“What? No human sacrifice?”
“Chill out, amigo. Chichen Itza wasn’t built in a day.”
This isn’t the first time a church establishment has brought horn-blowing, drum-thumping paganism into the church, and it probably won’t be the last. But it is the one we’re confronted with today: kind of like waking up to discover you’re still in the Old Testament and the king has just installed another idol in the Temple.
Yowsah, yowsah! The Roman Catholic Church has another “indigenous” rite to celebrate–a “Mayan Rite of Mass,” celebrating (I balk at saying this, but it must be said) “relationship with sister mother earth” and prayers to “the four directions,” whatever the dickens they mean by that.
They call it “interculturation.” Queen Athaliah never thought to call it that, when she brought Baal worship back into the Temple (see 2 Kings). Back then it was just called paganism and idolatry.
You may remember a year or two ago, Pope Francis was all cranked up for “Pachamama”–an idol worshiped by folks living along the Amazon–to be installed in the Vatican.
It seems Mexican bishops have displayed a penchant for getting giddy with theology. Pope Benedict XVI had occasion to rebuke them for it once or twice. But Francis seems to be a fan. Has he ever met a pagan practice that he didn’t like?
My heart goes out to Catholics who are seeing their church hijacked. Brothers and sisters, it happens to us Protestants, too. All the time. Let us stand united… at least in this.