CREEDE HINSHAW: The church as a power broker

It was heartening to read a story about the positive influence of the church resolving a thorny political situation in Africa. Too often in this country, the church is on the sidelines by choice or circumstance. This is not so in Africa, the most fertile continent for church growth.

The Catholic Church in Congo is the key player in brokering an agreement in that central African nation that may lead to the first peaceful transfer of power in almost 50 years. This nation of 70 million people is one of Africa’s richest in material resources and most unstable in governance. President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, refuses to step down and call new elections. Violent protest has been answered with force.

Into this swirling, unstable situation comes the Catholic Church, which in an impoverished nation has educated more than half of Congolese students and provided health care nationwide in hospitals and clinics.

The Catholic Church is poised as the only player in the nation with the moral currency and organizational stability to provide a trustworthy counterbalance to the greed and power of the Kabila administration. When the church called the opposing sides together, people showed up. A tentative agreement has been reached with all parties; it remains to be seen whether Kabila and his supporters will call an election and relinquish the reins of leadership.

The prevailing notion in our country is that the church should remain uninvolved in matters of governance. Coming from an Old World where the church was often violent, cruel and oppressive, our founders wanted to ensure that our citizens would never be controlled by a state church. Although the church has played a key role in many movements in our history, it has not done so from any official position.

The Congo story reminds us that the church that the church willing to give itself away for the world will live. I do not know how much of its credibility the church had to lay on the line in the Congo, but I suspect it has taken some risks to forge a peaceful transition of power.

Separation of church and state is a very healthy component of our society. But as a result of this cherished value, churches have relinquished any real influence over the public and societal sins of power, greed and government over-reach, both conservative and liberal. The U.S. church will never have the influence of the Congolese Catholic Church, nor would many people desire it. But the politicians and leaders of both political parties have not always served us well in the past decades.

A few perfunctory prayers at an inauguration or the opening of Congress is little more than window dressing. We may have reached a tipping point in our nation’s history where the church — Protestant and Catholic — should step up and become a more visible, influential force for good in our society.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].