This week's election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pontiff sparked an interesting response from much of the mainstream media in the United States. There was a great deal of angst, and even shock, that the Catholic Church chose a leader who holds to traditional Catholic beliefs. It appeared many were hoping the church would suddenly choose someone filled with positive ideas to move away from all the conservative moral standards Catholics find rooted in their sacred texts, but which seem outlandish to those who have moved on to more progressive thinking.
The yearning of the media during the days leading up to the papal conclave may not have come to fruition, but it helps us consider this moment. You can see the reaction across the channels, but one example may help. For example, take Erin Burnett's comments on CNN, included this bold statement: "The Church helps the poor and the lonely, and I bet there are a lot of people who might return to the Church if it changed." Erin is blunt enough to say what many have thought-- that if churches would just get with the times, people would return. But is there any evidence to show this to be the case? In short, no.
This desired capitulation to culture is a familiar refrain. As a matter of fact, this is the story of much of mainline Protestantism in the United States. In the desire to engage culture, several mainline Protestant denominations aligned with culture's values and in a great historic twist of irony, their churches didn't stop shrinking. They shrunk faster. Read more
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