May (Web-only) 2004

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The New York Times examines Evangelical-Catholic rapprochement
Christianity Today figures heavily in a Saturday "Week in Review" article by New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein. A quick summary of the piece: Instead of worrying about a presidential candidate who's Roman Catholic, evangelicals are now concerned about a candidate who's not Catholic enough. That's because evangelical and conservative Catholic leaders over the last decade have been "laying the groundwork for a religious realignment," especially to fight "culture war issues" and hyperindividualism.

In summary, Goodstein is generally right. There has been a significant rapprochement between evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics over the last decade or so. And she's right in hitting some of the main events signaling this new relationship: the prolife movement, Evangelicals and Catholics Together, and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Still, there's some important things that should be added to this story, and a few items that need correction.

Let's hit a few of the less significant issues first. Goodstein uses the Left Behind book series as an example of lingering evangelical suspicion of the Roman Catholic Church, and to a large degree she's right. But the books are also an example of how even the conservative and dispensationalist wings of evangelicalism aren't as opposed to Rome as they used to be. The Pope, after all, is one of those who get raptured in the first book.

More troubling on this hallway, however, is Goodstein's misquoting of our recent Christianity Today editorial on the controversy over pro-abortion politicians and Communion. "In an about-face," she writes, "Christianity Today says in a June editorial that it is 'certainly ...