Unless you have been camped out under a large boulder somewhere in Outer Mongolia, you're no doubt aware that a new pope has been elected. In one of the swiftest papal elections, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was confirmed as the new pope, taking the name Benedict XVI.
Swifter still than his election was the vicious and personal assault on the new pontiff by the leftist blogsphere and media. News sites rushed to call him divisive and paint his election in as negative a light as possible. It seems as soon as white smoke curled from the Sistine Chapel chimney and the conclave's choice was revealed, leftists lined up to take their potshots.
One site dubbed him "Pope Wingnut the First." Others crowed that he would bring about a return to the Dark Ages. Still another site referred to him as the Grand Inquisitor. And let's not forget the charges that he is a Nazi because he was a member of the Hitler Youth -- membership in which was compulsory in his childhood Germany.
All of these personal attacks lead to one obvious question: what is it about Pope Benedict that causes such unhinged hatred? Of course, he is a conservative theologian who sticks to exegetical interpretation of Biblical texts, and believes that God's commands are timeless and do not shift according to the demands of each new wave of culture. While the left is certainly not short on disdain for conservative Christians, their vitriol has deeper roots.
The main reason that Benedict was under fire before he had been pope for even a day is that he dared to speak out against relativism.
Shortly before entering the conclave, then-Cardinal Ratzinger made known his beliefs: "Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism, whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."
And daring to oppose relativism -- a belief system that is absolutely sure that nothing is absolutely sure -- is a crime worthy of excommunication in the Church of the Left.
It should not come as a surprise to Christians the world over that such attacks happen, whether it be on the pope or upon themselves. Jesus himself said that "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also...they will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me." (John 15:20-21, NIV) Jesus knew that following his teachings would not be easy or popular. After all, he did say "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me." (Matthew 5:11, NIV)
While Protestants like me will quibble with the new Pope over minor matters such as use of contraceptives, no one can doubt that we share the same basic tenets of the faith. I applaud the new pontiff for being a man of genuine faith and knowledge of scripture. I applaud him for taking a stand against so-called "progressives" who want Christianity to alter itself to suit their whims. I applaud the Church for electing a leader who stands for the truth of Truth. I applaud them for finding a pope who will hold at bay those forces that would see Christians replace their reliance on the Bible with reliance on opinion polls. I applaud the choice of Pope Benedict XVI.
Write to Tim at
redbaron.strikesagain@gmail.com
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