22AR27-17

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AR 27:17 - The Gospel Coalition debates "the most divisive issues"

In this issue:

DEBATE - groundbreaking five-part video debate series featuring prominent Christian thinkers

ROMAN CATHOLICISM - lay members will now be "eligible to fill many administrative leadership posts in the Vatican"

SOURCES - finding information and insights that fit the actual facts, yet provoke both sides of an issue

Apologia Report 27:17 (1,570)
May 10, 2022

DEBATE
On April 18th, Collin Hansen (vice president for content, editor in chief, The Gospel Coalition) announced that TGC has produced "a five-part video debate series featuring prominent Christian thinkers discussing some of the most divisive issues facing the church today." Hmm. There are a few issues we'd like to suggest. How about you? Well, it's no surprise that TGC shares some of our concerns and priorities.

* - Debate #1: How should Christians think about gun control and the right to bear arms? Featuring Bob Thune and Andrew Wilson.

* - Debate #2: Is 'woke church' a stepping stone to theological compromise? Featuring Sean DeMars and Rebecca McLaughlin.

* - Debate #3: Should the 'pro-life' movement be holistically (womb to tomb) or narrowly (womb) focused? Featuring Scott Klusendorf and Karen Swallow Prior.

* - Debate #4: What's the best approach for the church to address racial injustice? Featuring Brian Davis and Justin Giboney.

* - Debate #5: Should we insist on a theological and historical definition of 'evangelical' if many self-described evangelicals see it primarily as a political identity? Featuring Ryan Burge [Where have we heard that name before?] and Andrew Walker.

* - Debate #8531: In your content questing, should you increasingly generalize or specialize as the daily information deluge accelerates?

Check it out at <www.bit.ly/3xyi2ko>

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ROMAN CATHOLICISM

"From 2019 to 2020 membership barely grew by 0.3% in Europe compared with 1.8% in Asia and 2.1% in Africa." Richard Ostling (GetReligion, Apr 9 '22) also notes that the Roman Catholic church "counts as members all baptized infants, who as adults will not necessarily be active parishioners."

In addition, "The Vatican office admits that yet again there's an 'obvious imbalance' in the geographical distribution of the slowly decreasing ranks of priests ... declining enrollment in seminaries ... with only Africa showing an increase. Remarkably, Africa plus Asia produce 60% of the globe's seminary students." Further, "there's one priest for every 3,314 Catholics over-all but one per 1,746 in Europe, one per 2,086 in the Americas and a severe shortage in Africa with 5,089 members per priest." Yet "Africa has 18.9% of the world's Catholics, or 236 million, but only 12.3% of the priests. By comparison, Europe has just over 20% of the Catholic population but 40% of the world's priests minister there."

John L. Allen Jr. (editor, CruxNow.com) remarks that if such priests were to move back to their home countries, the U.S. church "might as well post a 'Going Out of Business' sign" at most cathedrals.

"A distinctive aspect of Catholicism is the 'professed women' or 'sisters' in religious orders, often called 'nuns' though many do not fit that label [representing a] total, significantly larger than the total for priests, results from increases in Africa and Asia that contrast with decline elsewhere." Gina Zurlo (co-editor, World Christian Encyclopedia <www.bit.ly/3az2xKe> reviewed with fanfare by us long ago) finds that "women are a 52% majority of the world's Christians and very often exceed that percentage in active attenders."

Ostling adds that Pope Francis' apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium <www.bit.ly/3kR2HE5> "will define a revamping of the Roman Curia," in which one of the most notable changes makes "lay members ... eligible to fill many administrative leadership posts in the Vatican bureaucracy. That includes sisters and lay women as well as laymen, who would have major influence in governing world Catholicism." <www.bit.ly/3Olat6v>

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SOURCES

"There goes that Ryan Burge guy, again" exemplifies the kind of writing which we find most helpful. As modeled by Terry Mattingly in GetReligion (Mar 14 '22), it's all about identifying sources and explaining their special relevance and value.

Mattingly recommends that we pay close attention when a source "consistently offers information and insights that (a) fit the actual facts on the ground, yet (b) anger (or at least puzzle) people on both sides of the hot-button issues that make headlines."

First, he identifies examples of such content: political scientist John C. Green of the University of Akron, best known for years of consulting work with the Pew Forum team. A few years ago, I added religious-liberty specialist David French to that list. Sociologist James Davison Hunter, author <www.bit.ly/3Mdj9tJ> of that 'Culture Wars' classic? Ditto. How about the notorious scholar Karen Swallow Prior?"

Following that, he goes into detail <youtu.be/UFPUwiVv5ls> by way of Ryan Burge, his final example. In doing so, Mattingly opens with: "If you agree with Burge [and characteristically, the others above] on everything, then you aren't paying attention. That's a compliment." They are all "consistently candid about the trends ... on left and right."

Burge "also did a Religion News Service Q&A the other day with Jana Riess that ran with this provocative headline: 'Evangelicalism isn't dying, and Catholics are going Republican.'" <www.t.co/yvsbLjbUEN>

Mattingly spells it out by explaining the Big Idea behind this piece: "The middle ground continues to shrink in American life, especially when it comes to matters of morality and culture. That's a big theme in the work of Green, French and Burge."

Mattingly concludes with "new Burge material [which reveals] some big changes or trends that we can expect in the next five to 10 years in American religion. ... Among people who never attend church, if you ask what they believe about God, a bigger share says they believe in God without a doubt than don't believe in God at all. ...

"Most nonreligious people are left of center but not liberal, while fully secular people are incredibly liberal. So for the secular left to have any success, they need to draw in people from the middle of the spectrum, and I don't know if they can do that." <www.bit.ly/3OjK8Wm>

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