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Merriam-Webster defines clericalism as “a policy of maintaining or increasing the power of a religious hierarchy.” According to Pope Francis, “Clericalism arises from an elitist and exclusivist vision of vocation, that interprets the ministry received as a power to be exercised rather than as a free and generous service to be given. This leads us to believe that we belong to a group that has all the answers and no longer needs to listen or learn anything. Clericalism is a perversion and is the root of many evils in the Church.” This top-down mentality is toxic to the health of a church.
On the flip side is anti-clericalism. This populist impulse always reminds me of The Patriot where Mel Gibson’s character asks, “Would you tell me, please, Mister Howard, why should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away?” Show me a church that’s gotten rid of its trained pastor and is now led by a rotating committee of uneducated, unordained “elders” and I’ll show you a church that’s three months away, give or take, from condemning Christmas as a pagan holiday. This bottom-up mentality is also toxic for a church.
Christian culture nowadays has this weirdly bifurcated mentality for or against clergy. Ministers are either revered or reviled. If the former, people expect the pastor to go $100+K in debt to pay for seminary, live below the poverty line, be on call 24-7-365, have no personal boundaries to protect family life, and do everything to make the church function. If the latter, they want the role abolished altogether in favor of an extreme congregationalism. It’s this radical priesthood of the believer that’s ripe for spiritual abuse because nobody is properly trained to do anything.1
There’s a scene I love in 1996’s The Rock. Having barely survived an explosion, Nicolas Cage’s character turns to Sean Connery’s and asks, “How do you like your choices?” Connery retorts, “I don’t.” That’s how I feel. I don’t believe in a priestly class of divine intermediaries nor do I think a guy who doesn’t know the word “genre” should be up there preaching about Revelation. I don’t buy that ordination causes a metaphysical transformation nor do I trust the ego of most of the people who feel “called to ministry.” Both options suck. There has got to be a better way.
The original beatniks took flack for their informal approach to most everything. Those in the ivory towers of academia saw them not so much as countercultural wordsmiths, but a bunch of morons who struggled with basic punctuation.2 In terms of beatnik Christianity, the role of clergy deserves a lot of discerning conversation.3 What’s needed is a third-way that marries a much higher level of lay responsibility with sustainable expectations for clergy. The training may be significantly more informal, but the result still needs to be competent, healthy, and wise clergy.
