Periodically, I will include a special post--Food 4 Thought--to encourage readers to think "outside the box" about different topics...controversial or otherwise. Before I begin, I think I should include the following disclaimer: These special posts are NOT intended or designed to offend anyone or anything.
Most Reverend, Right Reverend, Father, Most Holy Father, Rabbi, His Eminence, His Excellency, His Holiness, His All-Holiness--these are some of the titles that distinguish the clergy of various religions from the laity. The separation of the clergy from the laity is common to many religions, but is the arrangement bibically-based, or is it a human tradition? And, if it's not biblically-based, should the arrangement be used at all?
I'm not a religious person, but I will include quotes from encyclopedias and the book most religions use as their guide to a good life (the Bible) to argue that there should not be a distinction between the clergy and the laity.
"In the New Testament and during the early apostolic times there is no mention of clergy or laity," writes Professor of Theology Cletus Wessels. The Encyclopedia of Christianity states: "There gradually arose a differentiation into clergy as the officeholders and the laity as the rest...'Ordinary' church members now came to be seen as an unqualified mass." That differentiation became prominent during the third century C.E.--more than two hundred years after Christ! If, then, the clergy-laity distinction is not based on the model set by Christ's apostles and other early Christians, does it make it wrong? Does it make it invalid? Does the Bible have anything to say on the matter?
In 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6, the Bible states that all Christians serve as God's ministers and that none is above or beneath the other. Spiritually, older men did, of course, serve as overseers, which included being shepherds and teachers. However, these men were not paid clerics. For the most part, they were ordinary working men with secular jobs. Moreover, they qualified to serve as overseers and teachers, not by attending religious seminaries, but by being diligent students of the Bible and by cultivating the spiritual qualities required by, what they considered, their Creator, or God.
The separation of a clergy class implies that a person must have a special calling to be a minister of God. Yet, the Bible says that all true Christians should serve God and praise his name (Romans 10:9, 10).
The clergy-laity distinction exalts the clergy class, an evidence being adulatory religious titles. Yet, Christ said: "He that conducts himself as a lesser one among all of you is the one that is great." (Luke 9:48) In harmony with that spirit of humility, he told his followers not to adopt religious titles. (Matthew 23:8-12) The picture I have in mind is when a member of the laity kisses the hand of a high-ranking member of the clergy. Unlike the clergy, Christ conducted himself as "a lesser one."
A paid clergy class can impose a heavy financial burden on the laity, especially when the former have lavish lifestyles.
Because a clergyman may depend on others for financial support, he might be tempted to dilute the Bible's message in order to please parishioners by "tickling their ears." (2 Timothy 4:3)
When the laity are Biblically uninformed, they can easily be misled by clerics, even exploited by them. Indeed, history contains many examples of such abuses. Examples include the sale of indulgences, the Spanish Inquisition, and even the burning of Bibles by clerics who wanted to keep the Bible out of the hands of the laity.
About two weeks ago, a Catholic friend of mine admitted that she does not agree with every teaching of the Church, but she admires the traditions. As I stated at the beginning of this post, I am not a religious person. However, it is my understanding that the goal of every Christian is to follow the example of Christ as recorded in the Bible. Christ was a humble person and when he preached, he did so on the road, on the side of mountains, from door-to-door, and from city-to-city. He didn't preach in fancy cathedrals and buildings. He admonished his followers to "keep their eyes simple." And when he preached, he did not arrange for a basket to be passed around for donations. And as for tradition, 1 Corinthians 4:6 states: "Do not go beyond the things that are written." Better yet, ask yourself the question that has been made famous: What would Jesus do? Based upon the book all Christians use--the Bible--Jesus would not support a clergy-laity distinction.
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