Stephen Fry and the Church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL5WVecNdhk
              One thing that I found very interesting in class on Friday was the video on Stephen Fry and his take on the Catholic Church, and to relate it more to our class content, where as a church we are going from here. I found it funny and maybe a bit ironic that when Fry addressed religion in regards to the future and just the Catholic Church in general, he only really addressed, however negatively, Catholocism as a religion and the negative aspects of that. His view was, as many pointed out, what the Catholic church has not necessarily done and about what should be changed rather than what good things can be done and also what the church as a whole can do. As someone pointed out in class, the church is not just a hierarchy of malevolence in which only people higher up have a say in which to do, but many parts of the church consist of the poor, in fact the great majority of it does. The substance of a religion cannot only be made up of the people that seem to hold the power, but rather is greatly held by those that are of 'lower' position in the church, but whose positions are just as important. For instance, is it not the pope who goes out and serves the poor but rather many other people in the church that physically give time and money to help feed those in need, or help the widows and the orphans?
             Another point that I feel that Fry did not address was that the church is not just the Catholic Church, but can consist of other religions and people of nondenominational religions as well. As Luke stated in the book of Acts, chapter 2, talking about the fellowship of the believers (the early church, as we discussed at the beginning of the semester), "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts...praising God and enjoying the favor of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." This was what the early church was made up of, of normal people sent to do the work of God, not even necessarily of the people in power at that time, like the Pharisees or the Sanhedrin. The early church was "enflamed" by the Holy Spriti, with a common worship and common belief, which is not always seen today. (Which would also definitely help in binding the church together more). So this to say that I feel like a point that was missed was that the church is not just made up of Catholicism, but of the body of believers, the body of Christ, and communing with each other for the work of God that comes along with it. So Fry can be a little disconcerted with the Catholic church, to say the least, but I don't think that he should forget that there are good things happening there, and that many other good things are happening elsewhere. His focus on attrition left out the fact that other leaders are being raised up for the future of Christianity, and as already said, good things are happening as well. As one last point, it would be hypocritical for me to say that Fry only focused on negative aspects of the Catholic church, and only pointing those out in his speech without saying that if he did have some truth to his message, then it would be important to take that into reflection and as criticism to change things for the better.