Pastoral care but at what price?

Religion supports nobody.  It has to be supported.  It produces no wheat, no corn; it ploughs no land; it fells no forests.  It is a perpetual mendicant.  It lives on the labors of others, and then has the arrogance to pretend that it supports the giver.  Robert G. Ingersoll

This quote seems quite relevant to my experiences of the last couple of days.  Yesterday, a teaching session I attended raised the question of whether there is such a thing as Christian pastoral ministry – to the tutor’s surprise methinks, several of us said ‘No’.  I can’t think why it was surprising.  Whilst we’d listed a plethora of activities, services and support networks which operate from churches, none of them, apart from those based around liturgy, could be called specifically Christian.  Basically, all we do is stick the ‘Christian’ brand name on a generic ‘product'.

And what of the provision of this ‘pastoral care’?  It takes money to fund it, the financial contributions of those for whom the care is provided, however it seems that the contributions of the people are being used more to prop up the institution than to provide that care; this was brought home to me quite forcefully having overheard a conversation I wish I hadn’t.

My conclusion - Ingersoll may have been quite right!

Maybe its time the institutional monster was ripped down, religious labels done away with and pastoral care became once more – just that, a generic product of humanity.

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?  You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.  So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.  My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”  Ezekiel 34:1-6