Secular View versus Faith View ...

Monday, Oct 6, 2014. Reading an article about the current debates on marriage within the Catholic Church recently, I became aware of the strong secular view which the author of the article had. He wrote about the church from a viewpoint which was completely worldy. He asked: how can they attract people, by what they offer to them as teaching and services? How can they survive as church in the competition between different churches and other ethical viewpoints? But is that the viewpoint which would fit to any church teaching?

Secular View …

The secular view does not know God. It does not know the origin and centre and focal point of faith. It does not know the source of the teaching, the source of the ethics, the source of its power. A secular view treats the church as a provider of some goods: teaching, ceremony, community. And then it compares it with other providers, with the market of general philosophy, of ceremony and of community.

Also, the secular view looks at the success of church the same way as the success of some company or some social network. It is successful, when it attracts a lot of people. It is successful, when it gathers a lot of money, when it is attractive, accepted and celebrated. But that is not the key goal of church. Yes, it wants to be attractive - and it is, in general. But its reason and source of attraction is not the community in the first place, it is not what it gives generated by humans - in the first place. All what it gives can play a role, but humans alone do not give what the church has been established to be.

The secular view thinks that if some teaching of the church is no longer attractive, it needs to be changed. It thinks that if some teaching is no longer what people want, then it should be adapted to what they want. But this is completely outside of what the church is and should be. It is not a reflection of what we think what should be right - with changing ethics on a highly oscillating scale! Its roots are much deeper. Its sources are eternal! Its ethics is healing and healthy.

Faith View …

You cannot talk about the church without talking about God. You need to know what he wants, what he did, what he said. Then you can start to talk about the church. When you do not know God, do not start to think you could give advice to the church, you will fail to see its goals and its roots!

I do not say or think that the church would be perfect. It is not without failure. It is not without its errors and its problems. Church is the community of believers - with a lot of different people in it. We all have our insight into faith, and we all have points we never understood so far. These points differ significantly, and so does the insight we have gained. It is linked to our personal path of faith, to our experiences, to our background and environment. But we are all linked to the one God we believe in, to father, son and holy spirit.

Church is the interaction of God with mankind. It is the community of those, who believe in him and - when they start their personal path of faith - are filled with the holy spirit. Starting to live in the forgiveness which Jesus brings is the starting point of church life. We are not perfect. On the contrary: we are sinners. We are sinners who are made holy by HIM, by Jesus, by his death at the cross of Calvary.

Church is a salvation story. It is a reconciliation story. It is a “good news” story, a story of eternal friendship. It is a story of learning truthfulness, of learning love, of learning patience and hope and joy. If people loose the connection to this source, we need to reconnect them, nothing else! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts