Ireland needs Protestants

Ireland needs Protestants!  That's the message being sent out by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Neill, in the light of the recent cut in funding to Protestant schools in the Republic of Ireland.  Irrespective of the debate over cuts in school grants, the Archbishop is right - Ireland needs Protestants.  But what sort of Protestants?  What is a Protestant anyhow, and is the Church of Ireland Protestant?

 

There's no doubt that the word 'Protestant' has not had a good press in Ireland over recent years.  In the minds of many people it's a word associated with the violent sectarianism  often seen in the street violence of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, and especially in contentious Orange Order parades.  Its association with the 12th of July celebrations, paramilitary groups, and Unionist politics has created a picture of Protestantism as something repressive, violent, and to be avoided.  But this political Protestantism and its sectarian expression is not the kind of Protestantism that Ireland needs to foster.

What Ireland needs is the kind of Protestant who will bring it something good, something wholesome, something life-giving and life-changing.  Indeed, Protestantism has this at its very core.  This year is the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, who along with Martin Luther, is one of Protestantism's best known representatives.  Flowing out of the religious Reformation of the sixteenth century inaugurated by these men, Protestantism was a breath of fresh air.  With its rediscovery of the heart of the Christian Gospel, freeing it from centuries of superstitious medieval Catholic belief, it brought life and joy to many.  Now, at a time when Ireland is rapidly' losing its religion' and is full of anger over political, economic, and religious abuses by institutions that had long been trusted,  Ireland needs this kind of Protestantism more than ever. 

According to its own foundational documents, the Church of Ireland is a Protestant church.  Unfortunately, it's a Protestant church without a Protestant message.  Ireland needs the Church of Ireland to find a new confidence in the life-giving message at the heart of Protestantism - the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Liberal Protestantism has nothing to offer Irish society and indeed is just as dangerous to Irish society as violent sectarian Protestantism - it has no message of hope. But the kind of Protestantism that unashamedly believes and lives the good news of Jesus Christ is the kind of Protestantism that Ireland  desparately needs.