Can Stern and Apocalyptic Sermons Save the Church


For as long as I can remember, there has been a debate in Christianity about how the preacher should preach. The two camps are, first, to warn about sin and hell and quote scripture to "prove" hell awaits the unrepentant sinner and, second, to welcome all people, go light on warnings and theology and be a friend.

A Jesuit priest who does a lot of media work just published a piece admonishing parish priests to put the hammer down. He says parish priests need to lay out the rules of being a Catholic along with the consequences of not following the rules. The link author scolds parish priests for not in turn scolding their parish members. The author, himself, does not make a living as a parish priest. Instead he is a professor, publishes pointy headed books and give lectures across the country. No wonder he doesn't understand what it is like to face the those in the pews who pay the bills.

What is it like to be a preacher or a priest? Perhaps more than any other profession, it is like being a politician. Yes, there is some latitude to warn and admonish. But the clergy like the politician has only so much political capital. He/she survives by spending a little here and a little there but never spending all of it. Where's the money for a Catholic priest to spend every service haranguing those in the pews against using artificial birth control when 99% practice it?

It is often repeated that churches which "strictly adhere to the Bible" and have heavy duty faith messages are doing better than the more intellectual denominations. Data is a little unclear as to whether this is true. Certainly one would expect the most enthusiastic of church goers would stay with the church while others would fall away. What we don't know is how many casual church goers are pushed away entirely by the Bible thumpers? The micro observation that conservative churches are doing better has not changed the trajectory of downward numbers overall.

The Jesuit priest preaching to priests who actually run churches should be assigned a church to try out his theory of Catholic-type pulpit pounding. This would be fun to watch.

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