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Western Civilization Christianity's Continued Vitality Term Paper

Western Civilization

Christianity's continued vitality in today's secular societies can be attributed to Christian groups becoming more politically active in order to voice their opinions on various social and political issues. From the work of America's local Christian lobbying groups to the involvement of the Catholic Church in raising awareness over various significant worldwide issues, it is evident that religious Christians have become more active in politics than ever before. In spite of such increasing involvement, the church's primary role in today's modern world would have to continue remaining confined towards the private religious sphere of life. The separation of church and state would have to thus continue being clearly maintained even today.

Therefore it cannot become too involved in society's political affairs; this is because many of its conservative viewpoints on major issues would inevitably clash with the liberal views prevalent in secular societies. Due to this it would be extremely difficult for the church to influence the passage of legislation reflective of its views within a secular society.

The papacy of Pope John Paul II is indicative of this inevitable clash occurring. During his reign the pope refused to change the Catholic Church's conservative stance towards various social issues despite facing increasing dissent from within. When he allied himself with conservative Muslim leaders in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo he was regarded by the secular world as having caused a major controversy ("John Paul II," 2005). This example reveals how due to lack of compromise church and state will continue to experience conflict so long as issues such as the practice of homosexuality, abortion, "artificial" methods of human reproduction and birth control, and euthanasia remain up for debate within secular societies.

References

John Paul II" (N.D.) in the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2005 CD.

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