THE
P RTAL
January 2016
Page 21
A personal view from Australia
Church collapse
has specific reasons
Fr James Grant
The Australia
of the early 21st Century is a society that is laden with moral and ethical language,
to the point where there is hardly a political, sporting, or community experience that does not have
moral champions suggesting ways in which our society should proceed to a desirable future outcome.
Green groups have given climate discussions a
moral framework of hurt, pain and damage inflicted
on Mother Nature. The Australian Football League
is challenging racism amongst those who attend their
matches, and groups as diverse as Essendon Football
club, the Catholic Church and the Australian Defence
Force are upbraided for failing to care properly for
those for whom it is thought they are responsible.
Football coaches, priests and generals along with
politicians are diminished in community eyes as
leaders with moral failings and tendencies to hide or
cover up their alleged self-serving ways.
These churches lack a central narrative as to who
they are and what they stand for. If they stand for
anything, it will only be the latest left leaning popular
cause, which will be packaged in language eliciting
guilt, shame and disgust at the actions of government
or society as a whole.
Suggesting that Jesus Christ may be relevant to
modern Australia cannot be considered. Many of
these Christians are ashamed of their church and their
nation. A vision of church corruption and a society that
oppresses minorities, destroys freedom and suffocates
the individual, sees these churches repudiate their own
It is not difficult to see that perceptions of moral traditions.
failure and alleged self-indulgent leadership, has
created a society distrustful of any authority and ready
These churches recognise that Western civilisation
to complain of victimhood at the earliest opportunity. was developed by the church, but they see both
The resulting number of Australians who are suffering Western civilisation and church tradition as oppressive
drug-related illness, psychological traumas, unfair of women, minorities and individual rights. In their
dismissals, divorce, child abuse or betrayal and view everything good and proper in human society
rejection of any sort must now be in the millions.
has been opposed or ignored in the name of Jesus.
Currently, there seems to be no alternative to endless
Concurrent with this moral surge has been a shame, dishonour and victimhood and no hope of
collapse of the traditional moral guardians of society resurrection in these churches, so perhaps a gratuitous
- Australian churches. Whilst Roman Catholics are suicide is the correct outcome. .
holding their own, mostly through immigration, the
other mainstream churches are at virtual collapse. The
Fortunately, such a brutal view of the faith contains
Anglican Church itself notes that up to one-third of its little truth. The Church has left an indelible and
dioceses face bankruptcy.
good imprint on Western civilisation. Western law
is largely the gift of Church canon law. Intellectual
Whilst financial strife is unsettling, there has been inquiry, sponsored by Church universities, triggered
virtually no analysis as to how such circumstances the scientific revolution and the idea of helping the
have arisen. Increasingly, Protestant churches are poor without thought of reciprocity is a fundamental
panic stricken into mindless support for any issue Christian idea. This is the continued narrative of the
that will be seen to garner community support. A Churches that still have Jesus Christ at the centre.
desperate need for financial security rules all. We have
witnessed these churches support David Hicks (an
The Church is the builder of ]