Thursday, May 04, 2006

This isn't a good thing

Here.

Any time the state has a hand in the direction of a church, it has a deadly impact on the life of the church. While there are some signs of life in the state churches of Europe, by and large the commitment of the members is negligible and in some cases, those churches have been mere lap dogs of the government.

Of course, the dangers to the church's faithfulness are even greater in China, whose government is among the most repressive in the world.

3 comments:

AndrewRWood said...

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/04/china.vatican/index.html

check this out. The vatican just excommunicated the priests that china installed. I guess they're not too happy.

Deborah White said...

And that is precisely why church and state must be separate.....to save the sanctity of church teachings and to protect it from state control and expectations.

Mark Daniels said...

Free2: No doubt in my mind that the Vatican is right to be upset, although excommunication at this early juncture seems a bit precipitate.

Deborah: I agree.

Mark