By Andy Rice

Psalm 82:2-4

How long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

This week, much of the Christian world will be waiting anxiously as a papal conclave gathers in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope for the Catholic Church. Now I know we are not Catholic, we are only catholic, but there are approximately 1.4 billion Roman Catholic adherents, so it’s a big deal whether we choose to care about it or not. And as much as I love being Presbyterian, you can’t deny that the Catholics have a certain style. Anyway, the big question seems to be whether the cardinals, red-robed church officials and the only ones who get a vote, will choose to elect someone similar to Pope Francis or not. If they do, then it’s a ringing endorsement of the causes he championed – concern for migrants and the poor. If they don’t, well, the experts say that it’s back to a more “traditional” set of concerns then.

Regardless of who the cardinals choose, heaven help us all that Christianity is considered traditional when it is not first and foremost concerned with things like care for migrants and the poor. If care for the orphan, the widow, and the alien is not traditional Christianity, then we have lost the plot somewhere along the way. We could argue on our own behalf and claim that we as Presbyterians, the good Presbyterians no less, have not lost sight of those ancient concerns. And we do demonstrate care for the marginalized and the poor within our churches and our Presbytery, but let’s face it, we are the oddballs of contemporary Christianity. If anyone ever drops the term “Christian values” in a conversation with me, I’m much more likely to hear about how certain people should be excluded or pitied than I am about how those groups should be welcomed and empowered. I’m sad to say I cringe at the term.

So, is it our fault that we have come to this problematic state of affairs and that the traditions of our religion have been hijacked? Well, it’s probably not our fault exactly, but it is our responsibility to address it. Let us baptize the term Christian – let us cleanse it of the dirt that has sullied it and enliven it with the compassion it demands. Let us be the traditionalists, because there is nothing more traditional in following Jesus than caring for the poor and the outcast. There is nothing more traditional than welcoming the stranger and the sinner. There is nothing more traditional than defending the orphan and pleading for the widow. I encourage us all to claim this tradition. Go out there and be an old-school Christian.