Can the Church Make a Difference?

I have listened carefully over the past few weeks to the language of the political "Primary Season." There is something very strange going on here.

Except for one particular candidate, those with concrete proposals are gone already from the process. Most of the language of the campaigns, as far as I am able to ascertain, is combative, polemical, reactive and argumentative. There is little being proposed of any genuine value. Little hope of improvement of the situation of those who struggle and suffer is being offered. Even within political parties, the language of campaigns is no longer ideological or philosophical but personal and judgmental.

What is happening here? What is the current political campaign atmosphere saying about who we are as a culture and a people? More to the point, is there anything that the Church can do about the situation? Do those of faith have a role to play in political discourse?

Political discourse is being reduced to the lowest common denominator of human interest. Like the popular television production of a type of program that we have come to call, "Reality Shows," the political process now hinges upon personal behavior, scandal, innuendo, whispered accusations that fly beyond the scope of reason, name-calling, anger, hatred and violence. Ironically, the public seems to be accepting the degradation of the political process. It is possible even that the public relishes it, embraces it, loves it.

This is not right! Something here is broken! The patient is sick, and we have to begin to wonder what any physician might do to make us well again.

Our culture is ill. One need look no further than the current political process to see it. One need only to listen for a moment to the hyperbole. One need only watch for a short while the realm of entertainment, sports, or social networking to understand that there is a shared disease of our life and times.

Of course politics replies to the lowest common denominator of our culture. Certainly entertainment and sports reflect our communal disease. Social networking is a perfect reflection of who we have become and what is wrong with us.

Might I be so bold as to suggest that the Church is being called to be our culture's physician? Is it possible that the Church would, for once, separate itself from its culture and stand over and against the illness of our age? Can the Church teach people to live together in love, acceptance, integrity and compassion?

I believe that the Church has a distinct role in curing the ills of our culture. The medication, in abundant store, is the love of Christ. Application is the work of the Spirit in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is time for persons of faith - no matter which or what we call ourselves - to embrace the core of our spiritual lives and live from the foundations of that which we are called to practice. It is time for us to be less religious and more faithful, to be more socially engaged and more communally active.

Culture has no physician other than its people of faith, who could be courageous and honest enough to call the illnesses of our culture by name, to address their root causes, and to seek their treatment. But we have to get out of our churches, synagogues, mosques, covens and places of worship and begin the work of curing our social ills. Only if we are able to so engage ourselves will we mean anything to the culture in which we live. If we fail, we will continue to disappear as a meaningless and irrelevant product of the past.