There has been talk recently about whether president Joe Biden should be denied the sacraments of the Roman Catholic (RC) Church for his stance on allowing women to choose to end their own pregnancies. The RC Church officially teaches that abortion is murder, and excommunication should be automatic. The funny thing is that the Christian Bible content has life beginning with breath, but that’s a discussion for another day. Anyway, American Bishops want this rule about denial of sacraments enforced with politicians such as president Biden and House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It is one more chapter in a long debate about the role of the Christian Church, from the local to the international level, in mediating between individuals and God. The Roman Catholics and some other Christian denominations have, for centuries, attempted to enforce their interpretations of God’s will by holding the Church’s sacraments hostage, while telling parishioners these sacraments are essential for their eternal salvation.
History shows that particular behaviors have been singled out as worthy of excommunication, while others are ignored. I remember when my mother was threatened with excommunication for divorcing a husband who attacked and tried to kill her. In the past century, homosexuality and abortion are two focal points for punishment and shaming, while the sins that scripture actually highlights, which include things such as greed, adultery, gossip, and anger, are frequently overlooked when preachers let loose with fire and brimstone.
It really comes down to how we view the sacraments and who has the authority to mediate them. As one who has an earned master’s degree in theology, I learned and continue to believe, that sacraments are a gift from God to humans as part of each individual’s relationship with the divine. The job of the clergy is to facilitate that gift, not stand as a obstacle to that relationship.
Whether a person feels worthy to accept God’s gifts is for that person to decide. It is not for any other flawed, sinful, human, no matter how powerful within Church hierarchy, to stand in judgment, especially when those flaws have been so painfully obvious in the past decade. We read in Matthew 7: “Judge Not, lest you be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the chip in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the beam in your own eye?”
Or, as a recent social media meme states, “Why were we taught to fear the witches, rather than the people who murdered them?”
Whether it is due to theology or merely common sense, in a 2019 poll the majority of Americans surveyed (63%) believe Roman Catholic bishops lost their moral authority with the clergy sexual abuse scandal that is finally being litigated after centuries of sweeping it under the rug.
It will be interesting to watch the interplay between some conservative American bishops and the wider Church. If partisan Roman Catholics decide to excommunicate all parishioners whose sins are which they particularly disapprove of, I’m sure there will be plenty of Episcopalian and Lutheran bishops who will welcome those sinners with open arms. It is, if those persons still want any group to mediate their relationship with the Divine.