by Angus Harley

Pope Francis just very recently declared all religions are paths to God.[1] Religious pluralism! This has been his view for a while now, and is no shock to me. It is the same view that Mother Teresa held, and is the logical terminus of Vatican II’s inclusivism. Francis’ other big ‘score’ is his acceptance of gays into the RCC. But his most recent ‘victory’ was the introduction of transgenders into the same community.[2]

Now, why is this of any importance to Evangelicals? It is so because at this very second, many Evangelicals think RC is ‘Christian’ but with some odd beliefs. Far more worryingly, conservative Christian scholars such as Al Mohler have gone on record as praising Mother Teresa as a great Christian woman. He also slated Evangelicals for being ‘harsh’ to gays. The point is, even the most conservative Evangelical leaders are duped by Rome’s faces.

To let the reader understand, modern Rome has simply adopted the same playbook as Liberalism. I have written in other places how Classic Liberalism despised Evangelicalism, but since the two great wars, modern Liberals have learned to adapt in order to survive. One of the things it did was drop its outright hostility to Evangelicalism and begin to absorb some features of it. Liberals learned the technique of using Evangelical language and rhetoric in promoting their Liberal trash. They embraced Evangelical traditions, even, but eviscerated them and filled them with their own theology. [3] Rome, via Vatican II, has merely absorbed Evangelical churchmanship and language. Combine this deception with Francis, the most versatile and astute of chameleons, then what you get is this: in one place Francis is the great evangelical pioneer, then in another he is the devoted traditional Catholic, yet in another place he is the rank pluralist, and over there he is the Woke activist, and so on, and so forth. The many faces of modern Catholicism.

Even with this knowledge, some Evangelicals will still adore Francis, think he is a good guy, and that Catholicism is just muddleheaded. After all, they have done the same thing with Mother Teresa, with Bonhoeffer, Barth, and Barclay. Why not add Francis to the Evangelical pantheon?

[1] Deborah Castellano, Lubov, “Pope calls Singaporean youth to unity during interreligious dialogue”, Vatican News, September 13, 2024, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-09/pope-calls-singapore-youth-unity-during-interreligous-dialogue1.html.

[2] Angus Harley, “Christianity and Culture: a response to Rome”, All Things New Covenant, November 24, 2023, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2023/11/24/christianity-and-culture-a-response-to-rome/; “Modern Roman Catholicism, homosexuality, and the eucharist”, All Things New Covenant, June 4, 2023, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2023/06/04/modern-roman-catholicism-homosexuality-and-the-eucharist/; “Rome’s Giant Woke Tent”, All Things New Covenant, June 21, 2023, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2023/06/21/romes-giant-woke-tent/.

[3] Angus Harley, “The Very Non-Enigmatic William Barclay,” April 6, 2024, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2024/04/06/the-very-non-enigmatic-william-barclay/; “Death in Genesis 2-3”, All Things New Covenant, March 16 2024, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2024/03/16/death-in-genesis-2-3/; “A critique of Four Views of the Historical Adam” All Things New Covenant, March 9, 2024, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2024/03/09/1842/.