一個福音派基督徒對教宗訪問的看法 http://thepope.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/why-the-pope-speaks-for-evangelicals-too/#more-59 I admire Pope Benedict, just as I admired his recent predecessors. As an evangelical Protestant, I don’t believe in “papal authority.” But I do see him as having an important pastoral role in the broader Christian community. In many ways and on many subjects, he speaks for me. So I pray for the success of this important visit to the United States. I know that I am not alone as an evangelical admirer of the pope. We evangelicals have a long history of anti-Catholicism. Many of us remember days when we were told that the Catholic pope was “the anti-Christ.” But our attitudes have been gradually changing since Vatican II — although we still aren’t always clear about how to express those changed attitudes in theological terms. Some of us are working on that. At Fuller Seminary we established a Catholic-evangelical dialogue in 1987, in cooperation with the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and that still continues. We worship together and discuss our theological disagreements in friendly tones. And similar discussions between Protestants and Catholics are taking place in many other contexts. This visit can be an important shot in the arm for all of us. We evangelicals have not always showed a strong interest in ecumenical or interreligious dialogue. Indeed, we haven’t always showed much of an interest in any sort of dialogue. Our pattern has often been one of simply preaching at people whose views are different than our own. That’s why the friendlier relations between Catholics and evangelicals in recent decades have been an interesting phenomenon, especially since the impetus for that friendliness has more often than not emerged at the grass roots level rather than in officially sponsored exchanges. This is what the theologian Timothy George has labeled “the ecumenism of the trenches” — a coming together of very “ordinary” Catholics and Protestants who have discovered common moral concerns and shared spiritual goals. I pray that Pope Benedict will encourage that exciting kind of dialogue and cooperation. The pope’s call for a “moral revival” that will create a better world for our youth is especially hopeful. We need words of reconciliation and hope right now, not only for the estimated 70 million Catholics in the U.S., but also for Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, and other faith communities. Many of our fellow citizens — and even many of our fellow church members — have lost faith and hope. They need to hear words of spiritual encouragement from Pope Benedict. I need that kind of encouragement myself. --

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