The Modern Manifestation of Christianity Religion and Its Effect on Culture and Society

With the rise in technology, different cultures are taking different stands on the drastic change in the way we perceive and engage in various day-to-day activities. Besides the democracy of freedom of action, Catholic Church is finding itself in a position that is negating the history and the society with every passing day. Since its inception more that 2,000 years ago, the church held a firm stance against changes happenings around the world (Times, p1, 2015).

Today, the church has eschewed all pleas for more tolerance of actions and issues directly and indirectly related to sexuality. Scholars argue that the church’s decline in reputation is as a result of its intransigent attitude towards sexuality issues.

As of today, the Francis created a tribunal to judge church leaders who fail to protect children from sex abusive church leader. As a matter of fact, two church leaders from the US have been accused of covering up sexually related crimes (Times, p1, 2015).

In 2014, the Pope met with sex abusers survivors. As a first meeting with the minors, the Pope on March 22, 2017, appointed the Pontification Commission to protect the minors against the vastly spreading sexual abuse, especially among children. In previous years, the so-called “zero tolerance” of sexual assault among clergies criticized the Vatican for being more talk rather than action. As a result, some clergymen felt it’s their time to commit the harmful acts towards children because at the end no action was taken (Goodstein, p1, 2015).

On the Care of our Common Home, the world today is filled with rubbish, which makes it look like an immense pile of filth diminishing the beautiful creation of God. However, the Pope has released a comprehensive statement about the environment that we live in, saying that there is a need for Cultural Revolution aimed at changing our lifestyle. Our addiction to technology is one of the factors - except religion- that is shaping our day to day activities.

According to the MIC Network, the Catholic Church has over centuries covered up sexual miss conducts of its priests. The media has also reported the misconduct to the church leaders leading to the belief that the pedophilia and homosexuality are rampant within the church territories and rectories globally (6 Issues Hurting the Catholic Church Today, p1, 2015).

The church forbids homosexuality and other sexual activities that make the victim uncomfortable. To precise, pedophilia and homosexuality are aberrant behavior or antisocial. Moreover, Pedophilia is illegal and unacceptable in the society. The church forbids homosexuality and heterosexuality among priest. All in all, the most disgraceful aspect of this issue is the cover-up. Primarily religion/church cover-up arose into three different ways.

First, the clergy protects its priests who act improperly, secondly, the congregation/church pays victims to be silent on the issue, and third, pedophiles are transferred to other congregations or denominations where they continue to suppress the individuals prone to sexual abuse. However, the ultimate goal of the church is to end sexual harassment and encourage adjudication of criminal activity by church leaders, which in fact never ends.

According to Chris Boyette, (p1, 2015) it’s too much to ask of a man to abstain throughout his entire life, and such policies should be reconsidered. By mandating abstinence among the Catholic clergy, the church may in return encourage aberrant behavior such as the pedophilia and physical contact between the priest and the congregation.

According to the rule that Catholic Priests hold, they are not allowed to marrying nor have children of their own raises the question of how they might be affected by the aspect of having children of their own.  Moreover, a significant population of men without children is dispensing advice on the issue.

Further, the Catholic Church condones birth control substance use. According to Authors, this step is one of the most harmful and backward restrictions in religion. The big question that comes up is why the congregation should condone safe, effective methods of controlling the family size? Most men and women are the breadwinners of their families, and they usually agree on the number of children to bear regardless of their religion, social, economic capability, and their children survival rate (Paulson, p1, 2015). 

Even worse, the Catholic condones birth control methods, which prevent disease such as AIDS and STDs (6 Issues Hurting the Catholic Church Today, p1, 2017). On the other hand, the current Pope criticizes big business, of life companies and oil companies for being reckless in improving the human behavior as a result pushing the planet to a perilous breaking point. Although the Pope argues that people are capable of the worst and rising above themselves, choosing what is wrong and good should influence a new start in life.

In 2013, the Pope said that women are more important to the church than bishops and priests. As a result, a question of increased favor of women’s role in the church arose. However, the Pope was very categorical on women’s roles as they are obligated to a role of combating sex abuse, with about 17 members committee made up of women.

Today, the first female president of Catholic Charities supports more than 70,000 employees and provides religion services to more than 10 million people across the US. According to a recent study, only 18% of all the Vatican’s workforce is female. Despite the rise in women artistry within the Catholic Church, the situation of sexual scandals rate has heightened as more and more charges are being tables against the priest.

In continuation, the Catholic Church has also traditionally frowned upon sexual relations between men and women. The church has threatened eternal damnation for an act that human nature considers so beautiful. However, church leaders and those priests who wish to enjoy sexual relationships before marriage are also not to be condemned. The avoidance to condemn church priests and leaders towards sexual relationship before marriage is a thing that is thought to be existing away from the teaching of the real Roman Catholic. As a result, the ancient church teachings and norms are over focused on the sexual relations and the obligations of women and men in the society.

The attitude of having church priests married is probably one of the primary reasons as to why the Catholic Church is fraught with scandals and its rolls are reducing, especially in the developed world. In the 21st century, the cardinals are expected to focus more on the outdated dogma and develop a more progressive man/woman to lead the congregation out of the dark ages. Philosophers argue that the full threat vengeance of God will be no more a useful tool for priests. They add those religious teachings should be based on sound judgment, well-being f humans and tolerance (6 Issues Hurting the Catholic Church Today, p1, 2017).

Today, the Pope has addressed a letter to every person living in the universe saying that God's forgiveness cannot be denied to humankind. He stated that abortion is a sinful act that should be forgiven, especially when the person perceived or have committed the act has confessed with a sincere heart to obtain reconciliation with the father.

The Pope amazed much Catholic and non-Catholic with his sentiments of forgiving the sin of abortion. Although the sin of abortion incurs automatic excommunication, a penalty that can be affected by the bishop, some catholic church leaders feel that the Pope only brought confusion about the practical effects of the Pope’s announcement.

According to Paulson, (p1, 2015), a Catholic program director at the Faith in Public Life, the acceptance of abortion as a forgivable sin by the Pope is another signal that the Pope wants the universal dominion to encounter the journeys with people. He adds that the Catholic Church is a gospel where mercy trumps a finger-wagging judgment.

Homosexuality is vastly taking over the heterosexuality in the 21st century. The 2013 press conference argues that if people accept the Lord and has good will who is the priest to judge them; people should be marginalized, and the tendency to homosexuality is not a big problem, in fact, they are our brothers.

According to Pope in an interview with the Italian newspaper on 3/5/2014, he said that the longstanding church teaching that marriage is between man and woman remains. However, he added that it’s important to address different cases and evaluate them in their particular ways.

Currently, the first Jesuit Pope has commitments on church reform, poverty, climate change and divorce. According to recent researches, the Pope emphases on poverty, and the need for humans to come out of the money-greed system and live in a real world. In his public speech, the Pope accredited the Holy See in May 2013 with a message of the need to address financial crises affecting people all over the world. In his speech, the Pope said that humans had created new idols-money, which is lacking any truly humane goal (Malkin, p1, 2015).

Additionally, the Pope set in motion a heated debate about whether the church could change its stance toward divorced people with altering the doctrine that declares marriage to be indissoluble and permanent. Significant church officials, especially the German bishop want the Catholic Church to relax its rules (Paulson, p2, 2015). These church leaders want to give divorced individuals the chance to return to church life and continue receiving the Holy Communion even if they go ahead and marry again without having their previous marriage annulled formally.

Although the church traditions are fighting hard against the issue of divorce, arguing that marriage is indissoluble and ordained by God and therefore the issue of divorce is not negotiable, in October, priests and other church leaders will attend a meeting for the second time in Vatican to decide whether to recommend the changes. However, the final decision lies with the Pope.

As the Pope plans to make his first trip to the US early this September to attend a conference of families, the Pope acknowledge the concerns of divorced Catholic members. The decision has come to his realization because of the statistics that show about 28% of American Catholic members have divorced.

As Alvarez says, keeping the divorced people out of the church will do more than worse. Jesus wants us to live in harmony, and his sheep should not wander unattended by the church just because they have divorced or remarried. Although in the church accepts divorce due to situations such as mental illness of a married individual, today many factors lead to divorce (Homosexuality | Catholic Answers, p1, 2017).

Recent research shows that the traditional tight doctrine on the issue of remarrying and divorce has made members to leave the church. Today, a significant number of individuals have left Catholic for Protestant churches, where they feel they are more welcome and comfortable in their current condition. Others don’t get a chance of joining other institutional religion.

Further, the by developing a tribunal that will judge priests and church leaders who abuse children who they should protect is a step towards transparency. Francis says that he will choose a secretary and permanent staff members for the tribunal and the tribunal procedures will be re-evaluated in five years.

Father Lombardi says that the tribunal will also embark on a task of judging the past sexual abuse perpetrators. He argues that the tribunal will have the responsibility to judge with appropriate ways and apply appropriate rules. The Faithful have also recommended the step taken by the church to respond to the abuse scandal. They say the reforms are most promising because it provides a structure, budget, personnel, and a straightforward acting.

The actualization of the tribunal will fight the abuse problem which still exists in the US since its publicity in Louisiana in the 1980s. In the past, the church has been reluctant to hold bishops who abuse children accountable because the second Vatican council shifted its power and mandate from Rome to bishops. As of today, the tribunal formed will come to the solution of the problem in the church and its environs (Lackey, p1, 2015).

In continuation, after six months of leadership, Pope Francis shocked the universal dominion with his remarks that the Catholic Church has grown “obsessed” with abortion, heterosexual marriages and use of conceptions. Although he had chosen to not talk about the issue, critics forced him to do so.

Homosexuality desires are not in themselves sinful. Homosexual and heterosexual desires are not in themselves sinful until a person acts upon the desires in some manner. Throughout history, Christian and Jewish scholars have recognized homosexuality as a chief sin that made God destroy Sodom. Today, most activists argue that homosexuality was not the reason as to why God destroyed Sodom; rather He destroyed the city because of the lack of hospitality (Povoledo & Goodstein, p2, 2015).

Today, Homosexuals represent 10% of the world population, and it’s a condition that cannot be eliminated from the society considering its vastly spreading. In church, bishops have been seen sodomizing male children leading to a question as to how will the church fight the spreading trend in churches (Lackey, p3, 2015).

The church recognizes homosexuality as a psychological genesis that remains largely under explained. However, the church has a firm position on the issue saying that Homosexuals have the right to choose their other half. All in all, the church has approved the support for helping groups that encourage deliverance from the homosexual lifestyle.

The changes in the universal dominion attributed by Pope Francis are affecting the way people in the society view some aspects of life, especially marriage and homosexuality. Moreover, these changes are also encouraging cultural change towards the good of every cultural setting. The church advocates that it’s the culture to guide and teach people the way of truth, forgiveness and acceptance no matter their previous mistakes (Times, p2, 2015).