

A first of a series

by John Houk

What was a sin sometimes becomes a virtue. Our new pope Benedict XVI used the phrase “Our Church is Alive” six time in his recent homily. To be alive means to be in motion, to interact with your environment and to be forever adapting - or you die. Our pope is correct. This is the great unknown reality of our Church. Some people like to refer to our Church as a “rock”. It is comforting that our Church does not change (adapt) with every new idea. It should change cautiously, but it does change. This “Did You Know” begins a series that will recount how the Catholic Church’s position on important matters has changed.

The purpose of the series will be to show how wise , and alive, we Catholics can be when faced with new knowledge and understanding. We do change, often completely reversing our earlier position. People who feel threatened by change need to remember that to change, when given new information, is a sign of mental/institutional health. It is also a sure sign that our Church is alive as our new pope seems clearly aware.

by Don Kretschmann, lifelong farmer

A few years ago, I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. If you’ve ever been there, you know how immense it is! You just keep trying to get it all into a picture—but you can’t. We listened to a park ranger explain that from where we were standing, we could see strata of rock near the bottom of the canyon almost one billion years old. The gray shale strata was 250 million years in the making, and above that another layer of red sandstone was 450 million years old… We were looking at a big chunk of the history of the earth. The ranger explained that dinosaurs were around long enough to see one huge strata of rock deposited. Mammals have been around long enough to see another deep deposit made.

by John Houk

Our new pope has begun to reach out with his first messages to Catholics and the world. Perhaps we can anticipate, from what we already know, what his first encyclical might say. You may have your own guess, but this is mine.

First he will acknowledge the state of the world with wars about race, class and money. Then deal with the prevalent lack of respect for authority. He will praise his predecessor and call for a renewed sense of the charity of Jesus Christ in the world. Then he will call for all Catholics to stop dissension and strife, of whatever character, among ourselves while calling for each Catholic to subject his opinion to the authority of his superior.

By John Houk

At the present moment the death of Pope John Paul II has captured the attention of people like few other events ever have. He was a super-hero pope, with a charismatic personality that accomplished great things such as exercising global influence and courageous inter-religious dialogue. Yet this is also a time to push back from this outpouring of interest in the person of this pope and look at popes in general because we will soon have a new one.