Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 4/24/21

• Revival Breaks Out at Nashville-Area Church with 1,000 Baptisms: It’s Solely a ‘Movement of God’

I tend to be wary and skeptical of trendy, hipster mega-churches, but God works in spite of my skepticism and in spite of hipsterism.

• Priests should think twice before denying Communion to Catholics in same-sex unions.
• Diocese backs move to fly gay pride flags at Catholic schools, muzzles opposition from priests
• German Catholics plan huge blessing of gay unions on May 10

Angry opposition to a March 15th statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, forbidding the blessing of same-sex “marriages,” continues to swell. It’s foreseeable that the progressive German Catholic church will approve the blessing of same-sex unions in defiance of the Vatican as a part of its current Synodaler Weg (Synodal Path) reform initiative.

• Catholics and Protestants in Germany announce intercommunion move despite Vatican objections
• 500 years after Luther and the Diet of Worms the ecumenical movement is strong
• A Theological Virus Is Spreading

Not only is the German Catholic church leading the charge in calling for the blessing of same-sex unions, it’s also championing the cause of intercommunion between Catholics and (nominal) Protestants. The Germans’ push for immediate “reforms” is too radical even for progressive pope Francis.

• Pope Francis applauds beatification of monks who died protecting the Eucharist

Roman Catholicism teaches that its priests transform dried bread wafers into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, Catholics have sacrificed their lives in the act of “protecting” the Jesus wafer, either from natural calamities or from “desecration” as this article describes.

• The future of Catholic liturgical reform

Few evangelicals are aware of the significance of the liturgy (i.e., a form or formulary according to which public religious worship, especially Christian worship, is conducted) of the mass in Roman Catholicism. Catholic theologians and scholars spend their entire careers examining the precise wording of the mass liturgy and recommending and debating possible changes. One is reminded of the Pharisees expending their time and energy debating the exacting details of the Mosaic Law while refusing the Savior who walked in their midst.

• Liberty Sues Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 Million, Alleges He ‘Damaged’ School’s Reputation

Jerry Falwell Sr. obscured the Gospel by dragging the church into political activism and Jerry Jr. dishonored the Gospel with his sexual escapades while also continuing his father’s advocacy of Christian nationalism. Liberty U. should back off and allow Jerry Jr. and his “legacy” to fade away.