What Does a New Pope Mean to Evangelical Protestants?

I am not a Roman Catholic, nor was I raised in hierarchical church circles. I have never experienced, first hand, a church system with bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes like my Catholic friends. I was not raised to venerate the Pope as Christ’s Vicar on earth or give fealty to him as the head of Christendom. I do not give my allegiance to a human mediator between myself and God. I do not believe in the divinity or perfection of Mary as my co-redemptrix, nor do I pray to long dead saints for help. I do not attend mass so that my venial sins can be supplanted by merited grace bequeathed by the Roman Catholic Church. I believe that upon death the unregenerate awaken to eternal torment in a literal Hell and the redeemed to eternal bliss at the side of Christ in a literal Heaven; there will be no Purgatory for me. No, friends, I am very much not a Catholic.

I am an Evangelical Protestant with a primarily Baptist and baptistic background. I trace my ecclesiastical heritage, more or less, to 17^th century English Reformers with a smattering of European Reformers thrown in for good measure. I was raised to believe that God calls ordinary believers into His service as pastor-leaders of His Church, and have been honored to serve Him as such for 20 years. I swear fealty to Jesus Christ alone as my intercessor between myself and the Father, and I am a firm believer in the priesthood of every believer; needing no other sinner to intercede on my behalf before the throne of the Almighty. I call no man father other than my dad and God alone is my Holy Father. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a sinner just like I am and stood in need of redemption and justification no different from my own. No one but God is to be addressed in prayer in the name of Jesus; including Mary and any other “saint” named such by any church. I know my sins, all of them – mortal and venial,  have been atoned for by Jesus Christ who paid the full debt for my sins through His sacrificial death and bodily resurrection some 2,000 years ago. No further sacrifice is required and no additional grace can be obtained beyond what I have already been afforded by God because of Christ. Yes, friends, I am one of those Evangelicals.

That said, I have firmly established myself as a non-Catholic. I have many friends who could care less about yesterday’s election of the new Roman Pontif, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, as the now Pope Francis. . I, however, watched with great interest; not because I am a devout Catholic by any means, but for other reasons. I believe the election of a new Roman Pope should be noted with more than a passing glance by Evangelical Protestants. My friends would argue, and I believe rightly so, that Catholics and Evangelical Protestants are different by design, theologically, and that those differences make it impossible for Catholic and Protestant churches to work together on an ecclesiastical level. But, my reasons for taking interest in the election of the world’s newest Pope are not theological or ecclesiastical. I believe Evangelical Protestants should take note of this new Pope for several reasons.

• As a USA Today article reported today, “without a strong pope, evangelicals will lose their best allies in the most important cultural and political battles of our age.”  Evangelicals, Catholics, and some other conservative religious sects today are in a dire battle against secularism, relativism, and Islamism. Pope Francis, as Archbishop and Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina, has been a strong voice for conservative social issues for decades. His election as Pope signals a new direction for the Roman Catholic Church; one that is much more ardent against the cultural and political secularization and relativistic inclusionism so rampant in our modern society.

•  In America, Evangelicals need conservative Catholics to advance our political agenda. (Yes, I admit it. Evangelical Protestants, like leftist secularists, have a political agenda. There! It’s out in the open. Let’s get over it and move on, shall we?) Though Catholics and Evangelicals do not agree on a host of issues, we are aligned an many social and economic political issues. We both champion the idea of a reliable standard for truth and ethical conduct to which all institutions, including governments, should subscribe. We stand together in our belief that all human life – whether in or out of the womb – has equal dignity and worth and should be protected. Furthermore, we cherish and defend without apology the traditional view of marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Politically, in recent days, Catholics and Evangelicals have stood together in opposition of Obamacare’s abortion and contraceptive mandate.

Let me be clear. I do not believe we should blindly ignore the theological and ecclesiastical differences between Catholics and Evangelicals, nor do I plan to link arms with the Catholic priest down the road in a joint evangelism crusade – the differences in our beliefs are too significant for that. But, if my Evangelical brethren seek to marginalize this new pope and the hoards of faithful Catholics who will rally to his call (particularly Latinos), we do so to our detriment socially and politically – especially in America. It will be interesting to see what direction Pope Francis takes in the coming days. Personally, I am watching with keen interest.