Monday, October 18, 2004

Church and discipline

What ever happened to Church discipline? I have been observing the decay of church unity in recent year, much of what I attribute directly to the failure of individual churches and denominations to lovingly discipline their membership. The Anglican Church is the obvious first choice, but this can be found in many other places. The ELCA has allowed aberrant theology to enter in via it's seminaries for so long that they are now struggling with how to stop the pollution from behind the pulpit. The Catholic church refused to hold people like John Kerry accountable for their views that specifically contradict their teachings. This failure undermines the authority of the church to shape the world. When the non-Christian world looks in, and sees an anything goes mentality within segments of the church universal, they are not able to see the differentiation between the world and the church. Part of love is discipline. Part of love is accountability.

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