What Happened to the Churches?

A local association of Christian denominations, the Greater Rochester Community of Churches, has announced its support for the mosque near Ground Zero.

I have nothing to say about the mosque that hasn't been said, but it made me wonder.

Think as far back as you can remember.   Can you recall even one occasion -- just one time ever -- when the mainstream churches took a position on any public issue that came down on the conservative or traditionalist side?

I can't think of one.

The Roman Catholic position on abortion doesn't make the cut.   Outside the right-to-life movement, conservatives I know mostly share the consensus view:   they don't like it, but it shouldn't be illegal.

How about this one:   again, as far back as you can recall, can you remember any disputed issue regarding the Middle East -- ever -- when the mainstream churches came down on the side favored by the State of Israel?

I can't.

By now we've all become almost reflexively conditioned to expect, the moment any group calling itself "interfaith" or "faith community" opens its mouth, that we're about to hear something left-wing, or support for something detrimental to Israel.

How can institutions so alienated from the values and culture of most people wonder why they're losing members?

Or why they've become irrelevant to the lives of so many, to whom they once meant so much?

I miss the church.   Where did it go?

The executive director of the Greater Rochester Community of Churches told the newspaper she welcomes the mosque project "as a way to build bridges between all people of good will."   As others have pointed out, if that's their goal, then by their own terms, they've failed already.

So many of us were raised to respect and look up to the church and its clergy.   Maybe that's why the political corruption of the mainstream churches brings such disappointment, and such sadness.