That has not satisfied the kind of people who go on twitter says Ryan Bridge in an opinion piece on Newshub.

"People are allowed to debate things, people are allowed to disagree and people are allowed to like things others don't," he says.

"But you wouldn't know it based on the persecution of religion that's going on at the moment."

"The "C-word" - the word unacceptable to the kind of people that go on Twitter and say he's homophobic, anti-women's rights and because he has a Trump hat, he's racist too."

"This is out of control and can I just say as a gay man I have no problem, no issues with somebody else not believing in homosexuality," Bridge said.

"So long as you don't spit hate, abuse me, or attack me, I couldn't give a stuff what you believe in."

"We live in a free society with freedom of thought but we've lost our way."

"In our pursuit of equality and ridding the world of discrimination, we have strayed into dangerous territory. Territory where views that may not align with ours are sidelined and shutdown."

Muller says while he voted against abortion and euthanasia, he wouldn't seek to impose his beliefs on anyone else.

He told Newshub Nation he would not be seeking to overturn the changes introduced by recently passed legislation.

I am a person who holds values that are faith-based, but I have never - and will never, ever - stand up and critique anybody else's personally-held values," Muller said.

"I never spoke on those issues when they came to the House because I did not believe that it was my job to stand up and talk to others who had a different view around their thinking."

"I think they will find me someone who is authentic and is completely comfortable with anybody's life choices and it doesn't in any way impact the value set that I have that sits inside me."

Source

• tvnz.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• politik.co.nz
• thespinoff.co.nz
• Image: Nick Perry/AP

Churches are empty, in part, because "for some young people, Christianity is associated less with love than with hate," writes columnist Nicholas Kristof.

The unwillingness to address political issues such as climate change and racism, the stubborn refusal to work with the social justice movement, and the eager acceptance of Trump and his policies have all contributed to the growing unpopularity of Christianity, specifically evangelical Christianity, among the younger generations, Kristof claims.

Kristof is right that evangelicalism is declining the United States, but it's not because evangelical churches are too conservative.

If anything, mainstream megachurches are becoming more and more liberal in an attempt to adapt the church to culture.

As a young evangelical, I've seen this firsthand: On Christian exclusivity, traditional teachings on sexuality and gender, and so on, many churches have capitulated to the cultural Left.

Yet, despite its best efforts to stand athwart culture and yell, "Stop!" evangelicalism continues to decline.

Traditional Christians support Trump not because they approve of his character, or the lack thereof, but because they feel they have no other choice.

Perhaps it's because this decline has less to do with politics, as Kristof suggests, and more to do with the unappealing, empty spirituality some churches offer.

Young adults want authenticity, which is why, according to a recent poll, 67% of millennials said they'd prefer a "classic" church over a "trendy" one.

They want community, too, and in megachurches with 5,000+ people that can be quite hard to find.

The numbers back this up: Traditional churches tend to hold onto their attendance numbers better than most.

Young adults in search of a moral foundation want theological consistency, and they're drifting toward churches that can offer both.

Kristof's argument, however, has less to do with the problems plaguing evangelical Christians and more to do with the president they've chosen to support.

Masking his disdain behind feigned concern, Kristof points the finger at religious Trump supporters who have turned a blind eye to the president's immorality and arrogance and blames them for Christianity's decline — an accusation that is just as absurd as it is dishonest.

Traditional Christians support Trump not because they approve of his character, or the lack thereof, but because they feel they have no other choice. Continue reading

In the past, conservatives prided themselves on loyalty to the pope and being in lockstep with all papal teachings, while progressives called for limits to papal power.

The devotees of tradition used to argue that liberals who complained about papal infallibility or centralization were backsliders who really needed to get with the program.

So while the John Paul II and Benedict XVI papacies had liberal theologians arguing that popes should govern more collaboratively, traditionalist critics of the current pope "have become reluctant to accept papal teaching (in its contents and forms) only with Francis," said Villanova University theology professor Massimo Faggioli.

In the recently published book "To Change the Church," Ross Douthat compares Francis to President Trump, arguing the pope is seeking to push through changes without thinking about the consequences.

"The story could end with Francis as its hero," the New York Times columnist writes. "But to choose a path that might have only two destinations — hero or heretic — is an act of great and dangerous presumption, even for a pope. Especially for a pope."

The desire for a pope to govern in an autocratic way as long as it suits one's agenda points to a much bigger debate about how much authority Catholic teaching gives to the man known as the Successor of St. Peter.

"I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven," Jesus tells Peter, who Catholics see as the first pope, in Matthew 16:19. "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

That gives the pope a pretty free rein.

At the same time, there are safeguards around papal power. Catholic tradition makes clear that pontiffs must govern the church with the bishops - a principle known as collegiality — while papal infallibility is strictly defined.

Constraining papal power has been on the mind of Cardinal Raymond Burke, a respected canon lawyer and leading light for traditional Catholics.

On April 7, he gave a long speech titled "The limits of papal authority in the doctrine of the Church" to a gathering in Rome largely made up of Francis critics.

The cardinal has threatened to publicly correct the pope over a footnote in his 2016 apostolic exhortation, "Amoris Laetitia," that envisions a way for some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

"Any expression of doctrine or practice that is not in conformity with divine revelation, contained in the sacred scriptures and in the tradition of the church, cannot be an authentic exercise of the apostolic or Petrine ministry and must be rejected by the faithful," the cardinal said.

Quoting a church lawyer from the 12th century, the 69-year-old prelate said that while "no mortal being" should have the "audacity to reprimand a pope on account of his faults," a pontiff must be called out if he has "deviated from the faith."

There are even times, Burke added, citing a historian of the late medieval period, when a pope "must, as a duty, be disobeyed."

Francis, on the other hand, has talked about the importance of receiving criticism. Four days after the cardinal's speech, the 81-year-old Argentine pontiff offered one of the most dramatic "I'm sorry" statements ever seen by a pope, over his mishandling of the Chilean sexual abuse scandal. Continue reading

• Image: RNS

The society, which counts some 1400 academics among its ranks, has adopted a set of new guidelines to help members better respect "diverse theological and ecclesial sensibilities".

The inquiry, by an ad hoc committee, found that meetings frequently "include jokes and snide remarks about, or disrespectful references to, bishops, the Vatican, the magisterium, etc. These predictably elicit derisive laughter from a part of the audience."

The committee's report noted that public discussions at meetings frequently display demeaning references toward conservative theologians and cites two examples: "The phrase 'thinking Catholics' is sometimes used to mean liberals. The phrase 'people who would take us backwards' is sometimes used to mean conservatives."

The report also described a variety of exclusionary tactics aimed at more conservative members, including a failure to invite conservative theologians to speak.

As a result, conservatives felt "not only marginalised but unwelcome".

In its conclusion, the report says: "In sum, the self-conception of many members that the CTSA is open to all Catholic theologians is faulty and self-deceptive. As one of our members put it, the CTSA is a group of liberal theologians and 'this permeates virtually everything'.

"Because the CTSA does not aspire to be a partisan group, both attitudes and practices will have to shift if the CTSA is to become the place where all perspectives within Catholic theology in North America are welcome."

The society's president, Richard Gaillardetz, explained in a letter to the members that while the board does not share all of the concerns of the committee's findings, the report is still "an opportunity for an examination of conscience regarding our treatment of colleagues whose theological and ecclesial commitments differ substantially from our own."

He added: "The Catholic Theological Society of America should aspire to be a 'big tent' professional society that models in its attitudes and policies a commitment to the full catholicity of our theological tradition."

Sources:

National Catholic Reporter

National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Agency

Image: National Catholic Reporter

The traditional blog, claims to have friends all around the world, including Argentina, where Marcelo Gonzalez of Panorama Catolico International, claims to give local in sight into the local archbishop.

Republishing Gonzalez piece in English, Rorate Caeli says Bergoglio is "a known enemy of the traditional Mass" only "allowing imitation of it in the hands of declared enemies of the ancient liturgy".

It claims that as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio "persecuted every single priest who made an effort to wear a cassock, and preach with firmness."

Bergoglio is "famous for his inconsistency and for the intelligibility of his addresses and homilies", says the publication.

Calling Bergoglio loose in doctrine and liturgy, Rorate Caeli says he has "not missed any occasion for holding acts in which he lent his Cathedral to Protestants, Muslims, Jews and even to partisan groups in the name of an impossible and unnecessary inter-religous dialogue."

Rorate Caeli claims Bergoglio has been blessed by Protestant ministers in common acts of worship and has not fought against abortion and only weakly against homosexual marriage.

It concludes, "It really cannot be what Benedict wanted for the Church."

Sources

• Rorate Caeli
• Panorama Catolico
• Image Merco Express

"The proposed change will have catastrophic consequences for marriage as an institution, for family life in Britain, and for all human relationships, not least among our young,"
said Bishop Philip A. Egan of Portsmouth.

He said he was very disappointed at the "Orwellian manner" in which Parliament wished to redefine marriage.

Bishop Egan said the bill might lead the Catholic Church to remove itself from civil marriage.

"One possible consequence of this is that the Church will be forced to withdraw from the civil registration of marriages, as in some European countries, where couples fulfill the civil requirements in the Town Hall before heading to church for Matrimony,"
 he said.

Though the bill was backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, it split his ruling Conservative Party: 127 Conservative MPs voted in favour, 136 opposed it, and 35 abstained.

The bill is expected to face stronger opposition when it is considered by the House of Lords.

The Church of England opposed the bill. The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Justin Welby, said he stood with his brother bishops in strongly opposing the redefinition of marriage.

Meanwhile, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family expressed support for giving unmarried couples some kind of legal protection.

While reaffirming the Catholic Church's opposition to same-sex marriage, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia said the Church should do more to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in countries where homosexuality is illegal.

Archbishop Paglia said that there are several kinds of "cohabitation forms that do not constitute a family", and that their number is growing.

He suggested that nations could find "private law solutions" to help individuals who live in non-matrimonial relations, "to prevent injustice and make their life easier".

Nevertheless, he was adamant in reaffirming society's duty to preserve the unique value of marriage as being between a man and a woman. Other kinds of "affections" could not be the foundation for a "public structure" such as marriage, he said.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Service

National Catholic Reporter

Image: National Catholic Reporter

It is the closest a Catholic bishop in England and Wales has come to criticising the Coalition's austerity measures.

Religious and political conservatives have for some years sought to connect Islam to violence, and the premature portrayal of the terror attacks as the work of Muslims has left some conservatives 'red-faced.'

Mark Juergensmeyer, author "Terror in the Mind of God," noted close parallels between the 32-year-old Norwegian man, Anders Behring Breivik, who killed at least 76 people in coordinated attacks on government buildings in Oslo and a youth rally at a nearby island, and Timothy McVeigh, the anti-government radical behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

"If [Osama] bin Laden is a Muslim terrorist, Breivik and McVeigh are surely Christian ones," Juergensmeyer, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote on the blog Religion Dispatches.

Perhaps the best lesson - for conservatives and everyone else looking for obvious culprits and easy answers - came from a Norwegian woman who visited the devastation in Oslo.

"If Islamic people do something bad, you think, 'Oh, it's Muslims'?" Sigrid Skeie Tjensvoll told The Washington Post. "But if a white Protestant does something bad, you just think he's mad. That's something we need to think about."

In his manifesto, written just hours before the killings, Breivik quoted Sydney Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell as a source of his 'Christian' motivation.

Quoting a speech Pell gave post September 11, Breivik wrote, "in the relationship between the Islamic and non-Islamic world, the normal thing is a situation of tension if not war, or outright hostility".

Sources

• Huffington Post
• SMH
• Religion Dispatches

That's what Patty Fawkner heard her pairsh priest say, and it left her pondering this word "conservative". "Seeing myself politically left of centre and holding more liberal views within the Church, I can all too easily use "conservative" pejoratively and "ultra-conservative" as the ultimate putdown"

"What is the gift of being conservative?" she continues "The etymology of the word conservative - 'to keep safe altogether' - points to the value of that gift. I begin to realise that within myself I am both conservative and liberal. Both are God-given human tendencies that can dynamically interact and co-exist in a healthy tension within me and within the Church. Both conservative and liberal have their strengths and their blind spots. Both can be entrenched equally in ideology, each taking the moral high ground convinced that God is on their side."

Patty Fawkner is an adult educator, writer and facilitator. She is an Australian Good Samaritan Sister who is on the leadership team of her congregation.

Read Patty Fawkner's piece
Image: goodsams.org.au