Paul's Passing Thoughts

Two things, unless you have been away on another planet for some time, are evident: church consumes a great deal of the earth’s landscape while exhibiting a significant share of the world’s evil. Few know what to make of it. This work seeks to supply key answers to those who care the most: those who haven’t given up hope in God but are disenfranchised from church. This is a massive exodus involving two groups of people referred to as the Nones and the Dones.

Secondly, those who have remained in the church, but are confused and isolated, if not in downright misery and turmoil. Thirdly, those who believe the church represents God. This work will challenge that notion for good reason; if the church is the best God has to offer, who exactly is He? And fourthly, those who are perplexed because they cannot find justice in the church. Why is justice such a foreign concept to the church? Why does it seem to be optional? Isn’t justice important to God?

Some overdue clarification; at least for purposes of this work, “church” refers to the Roman Catholic Church and its offshoot, the Protestant church, and the latter’s many, many offshoots. Church, by and large, refers to these two institutions and their claim to represent God’s affairs on earth. This work is timely because until circa 2008, evil in the church was thought of primarily as a Catholic problem.

However, though true regarding general publicity of the 19th and 20th century, that is, a more virtuous Protestantism, the big picture of history does not reinforce that perception. Whether Catholic or Protestant, from the abuse and molestation of orphans to the deprivation of liberties on an international scale, the church has never left any vestige of virtue undisturbed. Yet, tradition still points to these institutions as the representation of good on earth. How can this be? Regardless of perpetual bad publicity, evil in the church is thought of as some kind of anomaly. Myriads boldly claim that the world is lost without the church while being sat upon by the proverbial elephant in the room.