The Churches seem to have reached the point where they are proclaiming a gospel, the meaning of which they, themselves, fail to comprehend.

In ethical matters the Church now lags behind secular society by many years. As someone has pointed out, the Church does not even have the broad support of its own members on issues like contraception, sexual morality and so on.

The decline of the Church in the west may well be attributable to the disconnection between Church 'teaching' and modern education. It may, however, be a mistake to extrapolate the present rate of decline to predict the total demise of the Church. That would be bad mathematics and, I suspect, very poor sociology.

There are more Christians today in China than there are Church-attenders in Australia. That is in spite of it being alien to Chinese culture and having been brutally suppressed by the Communist government for the last fifty years or so.

The promise of everlasting life in heaven may not be an accurate interpretation of Jesus' teaching and its certainly very poor theology but it appeals to a lot of people. It gives expression, albeit very clumsily, to the hope that this life is not entirely meaningless. Most of us recognise the silliness of the heavenly promise because we are 'educated'.

It is possible, however, that new Churches might arise that find new ways to proclaim the Gospel more faithfully. That is my hope and that is why I believe the Church, in one form or another, will persist for a long while yet.

Heaven and Hell aren't concepts which
I can understand.

The best that I can understand, comes from a joke
that says, - you go to heaven for the weather,
And to hell for the company.

Is the Catholic Church losing its grip?

Look at the statistics.

There's a severe global shortage of priests.
To the extent that Rome is taking convert married
clergy (Anglican etc) and ordaining them as Catholic priests.

The Churches are slowly being emptied.
Attendance numbers are decreasing.

Of course the Church as lost its grip,
and rightly so. It can't preach compassion,
while practising exclusion.
It can't talk about traditions of caring, love,
honesty, decency, justice, a fair go, while
practicing those principles only towards a select few.

Things have to change if the Church is to survive.
People will no longer be bullied by an authoritarian
demand, and moralizing, which ignores the complex
context of modern life.

People today are quite capable of evaluating what is
meaningful and what is simply tired and imperious tradition.

Will the Church survive?

That's up to its leadership.

People today need genuine local leadership.
Rome is so far away.
Unless changes are made, the future looks grim.

Still reading life from a book. How quaint. The church isn't losing its grip, its losing the plot! Let me explain.
Evolution is a fact! the history lays in the rocks; and as the debate rolls on, it come down to one fact!
FEAR! That's right, fear! Man-kind has always looked to the skies for the answer and it still hasn't come. The idea for a all-mighty god, that is everywhere,( Rollie eyes) is totally ridiculous.
I took it upon myself to explore the churches around my district, and i found that it was over-crowded with old people that are ready for their demise. CRAP! No-one wants to die, but if you think there is a chance of the garden of Eden, go for it. We non believers wont stop you, but you should take the time to look at bigger picture.

This little book was written by a scared and paranoid society where the rich want constant power over the poor, and not to mention control over the easy beats!

Religion is just another from of in-come for those who choose that form of life-stile, hence the word con. ( evolutionary concepts ) and it all come down to, I DONT WANT TO DIE!

The meaning of life! SH@t! Iam doing it. I am the most happiest person you will ever meet, but don't take my word for it, just look around you and tell me that you have your children's future in mind.

This is just a rant, because none of you have a clue whats going on.

P/S Hello wide-bay. I see you and hear you. lol. Privite joke.

Bottem line is! Be good to all people, cause you will never know how far respect will get you.

EVO

If ever you needed evidence that the Church has got it wrong then this thread is it.

The message that everyone is getting from the Church seems to be about heaven and hell. Is it any wonder that people are distancing themselves from the Church?

Jesus message was about justice in this world for everybody NOT about rewards in the next life, not about personal salvation but about justice. Didnt He say "He who seeks to save himself will die." Didnt He heal people on the Sabbath in blatant defiance of the "Church". Didnt he party with taxpayers and hug lepers. When plain common sense said the rules sucked then Jesus broke the rules. He wouldnt have lasted long in today's Church would He.

This article is an interesting, albeit hostile, view of the Catholic Church by an outsider.

The Church is going through a crisis and decline, there can be no doubt about that. Only very few of us will live long enough to see whether this decline will lead to a complete demise, as the author suggests, or whether these predictions will remain just his wishful thinking, .

"Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you ... and stood aside of you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who reject you, and brace themselves against you, or who treat you with contempt, or dispute the passage with you?"

I think one consequence of the present crisis is that more and more Catholics are learning to take to heart these words of Walt Whitman.

However, I also think that the author's description of the situation in which the Catholic Church finds itself at the beginning of 21st century would be much more creditable had he not combined it with 19th century ideas about the relation between science and (any) religion. It is understandable that somebody cannot follow recent achievements in the study of possible interactions between science and religion (and philosophy) brought about by new insights from mathematical physics, genetics/biology and neuroscience (as well as theology). However, it is bordering on arrogance to call these new perspectives "intellectual gymnastics" just because they are beyond one’s 19th century horizon when people had to choose between a scientific or a religious approach to reality, as naive as they both were when seen from a 21st century standpoint.

Besides creation obviously (even to a 2 year old) pointing to a Creator the self righteous rants here are enough to point to the corrupt nature of man. Evolution is the biggest fraud of our time and takes a lot of faith (blind) to believe in it.

Those claiming that the Jesus did not speak of heaven and hell show a complete lack of any biblical knowledge. They have created a god in their own mind ignoring the clear teachings of Scripture.

The sad part is that many who preach their new age fear mongering have little to no credibility. They are blinded by their own lusts and take false comfort in preaching their own brand of righteousness. Hopefully one day the scales will fall off your eyes.

Few will be saved not because of their sin but because of their self righteousness where they honestly believe they don't need a Saviour. This is the end result of flawed secular teaching that laughably make out that we humans are somehow gods and can solve the worlds problems. Most can't even hold a family together let alone fix other issues. The lack of humility and arrogance is incredible when you consider where secularism has got us.