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| From L-R: Western Christianity, the World (and we all know it) |
I can't think of anything more devastating to the Christian witness ot the modern world than what we're seeing today. On any given day, we have people - and I mean leaders including some popes I know - act as if what we always thought Catholicism taught was wrong. Or incomplete. Or mistaken. Or a bit off the mark. Or you just never know. Or it's open to debate.
In our age, where people in the dying West are perishing from misery, pointlessness, depression, drugs, suicide, mindless violence, and a general malaise of existence, taking this message into the world is like bringing gasoline to a house fire. It's telling people today that what secularism has been saying for years is true: Religions in this objectively valueless world are just made up fables and rules because none of it is true. Therefore all is whatever, it's all up for grabs, life sucks and then you die.
This is exacerbated by the modern Church and its leaders constantly changing, modifying, or casting doubts on what the Church seems to have always taught. Or so you thought. As my son said after one of his college classes that dealt with Christianity, the Church continually acting like Catholics have been getting it wrong all these years plays right into the secular hand.
And it isn't just this or that petty custom over which we're casting shadows of doubt. The things you're hearing people and leaders cast doubt on cut to the base of reality for the Christian: Are the people and events in the Bible true or fiction? Deacon Greydanus says there are several things in the Bible that can be dismissed as myth. Others will no doubt add more to that list than Deacon Greydanus would concede, and then you have yet another problem. When does it end? Who is right? Which ones are myth? Or if this is suddenly myth today, how can we know that those stories over there won't be myth tomorrow?
Or consider salvation. Is Catholicism even that important when it comes to being saved? Is Jesus? Apparently it's nice to believe in Jesus, but if you don't it's hardly a deal breaker. How about morality? Sexuality? Heck, abortion. I'm seeing quite a few supposedly 'pro-life' Catholics modifying the Church's opposition to abortion by adding such terms as 'elective' or 'convenience', as if other abortions might be fine. Or Hell? Hell, can we even know now if there is such a thing or possibility? Or is it that the Church never technically said anyone would certainly be in Hell, so clearly nobody might be there, and turns out Jesus never even talked about the topic in a clear way. If Catholics before thought otherwise, just chalk it up to one more thing the first 2000 years might have gotten wrong. You just never know what we should have believed.
It reduces learning the Divine Truths to nothing other than a polite debate around the water cooler. It makes religious belief into anything but indispensable. Does the world approach debate about climate change that way? About racism? About gender? About feminism? About DEI? About European Imperialism? About the Transatlantic slave trade? Any polite discussions there? No fundamentalist tent revival preacher was more assured of the indisputable truth than the modern World is about its proclamations. If you want something willing to question anything it believes, I'm afraid you'll have to look to the modern Christian Faith.
It's getting to where I can't rightly say the Church has always taught a growing number of things, at least if I pay attention to the conversations today. The only ones sure about anything are the non-believers, the secularists, the youth weaned in our atheistic society, and others who know Christianity and flying saucer cults are practically one and the same. That's why we change the rules. The rules were always based on no better than the Tooth Fairy all along. And our constant willingness to change to order does nothing other than reinforce that teaching. Hence my son's point.
Oh, and before we evoke development of doctrine, or historical debates over theology, or that we always need to instruct the faithful on the true teachings of the Faith, we must admit youthful hipsters are also honest. They know all of these sudden debates about what we only thought the Church taught is a direct result of the Church buckling before the World. It is not clarifying orthodoxy in the face of heresy. They see the World push, and the Church retreat. No St. Bonifaces or St. Patricks here. We're not about to tell the World it's wrong. The World changes the rules, and we begin asking if there were ever rules to begin with. That's not explaining that God is not an angry child wanting to hurt us because people mistake God's justice and mercy. It's saying we're not sure if God cares what we believe at all since the World has already said there is no God, so it doesn't matter what we believe.
And not just the youngsters, but the World at large sees it for what it is: The World compelling the witness of the Apostles to be changed to fit the World's latest demands. And if we think that will reach people for the Gospel, I'm sure we also believe that the Brooklyn Bridge is finally up for sale.
"The World compelling the witness of the Apostles to be changed to fit the World's latest demands. "
ReplyDeleteIf that happens then there is no need for the Church which is suppose to be counter cultural and contrary to the worlds view. The more we become like the world the farther away from Christ we become. There is nothing more contrary to the world than God dying a humiliating death on the cross to save people who are clueless about His love for them.
Absolutely. That's been the problem. Somewhere along the way, we missed that the world shifted. When the Faith was evangelizing the world, or the Faith had a monopoly, it could afford to tweak this or that and accept things in the nearest tavern and all was well. But the world changed and threw the Faith and God out the window and began evangelizing the Faithful. Since then, every compromise, change, alteration or acquiesces is a win for the World and goes a long way toward confirming the World's evangelistic message about religion in general, and Christianity in particular.
DeleteNot only is the church retreating before the world's demands, it is also adopting the world's false gospel of human improvement, and then pretending that such was the Christian teaching all along. I see examples of this on a daily basis. ---- G. Poulin
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. A year ago, a local news station had a special on mental health in churches. It interviewed multiple religious leaders and ministers and they all talked about - mental health. Not a G-Word dropped in the series. Not that there is anything wrong with mental health. But to hear that (and quite frankly, to see it said in many areas including Catholic outlets) you'd think it's anything but God that we need.
DeleteIf you think Jimmy Akin is good at "Popesplaining" read some of Dave Armstrong's articles defending Francis. He puts Jimmy in the shade with his convoluted nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, I haven't followed Dave in a long time. Once he decided Pope Francis was not to be criticized, it became tough to read. From what I hear, he hasn't spent as much time defending the pope as he was for some time. I don't know if that's significant or not. But again, I stopped bothering for the same reason I don't bother with most in that department. There is no point in it. I could talk to horses and get more out of it.
DeleteWell, that was an uncomfortable read. What the heck, Jimmy? The older I get the more I worry about those I know and the possibility of them going to hell. I tend to err on the side of hope for everyone I know as I do pray for them, which is probably what the popes were getting at, but the idea that they were open to the possibility of it not existing or it not being empty is kind of sus. Apart from scripture and Jesus' actual words, we have lots of other testimony about its existence including St. Teresa of Avila, and the vision Our Lady of Fatima showed the children of souls falling into Hell like snowflakes because there was "no one to pray for them."
ReplyDeleteAs far as Christian witness goes in the world, I often wonder exactly what kind of witness Christians can even give today, at least in the West. Disunity has done enormous damage, and people can't even seem to recognize true charity if it doesn't come in the form of an entitlement anyway. As Chesterton said, "The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”
I like that. I've heard variations on that over the years. That when you take the teachings of the Faith and remove them from the Faith, you get problems. Even if they are for the best reasons. Take national repentance. Nothing unchristian there. Yet today it's used in ways to destroy and erase to degrees that would make the Taliban blush. And there is no end in sight. But the big trouble now is that the Faithful have been divided up along partisan lines, and those friendly to the progressive ways will not call out anything - not a darn thing - pushed by the latest world agenda. Now my son (after talking about this issue) said in college classes about religion, it's almost entirely addressed as myth. And things like the Bible? Apparently it's becoming common for 'scholars' to suggest the New Testament was written far beyond the events, even into the 2nd Century. That many figures - including apostles - might have been as much fictional as anyone. If we keep taking that and trying to compromise, we'll end up with nothing in the near future.
DeleteThe one thing that comes to mind after reading this; Will the Son of man find any faith left on Earth when he comes? Doesn't seem so except for the remnant.
ReplyDeleteThe Remnant is what I'm seeing. Remember there are 7000 who haven't. I just keep remembering that.
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