Evangelism

Why Evangelicals Should Care About the Next Pope

Over 200,000 people are expected to attend Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday in Rome, a global event that will draw leaders from every corner of the world, including President Donald Trump.

After news of the pontiff’s death broke on Easter Monday, President Trump took to Truth Social and declared, “Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!” He later told reporters that the late pope was “a very good man who loved, loved the world, and he especially loved people that were having a hard time, and that’s good with me.”

Many of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics will be tuned in to the solemn procession and Mass. They’ll witness all the traditional liturgy and hear readings from Acts, Paul’s letter to the Philippians, as well as John’s Gospel. It will conclude with the “Gloria Patri,” a Latin doxology that ends with the phrase, “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”

In between, evangelicals will find portions of the prayers and some of the elements of the funeral Mass theologically troublesome, especially prayers and petitions to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

But doctrinal and theological differences aside, non-Catholic believers should be following the next chapter in Rome with interest.

The Papal Conclave is scheduled to begin May 6. The word “conclave” means “private room” in Latin. At this point, 135 of the church’s cardinals will be meeting in the Sistine Chapel to begin the selection of the next pope. It’s famously secretive. The only sign of what’s going on inside will be signaled by black smoke or white smoke, the latter to indicate they’ve successfully landed on a new leader of Catholics.

Over time, popes have served an oversized role in the world, and for good and bad. Centuries ago, Pope Alexander VI was accused of buying his way into the Vatican, killed cardinals for their wealth, and even fathered children. Popes have been accused of ordering their predecessor’s death (Sergius III), and almost bankrupting the church (Pope Leo X). Some have accused Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) of doing little to confront Hitler for the holocaust. The Catholic Church has pushed back and says his secret work to save the lives of Jewish people will be revealed in forthcoming church documents.

Lately, though, popes tend to reflect an era – or do they help shape it by their personality, passions, commitments and convictions?

When Karol Wojtyla, a.k.a. the newly elected Pope John Paul II, delivered his inaugural homily to the throngs gathered in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square in 1979, he implored those gathered:

Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept His power … Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To His saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows “what is in man.” He alone knows it.

Of course, the pope was quoting Jesus, who said to Peter and to all of us: “Take courage … Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). He was also quoting the Lord in the Book of Joshua: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Matthew 1:9).

Pope John Paul II, known for his courage and boldness, has been credited with helping to force the collapse of the Soviet Union.

John Paul II’s successor, Benedict XVI, was known to advocate for the church and world to adhere to biblical values.

“It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful,” he said. “It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy.”

Conversely, Pope Francis is probably best known for reimagining church convictions or priorities related to sexual sin and even divorce. He once said, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Is it mere coincidence that the last decade has seen a broad collapse of biblical truth and an expansion of all kinds of destructive and damaging behavior? It’s not the pope who has committed the grievous sins, but leaders often set the tone and either encourage or discourage certain behaviors.

Speculation is running rampant on who the next pope will be. Pope Francis has appointed 108 of the 135 cardinals who will be voting, a fact that some feel is an indicator the next leader of the Catholic Church will be a lot like the latest. But perhaps not. Evangelicals should be paying attention and praying for the process and for a leader who will reflect God’s truth and grace in a world desperately hungry for it.

Image from Getty.

Easter Isn’t Over, It’s Just Begun

At some point today, it’s likely that you’ve either asked or been asked about how you enjoyed Easter.

The ultimate triumphal event on the Christian calendar, when Easter falls is based on a calculation known as the “Computus Paschalis.”  Basically, the date each year when we celebrate Jesus’ miraculous Resurrection from the dead is always the first Sunday after the first full moon that lands on or after the first day of spring.

It’s a glorious day punctuated by the singing of wonderful music, reflection on the promise of life after death, and then for many, all the fun traditions ranging from egg coloring and hunting to lunches and brunches and extended family gatherings.

It’s widely accepted and settled that Easter is a day – but it’s really a 50-day celebration otherwise known as Eastertide or the Paschal season.

The 50-day span is based upon the 40 days Jesus spent after the Resurrection appearing and teaching, followed by Him sending the Holy Spirit after His ascension into Heaven (Acts 2). Many churches celebrate that monumental occasion known as the feast of Pentecost, which is a Greek word for “fiftieth.”

In a transactional and commercial world, a neat and tidy holiday celebration of a single day is convenient and even streamlined. But is there anything more monumental or consequential than Jesus coming back from the dead?

The extended Easter celebration provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the miracle of Christ’s Resurrection for weeks, not simply a weekend.

It encourages us to ponder His sacrifice and His victory over death.

It reminds us, to quote the Pope John Paul II, that “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!”

Eastertide calls for a posture of reflection and thanksgiving. It invites us to slow down, look up, and consider how the arc of Jesus’ extraordinary life can speak to us two-thousand years later.

The lilies may soon wilt, the candy eaten, the eggs turned to egg salad, the ham soon on sandwiches for the children’s lunches.

But Easter? It continues. Don’t be so quick to move on. Linger. Savor it. Enjoy it. After all, that’s why we worship and celebrate on Sunday every week of the year.

As the hymnwriter Charles Wesley so poignantly wrote:

Rejoice, the Lord is King;

Your Lord and King adore!

Rejoice, give thanks and sing,

And triumph evermore.

Lift up your heart,

Lift up your voice!

Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Instead of asking, “How was your Easter?” perhaps we should ask, “How is your Easter?”\

Image from Getty.

The Consequential, Complex and Confounding Legacy of Pope Francis

Easter Monday’s death in Rome of Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, triggers a nine-day mourning period that will be marked by solemn ritual and ceremony.

There will be prayers, Masses, processions and a funeral in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Francis will be buried in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

Within a few weeks, the College of Cardinals will meet, black smoke will billow from the Vatican chimney until white smoke signals the election of a new pontiff.

It’s all very predictable and traditional, but still relatively rare, too. Francis, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, was only the 266th Pope. The apostle Peter is considered the first.

Nicknamed the “People’s Pope” for his compassion and focus on the poor, Francis’ parents were Italian immigrants. He thought he might become a chemical technician or make a career in the food industry – but ultimately felt God was calling him to the priesthood. He wasn’t ordained until he was 32 years of age.

Popes tend to take on an oversized role these days, and especially in a social media saturated world. Francis was no exception. His tweets reached tens of millions of people and were translated into various languages.

When Francis was elected, he was hailed as the first Jesuit pontiff, as well as the first from Latin America. He was called “a conservative with a common touch.”

But was he?

If by “conservative” you meant he was committed to upholding traditional teachings of the Catholic church when it came to the sanctity of life, the biblical definition of one-man, one-woman marriage and the distinctives and exclusivity of two and only two genders, male and female, then yes, Francis was largely conservative.

Over the years, Francis often referred to the church as a “field hospital” and emphasized the importance of extending Christ’s grace and mercy to sinners. Evangelicals and Catholics hold to several distinctly different theological doctrines, but they’re in agreement that we’re all sinners in desperate need of help and forgiveness.

But the late pope also had a habit of frustrating many Catholics and others by saying things that he or his surrogates would later clarify or sometimes confuse even more. In fact, at times, he seemed to invite or even encourage ambiguity.

To look at this habit charitably, perhaps he was hoping to draw people into a larger discussion and conversation.

Not everyone saw it that way. Back in 2019, over 1,000 Catholic scholars published an open letter to the College of Bishops that accused Pope Francis of heresy, including the “comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins.”

Charles J. Chaput, archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, remembers warm interactions with Francis, but wrote in First Things on Monday that candor is necessary given the challenges of our day.

Archbishop Chaput suggested Pope Francis could be “temperamental an autocratic” as well as thin-skinned. He wrote:

In the face of deep cultural fractures on matters of sexual behavior and identity, he condemned gender ideology but seemed to downplay a compelling Christian “theology of the body.” He was impatient with canon law and proper procedure. His signature project, synodality, was heavy on process and deficient in clarity. Despite an inspiring outreach to society’s margins, his papacy lacked a confident, dynamic evangelical zeal. The intellectual excellence to sustain a salvific (and not merely ethical) Christian witness in a skeptical modern world was likewise absent.

What the Church needs going forward is a leader who can marry personal simplicity with a passion for converting the world to Jesus Christ, a leader who has a heart of courage and a keen intellect to match it. Anything less won’t work.

Many evangelicals may not take much interest in the election of the next pope, but the leader of so many Catholics matters a whole lot and not only to those who pledge their loyalty to Rome. Popes matter. They set cultural tones, can clarify or confuse, and can help shape generations to come.

Please be in prayer as these next weeks and months unfold in Rome and beyond.

Image from Getty.

Secretary Sean Duffy: Let’s Bring Jesus Up from the Basement

As a former member of Congress, now Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy had a reputation for speaking his mind. Unapologetically pro-life, he regularly chastised colleagues for not standing up for the most vulnerable. From the House floor he talked about the “silent screams” of the preborn.

“Don’t talk to me about cruelty when you look at little babies being dismembered, feeling excruciating pain,” he once declared.

So maybe it’s not surprising that when Secretary Duffy visited the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy last week that he vowed to put back up an historic painting that his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg, had removed.

It’s titled “Christ on the Water” or “Jesus and Lifeboat.”

The painting in question was created in 1944 by U.S. Maritime Service Lieutenant Hunter Wood. Looking for a way to honor Americans lost at sea during World War II, Wood’s art measures 10-feet by 19-feet. He used marine paint, sail canvas and varnish to bring the image to life.

For 80 years, the painting hung in the Elliot M. See Room of the academy’s administration building. Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Foundation and chief crank of any intersection of faith and government, filed a complaint. On Secretary Buttigieg’s order, the painting was first covered and then relegated to the basement.

Thankfully, Secretary Duffy has reversed course.

“Can we bring Jesus up from the basement?” he asked to cheers last week. “Let’s not put Jesus in the basement! Let’s get Him out! Let’s bring Him up!”

One midshipman told the Christian Post, “I remember many times when I used to pray underneath that painting when I was on the verge of failing a class, or I had big tests or I was worried about something. I’ve prayed underneath that painting when it used to be in Wiley Hall. So to me, it’s a very significant, important painting, and I think it’s an important part of the school’s history.”

Another midshipman noted how appropriate it was to have that specific painting in that particular room on campus, the site of hearings for possible honor code violations.

“That room where the painting was held is where the Honor Board meetings were. And people would look up to that painting and say, ‘Everything’s going to be all right. Jesus is looking after me, just like He’s looking after these sailors who are washed up on a boat somewhere in the middle of the ocean.'”

Back when the Academy covered and moved the painting, Senator Ted Cruz wrote a letter to Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan, the Superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, criticizing the decision.

“I am deeply concerned by your flawed understanding of the First Amendment to our Constitution,” Senator Cruz stated. “The allegation that the painting somehow violates time, place and manner restrictions is an objective absurdity.”

Over the years, radicals have worked overtime to metaphorically and literally relegate Jesus to America’s basement. Secretary Duffy, who is a married believer and father to nine children, understands both the danger and destructiveness of those efforts. He also understands that acknowledging the Christian faith in a public setting doesn’t violate the United States Constitution.

Thank you, Secretary Sean Duffy.

What’s a Christian to do with Culture?

The thing about culture is that it is always changing. That’s because culture is, in a very real sense, created by humans. It’s the result of what we think, what we imagine, what we change, what we legislate, what we invent, what we relate to, and all kinds of other human experiences. 

There are some moments, however, in which the changes are deeper and wider, the shifts in culture more fundamental. Many sense we’re living in such a time where the changes that have taken place over the last several decades have been substantial, to say the least. My friend Os Guinness calls this a “civilizational moment,” where society isn’t just at a critical crossroads in twenty-first century America. It’s instead at a critical crossroads for Western civilization itself. 

Of course, history tells the story about civilizations, how they rise and fall. There are rules to civilizations, and if those rules are broken, then those civilizations no longer have a future. What Os means when he calls this a civilizational moment is that we’re at a time when our future is unclear. Will Western civilization be renewed? Will it enter a time of revolution? Or will we continue in irreversible decline? 

It’s important as Christians to always remember that the decline of Western civilization is not the decline of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God both predates and will long outlast the history of Western civilization. However, its decline will be significant indeed because so many of the ideals of the Western world were shaped and formed by Christian beliefs—specifically those beliefs about morality and about human dignity. Such ideals aren’t found in other civilizations that have long since been swept into the dustbin of history. 

But here’s what Christians can be sure of, whatever the future holds for Western civilization: We belong to an even bigger story. In fact, given the biblical account of reality from Creation to new Creation, from Heavens and Earth to new Heavens and new Earth, the history of this civilization is more like a moment. 

And that’s the thing about moments that can only be properly understood in light of stories: You can never fully understand a story from a moment, but you can make sense of a moment from the perspective of the larger story. In God’s grace, that’s precisely what He has given us: The Story of reality, capital “T,” capital “S.” 

He’s also given us the truth about who we are and what it means to be a human being, which, of course, is something that has shifted dramatically in these latter decades of Western culture. Untethered from these ideological roots that made Western culture what it was, the future for this society is indeed unclear.  

But there’s good news. The most important thing we can know about this civilizational moment is that Christians don’t find ourselves in it by accident. Scripture reveals something very interesting and important about God Himself, which is that He is chronologically precise. In other words, we’re in this time and in this place by His intention … we’ve been called to it. So then, as Francis Schaeffer and later Chuck Colson asked, how now shall we live in the knowledge of this?  

The only way to do that is to get our hands, our minds, and our hearts around four fundamental realities of the Christian worldview, starting with hope. Scripture says that Christians are people of hope, but that means we must fully and rightly understand what hope is and not misdefine it as some sort of wishful thinking. Jesus is our blessed hope.  

We must also wrap our minds, hearts, and heads around what is true, not just the individual truths of Christianity, as important as those are. We must not just know the moral truths of how we ought to behave, but the truth of the Christian story and how that story is so radically different than all the other worldviews that are vying for our hearts and minds right now. 

A proper understanding of identity is another key point to navigating this civilizational moment. The Christian worldview offers the only accurate definition of what it means to be human, made in the image and likeness of God. We must know exactly what it means to be “made in the image of God” and how that impacts our relationship with the world around us, with God, with others, and with ourselves.  

And finally, we need to have a clear sense of calling. Especially in a time like ours, it’s easy to feel like victims against the forces of history. We feel as if we have no say in where civilization is headed. But remember, we have been called to this civilizational moment, and we have the truth about reality and about the human person at the ready in Scripture.  

If Christians can be clear on these four things of hope, truth, identity, and calling, that’s a pretty good roadmap for this civilization. The next Lighthouse Voices event will explore these guidelines with our “A Christian’s Guide to this Civilizational Moment” lecture. The Lighthouse Voices series is a joint project from Focus on the Family and the Colson Center designed to help Christians think well about the culture they live in, especially when it comes to those issues that intersect with family.