Church in Turmoil

Although we may not recognize it, the Church has been in turmoil for over 2000 years.

It seems that every generation has to deal with the Church in turmoil and the faithful dissenters who emerge to voice their opinion or more often to vote with their feet. Some churches handle dissent better than others. We all recognize dissent and do not need any help defining turmoil although we might not agree that the church is in turmoil because of the expressed sins of its members. My problem with this definition is that we are all sinners and therefore by definition the church is always in turmoil.

The more difficult question is posed by the faithful dissenters. Robert McClory wrote about 17 faithful Catholic dissenters and now Roger Launius has published his book about 18 Mormon dissenters. We should expect the next book to be about 19 Episcopalian dissenters.

What constitute a faithful dissenter? More importantly, what is an eucharistic community?

Were the followers of Jesus faithful dissenters? Are faithful dissenters followers of Jesus?

Too many questions!

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Gospel of Luke