“In necessary things unity, in uncertain things liberty, in all things charity.” So said Peter Meiderlin, seventeenth century German Lutheran theologian, summing up what many orthodox Christians believe about the proper relationship between orthodoxy and tolerance. Indeed, Meiderlin got the balance between solidarity and plurality, with love as the rule in everything, that his pithy statement is the official motto of both the Moravian Church and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. It is also the only statement made by a Lutheran that I am aware of hanging in my Catholic community center, and with that, I feel pretty confident in suggesting that it is an attitude that is universally Christian.

Universal, at least, with the exception of quite a few progressive Christians. Indeed, they seem to have Meiderlin’s creed a bit mixed up, proclaiming that Christians need flexibility in (presumably) necessary things, like doctrine; rigid leftism in uncertain things; and relativism in all things political. Allow Peter Laarman to illustrate.

Laarman, executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting, recently proclaimed the dogma of theological flexibility, telling the stiff-necked dogmatists defending things like the idea of a personal God that “the defenders of the True Faith need to relax a little bit. There is really no danger of an ‘anything goes’ ethic emerging among those of us who long ago said goodbye to the creeds” in a piece entitled, “The Unbelieving Future of Christian Faith.” What does the future of this Christianity, free to join Pontius Pilate in asking What is truth?” look like?

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This week, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) of the Catholic Church announced that an upcoming Apostolic Constitution will streamline and clarify processes for Anglicans to become Catholic, reflecting a broader trend towards cultural and liturgical diversity in the Catholic Church that, because it is both orthodox and organic, will help make the Church relevant in an increasingly globalized, cosmopolitan world.

Under the “Personal Ordinariates” that will be introduced with the Constitution, ex-Anglican clergy will provide pastoral care for groups of traditionalist converts to Catholicism, who will maintain their own liturgical practices so long as they do not conflict with universal Catholic doctrine. This means that Anglican priests and seminarians who convert will be permitted to remain in the clergy even if they are married, that the Book of Common Prayer will be used at Masses for the converts, and that other Anglican flourishes will continue to be central in the worships lives of the new Catholics.

The Church does not generally allow former Protestants to retain any of their old liturgical practices upon converting, but Cardinal William Levada noted “the importance of Anglican traditions of spirituality and worship for (converts’) faith journey” in the CDF statement announcing the Constitution.

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Last weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), along with their allies the Free Democrats (FDP), won 48.4% of the vote in parliamentary elections. Although the CDU lost part of its vote share from the last elections, the FDP won a larger share of the votes than it ever has. This means that the CDU and the FDP can now form a center-right coalition, a departure from the grand coalition between the CDU and the Social Democrats that led the country since Merkel’s first election win in 2005.

For the first time since 1998, the German right-wing will lead its own coalition government. The CDU, with over twice as many parliamentary seats as the FDP, will set the agenda, but will have to give some room at the table to their increasingly-powerful partners. Like other Christian Democratic parties in Europe, the CDU has traditionally combined a support for national sovereignty and social conservatism with a defense of the welfare state. The FDP, on the other hand, is of a more classical-liberal bent, campaigning for a reduction of taxes across the board, privatization of public services, and deregulation of the economy. The coming months will tell whether the parties can find common ground and agree on an agenda that is pro-business, without alienating Christian conservatives who want to help the poor, and whether Merkel can strike the fine balance between traditional religious values and cosmopolitan capitalism.

If she needs examples of how to build a successful coalition, she would do well to look across the Atlantic to the United States.

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