Doug Giles

According to some of my tightly wound theological buddies, as a Protestant Christian, I?m not supposed to say anything favorable about a Catholic, especially ? a Pope. Oh well, I?ve got to give honor where honor is due, so pardon me, brethren, if I praise the former pontiff?s past achievements. 

Even though I disagree with Catholicism?s  soteriology, and from a fashion and function standpoint I don?t get their funky hats or the Elvis-like papal robes, or their elaborate walking sticks, I?ve got to admit that I appreciate John Paul II?s accomplishments for the human collective and his unwavering moral convictions in the face of amoral, bossy and prissy secularism.

Yeah ? The Pope did what was right, and in his genteel, non-Doug-like way, let everyone know they could kiss his Polish posterior if they didn?t like what he stood for.  And I personally dig that in a priest, pastor, pope or whatever you want to call a religious leader.

Why does this palpably appeal to me?  Well, for one revoltingly obvious reason: namely, in many churches today, both Protestant and Catholic, we are inundated with no-guts, wind-testing, capitulating clerical slaves of public opinion who neither lead, follow, nor ? get out of our way.  I believe large portions of the pastorate today have become nicer than Christ and have forgotten the injunction in the scripture to take uncomfortable stands for righteousness when things begin to get twisted. John Paul II did just that.  Check it out. 

While many ministers were pulling lint from their navels, or embroiled in a scandal for trying to hump an altar boy, or chasing rich donors, or vacillating on the major issues, John Paul II was serious business.  He didn?t ignore the societal nightmare that was communism; he didn?t waffle in his biblical stance on issues such as sexuality, marriage, abortion, infanticide, suicide and euthanasia.  He didn?t mellow his mouth regarding the place of religion and religiously informed moral judgment in public life.  Yes, the latest Pope was solid in his deep disregard for the ?progressive? agenda.

Speaking of the progressives ? There?s been a lot of chatter and blather from the loopy left about getting a more secularized pope, a Pope Lite. One who is not an old geezer with respect to his view of right and wrong.  Y?know? maybe a metrosexual hip guy, in the vein of Ross on Friends, malleable in his beliefs and muddled in his worldview.  One, unlike John Paul II, whom they can bend and stretch like Gumby to fit their licentious lives and liberal take on life.  









Doug Giles
