CREEDE HINSHAW: Protestants missing that one engaging leader

Why don’t Protestants have a leader as engaging, quotable and winsome as Pope Francis? I’m jealous. One might disagree with some statements from this venerable leader; he even vexes some in his own church. Frequently some Catholic is parsing the Pope, explaining how he is actually liberal, conservative, a reformer, his words were taken out of context, etc.

Through it all Pope Francis remains appealing, attractive and quotable, whether the subject is spanking a child (non-parents usually know better than to offer advice on child-raising), releasing prisoners from Guantanamo (he’s in favor of it), pets going to heaven (he thinks it is likely), the church’s need to be more welcoming to gay and lesbian persons, how his clergy are seduced by career advancement, the limits of free speech and so on.

Pope Francis speaks with candor, humor, grace and certainty, a gift of the Holy Spirit. He broaches difficult subjects to church and the world without coming across as narrow minded or one-dimensional.

Which leads me back to Protestantism. Who are the leaders of this branch of Christianity? Admittedly we are at a disadvantage. Our churches are so splintered that we often joust with others in our own denominations, let alone warm to those outside our limited spheres. Nor do we have the top-down hierarchy that provides a leader who can speak definitively and even infallibly. Most Protestants are happy without such an arrangement but the downside (or upside, depending on your view) is that no single person represents or speaks for our understanding of Christianity.

Billy Graham, now of diminished physical capacity, probably came as close as Protestants had to somebody internationally known, clear of heart and head, assured in his faith and an exemplar of what it could look like to follow Jesus. Not so long ago it seemed that Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California, might inherit that mantle, but I rarely hear his name these days. Going back to the mid- to late 20th century people might have mentioned Norman Vincent Peale or Robert Schuller.

Today Protestantism has no visible spokesperson of the winsomeness, clarity and wide horizons as that of Pope Francis. Franklin Graham, notwithstanding Samaritan’s Purse, is far more pugilistic than his father. Although he may be one of Protestantism’s most visible pastors, he is more likely to appeal to those who fear Muslims, abhor homosexuality and fight modernity. Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee is in the same camp, often coming across in attack mode with the added temptation that he’d like to be president. These men, extremely popular with a certain segment of American Christianity, have little influence outside their clearly defined sphere.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa) may come the closest to fitting the description: a warm, engaging dynamo of a pastor and prophet, a man who – like Francis – has a generous and larger vision of the world, is an attractive model of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. But even his appeal does not rise to that of a Pope Francis.

Is there a Protestant leader with Pope Francis’ magnetic personality and personal grace? Does it matter? What do you think?

Creede Hinshaw is a retired Methodist minister living in Macon.