More News Brought to Light

Our faith is truly under attack, not just here in the good ol' USA, but throughout the world. I don't have to search for examples of this, for these attacks are not only evident but also celebrated by those who despise Christ and His Church. These misguided people wrongly think that by attacking Jesus Christ, they will somehow destroy Him. Such attitudes do nothing but underscore their tacit disbelief. Here are just a few stories that highlight this.

Abortion Industry Discretely Targets Black Babies.  In recent years, the abortion industry (aka, Planned Parenthood) has tried to separate itself from its founder, Margaret Sanger, a notorious racist who planned and hoped for the destruction of the "lesser races" and came up with a diabolical plan to accomplish this. But with the rise of cancel culture, Sanger's racism could cause Planned Parenthood some problems, so it seemed best to downplay her involvement as perhaps the founder of the industry. 

Sanger's plans, though, have never really been discarded. For decades Planned Parenthood has targeted minority communities, and they continue to do so. CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, is a wonderful organization that has investigated the abortion industry's attack on our nation's Black communities.

As a recent press conference, leaders of CURE and a number of other organizations devoted to helping minorities thrive, focused on the Abortion industry's targeting of minority communities. Quite simply, the industry hasn't left Margaret Sanger behind but has actually increased its attack on Black women and Black babies. The percentage of abortions obtained by minority women, particularly Black women, continues to increase, making them "disproportionately, the leading consumer of abortion service." Black women account for more than 1/3 of abortions although they make up only 15% of the childbearing population.

And this wholesale murder, this genocide, of the unborn is supported by the vast majority of Democrat politicians.

Canada Attacks Christian Belief. That's a nice way of saying it. About a week ago, the Canadian Senate and House of Commons unanimously approved a ban on what it called "conversion therapy." In truth, though, it condemns Christian doctrine on the sinfulness of homosexuality and so-called transgenderism, and "ism" that does not exists in reality. The legislation also threatens pastors with up to five years imprisonment if they actually are faithful to the Gospel.

These Canadian pastors aren't preaching hell and brimstone. In fact, like Pastor David Lynn, of Christ Forgiveness Ministries, they're preaching a theology of love, of forgiveness, or mercy. And as they preach, as they share the Gospel, they receive nothing but hate from those who can't stand to hear any criticism of their sinful way of life. "We hate nobody..." Pastor Lynn explained as he described the enduring love of God.

Pastor Lynn was, of course, arrested as he preached the Gospel publicly in Toronto. Even though surrounded and physically assaulted by the crowd of LGBTQ+ whatevers, he was the one arrested.

One result of this has been the outpouring of support by thousands of American pastors who preached last Sunday on the immorality of the homosexual and transexual lifestyles. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an article in praise of Catholic pastors preaching similar homilies. That's the subject of another post...perhaps soon.

A Catholic University Denies Church Teaching. Isn't it interesting that so many universities and colleges love to claim and proclaim their Catholic identity, presumably to placate Catholic parents who will foot the exorbitant education bill, and yet regularly deny major aspects of the Catholic Church's magisterial teaching? It's just a wild guess, but I suspect 75% of so-called Catholic institutions of higher education are really not Catholic. 

The latest school to hit the headlines is DePaul University in (where else) Chicago. DePaul advertises itself as the nation's largest Catholic university. On the "Mission Page" of its website. DePaul declares:

"Guided by an ethic of Vincentian personalism and professionalism, DePaul compassionately upholds the dignity of all members of its diverse, multi-faith, and inclusive community."

As someone who has read many of St. Vicent de Paul's homilies, studied his life, and ministers in a parish blessed with his name, I'm not all that certain the saint would grasp what "Vincentian personalism and professionalism" actually means.

On its home page the school also states that "Chicago is Our Classroom, The World is Our Focus," a motto that (despite its strange capitalization) seems to ignore its supposedly Catholic foundation.

And then, under a heading proclaiming the school's "commitment to Anti-Discrimination," we encounter the following:

"DePaul University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, family relationship status, physical or mental disability, military status, genetic information or other status protected by local, state, or federal law in matters of admissions, employment, housing, scholarships, loans, athletics and other school-administered programs. Individuals who believe they have been subjected to discrimination, harassment or retaliation are encouraged to report what happened."

Heavens! What a list of potential bases for discrimination! Although some are a bit confusing. Why both sex and gender? In fact, why gender at all? I'm pretty sure sex is what separates male from female, and I have always considered gender to be a grammatical term; you know: feminine, masculine, or neuter nouns. Ah, well, the more things change...

DePaul University, however, has determined that sex comes in many more forms than the obvious two that have served humanity well since pre-historic times.  The university's web-based Campus Connect system was established to aid communication among students, faculty, and staff. Since January 4, "In addition to the Legal Gender, students may now also include a gender identity." Here are the choices: male, female, intersex, non-binary, transgender male, transgender female, cisgender, unspecified, and "I do not wish to self-identify." 

Having these options is especially important at DePaul since the university's student government has declared misgendering an "act of violence," a rather unique way to define violence.

The Church, of course, teaches the existence of only two sexes: male and female. And so, from the perspective of DePaul University's students, who seem to set the policies, the Catholic Church is committing repeated acts of violence. Maybe it would be best if the school just dropped its Catholic identity so prospective students (and their parents) understood that they were about to pay thousands of dollars to be educated by idiots.

That's enough...I'm tired.

A Christian Society?

So often we hear people, particularly religious people, speak of our nation as a "Christian Society." Of course, I've never heard one of these folks actually define what that means. To be fair, I suppose it's not a particularly easy thing to define. 

For example, is a Christian society simply a society in which a majority of its citizens call themselves Christians? In the United States this was certainly the case for most of its history, although I'm not sure it remains so today. Anyway, just because a citizenry calls itself Christian, doesn't mean it believes and lives the Christian faith. Such contradictions are apparent with individuals, so why not with nations as well?

Or perhaps a Christian society means the nation is governed by what we consider to be Christian principles; that is, principles based on the Gospel, the teachings of Jesus Christ. Well, if we actually examine the policies and laws of our current government at local, state, and federal levels, the presence of Gospel values seems to be rather rare. Not only are the Ten Commandments increasingly ignored, but the Beatitudes? Well...they're considered irrelevant, certainly nothing on which to base legislation.

These thoughts popped into my aging brain the other day as I re-read the Gospel according to Mark for an upcoming Bible Study session. Mark, who likely wrote the Gospel while in Rome, must have experienced first-hand the persecutions instituted by Emperor Nero. He and the Christians in Rome, who lived under the Empire's totalitarianism and the personal tyranny of Nero, suffered from a level of persecution probably not seen again until the 20th century. I suspect many of these early Roman Christians hoped for a day when the empire might actually be motivated by Christianity. 

Today we have a world in which Christianity is by far the most persecuted religion in the world, By some estimates Christians are actively persecuted in over 160 countries. And I expect this doesn't count the more subtle denigration, social exclusion, and media attacks of Christians increasingly common in the countries like our own.

True Christianity, of course, cannot abide any form of totalitarianism, an ideology  which demands complete control of all aspects of human life by the state. Here in the good ol' USA, a nation populated by those who have historically prided themselves on their love of freedom from all forms of tyranny, we are witnessing a movement toward a form of authoritarianism wielded by those who have forgotten that "we the people" are sovereign. Constitutional rights -- rights endowed by our Creator -- are considered expendable when national crises arise and push those who represent the people to the limits of their authority and capability. And so, they try to exceed both and assume essentially unlimited powers. Although freedom, once lost, is hard to regain, far too many citizens today don't seem to care. 

Some wise sage, I can't recall who, once said that when we give up our freedom we soon forget its value. Even those who regain it often find freedom too much of a challenge and let it slip away once again bit by bit. And those whom we empower? Although they publicly express a loathing of totalitarianism, they privately admit much admiration for its supposed efficiency. I guess it's just the way of the world, really nothing new, simply a symptom of a fallen, sinful people.

Last evening I turned to a volume I hadn't read in a dozen years and was struck by the wisdom of the author. The book was published in the UK in 1940. This was a  time when Great Britain was at war with Hitler's Germany and yet was also aware of the threat posed by another totalitarian state, the Soviet Union. What follows are a few pertinent passages I think worthy of sharing.

"To speak of ourselves as a Christian Society, in contrast to that of Germany and Russia, is an abuse of terms. We mean only that we have a society in which no one is penalized for the formal profession Christianity; but we conceal from ourselves the unpleasant knowledge of the real values by which we live."

Today, sadly, many in both the UK and the USA, are "penalized" for their profession of faith, especially by the technocrats who run social media, which has become perhaps our primary means of interpersonal communication. 

The author went on to write: 

"...a society has ceased to be Christian when religious practices have been abandoned, when behavior ceases to be regulated by reference to Christian principle, and when in effect prosperity in this world for the individual or for the group has become the sole conscious aim."

The author, speaking of the UK of 1940, asks if his society is still Christian simply because it had not yet become something else. He seems to believe that, yes it is, because it wasn't completely pagan. I suppose 80 years ago he was correct. Although I would disagree with his use of the word "pagan" when really we are faced with something quite different from traditional paganism. The growing tendency, at least today in the United States, is to become a-religious, which is certainly not a pagan trait. I suppose this, though, is just a matter of semantics.

The author then turns to one of my heroes, Christopher Dawson, who wrote that non-dictatorial states stand not for traditional liberalism but rather for democracy. Dawson continues "to foretell the advent in these States of a kind of totalitarian democracy." To many this would seem a contradiction, but it's not. Democracy, unchecked by constitutional limitations, inevitably becomes a dictatorship of the majority, often an emerging majority, in which minorities -- for example, Christians -- suffer persecution. 

We then read the following, which should give us pause today as we witness the rapid deterioration of our constitutional rights:

"By destroying traditional social habits of the people, by dissolving their natural collective consciousness into individual constituents, by licensing the opinions of the most foolish, by substituting instruction for education, by encouraging cleverness rather than wisdom, the upstart rather than the qualified, by fostering a notion of getting on to which the alternative is hopeless apathy, Liberalism can prepare the way for that which is its own negation: the artificial, mechanized or brutalized control which is a desperate remedy for its chaos."

As all of this happens, as Liberalism brings about its own destruction, we still "insist upon the preserves of 'private life' in which each man may obey his own convictions of follow his own whim: while imperceptibly this domain of 'private life' becomes smaller and smaller, and may eventually disappear altogether."

Where does this most easily happen? According to the author materialism is both a symptom and a cause.

"The more highly industrialized the country, the more easily a materialistic philosophy will flourish in it, and the more deadly that philosophy will be...And the tendency of unlimited industrialization is to create bodies of men and women -- of all classes -- detached from tradition, alienated from religion, and susceptible to mass suggestion: in other words, a mob. And a mob will be no less a mob if it is well fed, well clothed, well housed, and well disciplined"

And so, today many of the institutions that define our society have left neutrality behind and become openly anti-Christian. Should this trend continue, and I can think of no strictly human effort that will stop it or slow it down, eventually Christianity and Christians will be considered and treated as enemies of the state. In our author's words, the course for the Christian then becomes "very much harder, but it is simpler."

As you can see, even from the few passages I have quoted, the author was prescient in his understanding of where Western society was headed 80 years ago, and where it is today. The essay, written by the poet, T. S. Eliot, is included in the book, "Christianity and Culture." It's one of those books I turn to every decade or so just to remind me that God is in charge and that, without His guidance, humanity will make a mess of pretty much everything. I addressed only a few of Eliot's thoughts, those that set the stage for his major thesis. Read the book. You'll enjoy it. 

Modern Gnosticism...a Postscript

I've decided it might be useful to make an addition to my comments about modern gnostics and their presence in today’s world. 

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned Erin Voegelin (1901-1985), one of the 20th century’s great political philosophers. Voegelin wrote extensively about the recurrence of gnostic thought and it’s influence on so many current ideologies. In one of his books -- Science, Politics and Gnosticism -- he lists a number of characteristics which, in his words, "reveal the nature of the gnostic attitude". Here's a brief version:

• The gnostic is "dissatisfied with his situation." This is certainly not unique to the gnostic, but the dissatisfaction experienced by the world's faithless can lure many into the gnostic way of thinking.
  
• The gnostic attributes this dissatisfaction to "the fact that the world is intrinsically poorly organized...[and] the fault is to be found in the wickedness of the world" but not in that of human beings. The gnostic, then, rejects the goodness of creation and, therefore, the goodness of the Creator. Any evil in the world is not the fault of man, but the fault of the world as man received it.
• The gnostic also believes that "salvation from the evil of the world is possible." The problem occurs when the gnostic describes the nature and source of this salvation and how it can be brought about.
  
• "The order of being will have to be changed in an historical process." In other words, the evil world will evolve into a good world through a process of historical evolution. This, of course, denies the Christian belief that salvation isn't something we can achieve, but instead comes through the gift of God's grace.
• Based on the above, the gnostic believes that changing the very order of being is possible through human action, "that this salvational act is possible through man's own effort." Of course, this "salvation" is really focused on the ultimate perfection of humanity and does not really involve the eternal salvation of the individual.
  
• Because the gnostic believes humanity can being about this change, the task becomes one of determining the methods to achieve the perfection of this new order of being. The gnostic, then, constructs "a formula for self and world salvation...[and is ready] to come forward as a prophet who will proclaim his knowledge [gnosis] about the salvation of mankind."
  

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, gnosticism takes on many forms, and yet in all of its modern manifestations the above characteristics are present. Voegelin mentions a number of ideologies that embody these characteristics, including: progressivism, positivism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, communism, fascism, and national socialism. Each of these ideologies offers its own formula for human salvation and its own prophets who will lead the way. 

Of course, to buy into any of these ideologies is to deny the very foundational beliefs of Christianity. 

You can access my previous posts on Gnosticism via these links:

Roots of Modern Gnosticism (9/29)

Modern Gnostics (10/3)

Europe's Eradication of Christianity

It's really remarkable that the continent that owes its place in history to its Christian roots is now trying to eradicate all signs of Christianity. The process is sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle, but it continues nevertheless. 

Two major European businesses recently joined the effort when they apparently realized that some of their products were wrapped in packaging that displayed tiny Christian crosses. Lidl, the huge  German retailer, has its own brand of Greek-style food. Its packaging depicts a scene from the island of Santorini that includes the famous Anastasis Church. As you might expect the domes of the church are topped with crosses. It seems that Lidl, after suffering with the crosses for more than ten years, decided to alter the packaging and remove these Christian symbols. The company, after receiving many, many complaints, responded with an interesting statement:

Santorini Church with Crosses (former packaging)

"We are extremely sorry for any offence caused by the most recent artwork and would like to reassure our customers that this is not an intentional statement...In light of this we will ensure that all feedback is taken into consideration when redesigning future packaging.”

Lidl packaging without those pesky crosses

One can only wonder how the airbrushing of the crosses could be anything but intentional. As an amateur photographer who often "doctors" my photographs, I can state without question that the crosses did not disappear accidentally. And notice that Lidl does not intend to replace the crosses. No, in the future "feedback will be taken into consideration" -- whatever that means. The company then added:

“We avoid the use of religious symbols on our packaging to maintain neutrality in all religions. If it has been perceived differently, we apologize to those who may have been shocked.”

Of course such neutrality is a new policy in line with the general trend in Europe, a policy that is hardly shocking 

Nestle, the Swiss conglomerate, also depicted the Santorini church on packaging for its Greek yogurt. Not to be outdone by Lidl, the company followed suit and removed the church's crosses from the packaging. It claimed that the crosses might offend the "sensibilities" of those who are not Christian.

New Nestle packaging (without crosses)

The Greek Orthodox Church is unhappy with the actions taken by Lidl and Nestle and has called for a boycott of their products. We'll see if that results in further changes.

The trend, however, has reached down even to the local government level. In the UK a local council tossed a rare bookseller from a marketplace because she sold coffee mugs that might offend the sensibilities of Muslims. The bookseller, Tina Gayle, is upset and says she's never had a Muslim complain to her about any of the products she sells. (Read the story here.)

The mugs contained an image that reflected the Knights Templar and also included the famous verse from the beginning of Psalm 115, in Latin:

“Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam"  [Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory]

The Knights Templar were an interesting order of monkish knights, formed to protect Christian pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. They were actually quite heroic, but were treated abominably by the royals of France and others. I tend to look on them favorably, something which, happily, is extremely irritating to politically correct progressives. (I also want one of those mugs.) But I can't see how a coffee mug and a psalm would offend Muslims or anyone else, unless they are history deniers. Anyway I'm really tired of all those folks who get so offended by speech  or writings or pictures or attitudes they don't like. Grow up people. If you disagree with something, learn how to defend that with which you agree.

By the way, if you'd like to read more about the Knights Templar, pick up a copy of Regine Pernoud's book, The Templars: Knights of Christ.

Finally, also in the UK -- once the bastion of freedom of speech -- police departments around the country arrested 3,395 people last year for breaking a law that declares it illegal to intentionally "cause annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety to another." (Read the story here.)

Now, I don't know about you, but I probably do all of those things several times a day. Dear Diane tells me regularly that I'm being annoying. I sometimes go out of my way to make the lives of others mildly inconvenient...but only when they're really annoying. And how can one differentiate between needless and necessary anxiety? Heavens! I'd probably get a life sentence from the Queen's courts. 

As you might expect, the law is not evenly applied. Several Muslim media types in the UK regularly accuse others of all kinds of nasty crimes simply because of their race or religious beliefs. For this they are not prosecuted. But if a Christian criticizes Islam..."OK, be a good chap and put your hands behind your back."

Well, Jesus told us to expect persecution, and our experience with Nazism and Communism should have been warning enough. But I wonder how many American Christians still believe they are immune to the persecution to come?

Chaos Rising

Here I am, just a few weeks shy of my 70th birthday, and I can't recall a time in my life when both the nation and the world seemed to be moving so rapidly toward the brink of total chaos. One can only marvel at those in the affluent, self-absorbed West who bury their heads in the sand believing all is right in the world.

You'll quickly discover what I mean if you spend a morning or afternoon watching the business shows on CNBC or Fox Business Channel. The denizens of these networks, whether bulls, bears, or creatures in-between, distill everything down to economics. Money and high finance rule. Each apparently believes that, at its core, every problem is related to the economy. Party affiliation or political labels seem to matter little. Their solutions certainly vary, from the libertarian's "anything goes" approach that borders on anarchy to the don't-call-me-a-socialist's "turn it all over to the government" approach that leads only to Orwell's Big Brother. And as they talk, and predict, and cheer and jeer, the stock ticker runs across the bottom of the screen, a constant reminder of the current state of these tiny pieces of the economy. For those worried about the condition of their 401Ks, or who hope their penny stocks will soar into Apple territory, I suppose it's all very addictive. The viewer comes to believe that ultimately  the shape of the future will be determined by the Dow Jones Average.

In truth, the future of civilization will be determined by the battles being waged between ideology and religion, between the many brands of totalitarianism and freedom, between a horrific brand of Islam and civilization itself, between those who worship man as a god and those who worship a Man as God. If you were to ask an al-Qaeda leader or an ISIL follower (or ISIS or whatever these barbarians call themselves today) why they wage war against the West, I'm pretty sure the answer wouldn't focus on economics or NASDAQ futures. They know we are in the midst of a global war, a spiritual war that most people in Western Europe and the U.S. blithely ignore. 

Western elitists, the descendants of a Christendom that no longer exists, are apparently oblivious to the ramifications of what's taking place in the world's unenlightened corners. They don't take the idea of spiritual warfare seriously because they don't take the idea of God seriously. In their enlightened progressivism they believe that society, especially their society, is moving unrelentingly forward. And they believe this despite the global barbarism of the past hundred years. I suspect such thinking often arises from a subtle form of racism that views events in the so-called Third World and the Southern Hemisphere as unimportant or certainly far less important than what happens in the developed world. At best it's the product of a myopic parochialism that prevents one from seeing beyond its self-defined borders. And for some it stems from simple ignorance, abetted by the political correctness that controls much of what passes for education these days.

And yet the war rages and continues to expand. One thing is certain: unlike many in the developed West, the people of Africa and the Middle East know they are in a war zone. Although the Middle East will always be the primary battleground, Africa might eventually rival the Middle East because Christianity on that continent has experienced such remarkable growth. This growth is perceived as a real threat by those who would destroy Christianity. Based on the common, erroneous belief that Christianity, and more specifically Catholicism, is in decline, few Westerners, including Western Christians, are aware of the extent of this growth. For example, how many know that Catholics in sub-Sahara Africa increased from 2 million in 1900 to over 130 million in 2000? -- a remarkable growth rate of over 4% annually. Or that Gallup estimates the total number of African Catholics today at over 200 million? The fact that the growth of the Catholic Church in Africa has outpaced the growth of the continent's overall population is a sign of some very healthy evangelization. 

According to recent study by CESNUR (The Center for the Study of New Religions), among African countries, 31 have Christian majorities, 21 have Muslim majorities and 6 have populations which adhere mostly to traditional African religions. In 1900 Christians in Africa totalled ten million; in 2012 this number reached five hundred million. In 1900 only 2% of Christians in the world were African; today, this figure has risen to 20%. In ten years time Africa will be the largest continental bloc within Christianity, outdoing Europe and the Americas. “This data is still not widely known," stated sociologist Massimo Introvigne, CESNUR’s founder, "but they have a profound historical, cultural and political significance. There are now more practicing Christians in Africa than in Europe. In the long run, this will not only change Africa but Christianity as well, as John Paul II had intuited..."

“Of course, not everyone is happy about this development,” Introvigne added. The sociologist claimed that this growth in the number of Christians across the African continent is likely behind many of the attacks on Christians. “Some Islamic ultra-fundamentalists consider it scandalous that there are more Christians than Muslims in Africa and proceed to persecute and kill Christians in countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Somalia and Kenya. The way the ultra-fundamentalists see it, today the battle which will determine whether the world will be Muslim or Christian is being fought in Africa. And that Islam is losing. This is why they are responding with bombs.” In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood's primary target has been Christians and Christian churches. The same is true of Boko Haram in Nigeria. And the Islamists who carried the Nairobi mall massacre made a point of singling out Christians.

This desire to destroy Christianity isn't restricted to Africa. It's even more apparent in the Middle East. We've heard a lot of talk out of Iraq recently about the potential "genocide" of the Yazidi people by ISIL. And what is happening to that people is certainly horrendous. But how many Westerners realize what's happening to the larger Christian community in Iraq? Indeed, how many know what's been happening to Christians throughout the world, particularly in Muslim-majority countries? Christians in Pakistan and Iran are persecuted, imprisoned and murdered simply because of their beliefs. In Iraq the Islamist jihadists of ISIL are beheading young Christian children and displaying their severed heads on pikes. They are crucifying Christians and staging mass executions of anyone who resists converting to their vicious form of Islam. As a result Christians are fleeing the Middle East and their once-thriving communities have all but disappeared.

About all this our nation has done little, and said even less. Indeed, our selective concern seems almost arbitrary. In 2011, we joined the British and the French and bombed Libya's Gaddafi regime out of existence. Ironically, it's likely more Libyan civilians have died since Gaddafi's overthrow than before. And as the power of the Islamists has increased in that country, so too has the persecution and exodus of Libyan Christians.

Only a year later, when confronted by a far worse situation in Syria, we did virtually nothing, other than draw some imaginary red lines in the sand. The result has been the deaths of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians and the growth of ISIL into a formidable military force. And now, with half of Iraq in the hands of ISIL, we limit our response to humanitarian assistance and highly selective air strikes that have only driven ISIL underground where they will resort to classic insurgency tactics. I suspect ISIL, flush with cash and modern weaponry, will only grow stronger. And in the meantime the Christians of Syria and Iraq are being slaughtered by the jihadists. 

After Mass yesterday morning a parishioner asked me, "Are we in the end times? Do you think Jesus will come soon?" I told her I had no idea. Indeed, Our Lord made a point of reminding us that no one knows when the end will come. But He also told us not to ignore the signs. Read Matthew, Chapter 24, and pray for our world, for yourself, and for those you love. Pray that in the midst of the chaos, we will remain true to Jesus Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

I conclude with the words of Pope Benedict XVI:

"...from the beginning the Church lives in prayerful waiting for her Lord, scrutinizing the signs of the times and putting the faithful on guard against recurring messiahs, who from time to time announce the world's end is imminent. In reality, history must run its course, which brings with it also human dramas and natural calamities. In it a design of salvation is developed that Christ has already brought to fulfillment in his incarnation, death, and resurrection. The Church continues to proclaim this mystery and to announce and accomplish it with her preaching, celebration of the sacraments, and witness of charity." [The Joy of Knowing Christ, p. 115]

A Postscript

In yesterday's post -- More Murdered Christians? Ho-Hum... -- I provided a link to an excellent article by Michael Brendan Dougherty in which he briefly details the role played by the US and the West in the ongoing persecution of Middle Eastern Christians. In his article Dougherty mentions a small Kindle book, The Silence of Our Friends, written by Ed West. I had intended to recommend the book, but simply forgot to do so. If you have a Kindle or use the Kindle app, pay the $.99 to buy this little book from Amazon. Believe me, it won't take you long to read, but will change how you think about the Middle East.

Pray for the persecuted Christians of the world, and pray for us.

Dwarfs on the Shoulders of Giants...

Isn't it remarkable that so many who came before us turn out to have been pretty smart? This is no new revelation; it's been known for some time. Indeed, an early 12th-century reference is attributed to Bernard of Chartres who is quoted as saying that "we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants." We can see and understand more, and accomplish more, than those who came before us, not because we are smarter than they, but because they were such giants and have raised us to greater heights. 

Friederich Nietzsche

Bernard was neither the first nor the last to believe this. Indeed, Isaac Newton said much the same thing in a 1676 letter: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." Of course, believing this contradicts today's progressive ideologues who have convinced themselves that our predecessors and their ideas have little to teach us today. This rejection of the accomplishments and intellectual heritage of the past, especially the distant past, is particularly evident when the sources of these accomplishments are dead white European males (or DWEMs as they are arrogantly abbreviated). 

Driven by ideology -- whether Marxist, feminist, multiculturalist, atheist, environmentalist, or some grotesque fusion of several or all of these -- far too many of today's educators increasingly dismiss the works of such greats as Dante, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Can you imagine a college survey course of English literature that ignores Shakespeare? Well, believe me, such courses are being taught in many colleges and universities today. 

Not long ago I encountered something even more troubling. I had the opportunity to speak with a young graduate student who had volunteered to help out at our soup kitchen while she visited her grandparents here in Florida. She'd recently earned a BA in philosophy at a rather prestigious private university. When I asked about her undergraduate course of study, it became evident she had read neither Plato nor Aristotle. "The old Greeks really aren't very relevant today," she explained, kindly substituting "old Greeks" for DWEMs in the presence of this living white male. That's when I decided not to ask her about Augustine or Aquinas or Duns Scotus or any of the medieval thinkers. Whom had she studied? Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Spinoza, Marx, Dewey, Marcuse, Peter Singer, Chomsky...all the usual suspects. 

It's all very sad, watching today's educators limit their vision by refusing to climb onto the shoulders of the giants who came before us. Even worse they are effectively blinded by willfully descending into the ideological pits they've dug for themselves. There they see nothing but the dirt beneath their feet and on the walls that surround them. If only they would look up, they would see the light.

More and more colleges and universities are descending into those pits by eliminating programs that focus on the great thinkers who helped Western Civilization flourish and replacing them with courses designed to undermine its foundations. For example, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Heather MacDonald describes the recent changes to UCLA's humanities program:

Until 2011, students majoring in English at UCLA had to take one course in Chaucer, two in Shakespeare, and one in Milton —the cornerstones of English literature. Following a revolt of the junior faculty, however, during which it was announced that Shakespeare was part of the "Empire," UCLA junked these individual author requirements. It replaced them with a mandate that all English majors take a total of three courses in the following four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability and Sexuality Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing.

The idea, of course, is to destroy the dominant culture and replace it with some amorphous, politically correct multiculturalism. In other words great literature is being replaced by garbage. And UCLA isn't alone. Instead of studying Bach and Mozart at the University of South Carolina you can take a course in "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame." Or how about a course at the University of California Irvine on "The Science of Superheroes"? Or perhaps you'd prefer a Harvard University course on "Vampires in Literature and Film"? Or you can spend your time at Appalachian State University studying "What if Harry Potter is Real?" Instead of celebrating the greatness of our civilization, we now celebrate its decadence. And in the process education is trivialized.

According to the National Endowment for the Humanities -- and these figures are from 1988, over 25 years ago! -- one could graduate from 37% of American colleges without ever taking a history course, from 45% without taking a single course in either English or American literature, from 62% without a course in philosophy, and 77% without studying a foreign language. Just imagine what the percentages are today. Far too many students, after putting themselves (and/or their parents) into deep debt are graduating uneducated. Some leave these schools with an acceptable level of technical expertise, equipped to handle the basic requirements of their chosen field. They are prepared for work at its most elementary level, but are they prepared for life? They might know how to be a chemical engineer, but do they know how to be a human being, created in the image and likeness of their Creator? 

This did not happen overnight; indeed it's taken centuries. We now find ourselves approaching the end of a 500-year experiment in humanism, an experiment in which virtually all the obstacles, especially the moral obstacles, to the human will have been obliterated. Once we reject God as the source of all authority and reassign that authority to ourselves, everything changes. Once we reject Christ crucified and replace Him with man deified, we can shout, along with Hegel and Nietzsche, "God is dead!" At that point, anything goes, and I'm reminded of the lyrics of Cole Porter's 1934 song...

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos

And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes.

Today, 80 years later, "anything" has been expanded well beyond the anything of Cole Porter. The Catholic philosopher and historian, Thomas Molnar, in his 1988 book, Twin Powers, described our society's cultural decay as well as anyone when he wrote:

"Culture has come to mean, of course, anything that happens to catch the fancy of a group: rock concerts, supposedly for the famished of the third world; the drug culture and other subcultures; sects and cults; sexual excess and aberration; blasphemy on stage and screen; frightening and obscene shapes; the plastic wrapping of the Pont-Neuf or the California coast; the smashing of the family and other institutions; the display of the queer, abject, the sick. These instant products, meant to provide instant satisfaction to a society itself unmoored from foundation and tradition, accordingly deny the work of mediation and maturation and favor the incoherent, the shapeless and the repulsive."

Western Civilization has been around for quite a while, and so I suppose its ultimate disintegration shouldn't come as a great surprise. In his 1993 book, America's British Culture, Russell Kirk accurately summed up our culture's current condition:

"If the decay goes far enough, in the long run a society's culture sinks to a low level; or the society may fall apart altogether. We Americans live, near the end of the twentieth century, in an era when the general outlines of our inherited culture are still recognizable; yet it does not follow that our children or our grandchildren, in the twenty-first century, will retain a great part of that old culture."

Russell Kirk

Much has happened in the twenty years since Kirk wrote those words. Certainly the moral and ethical decay is evident to anyone who can see. But the culture has also experienced a broader intellectual decay as many rewrite history to fit the demands of their ideologies. The European Union, in a remarkable display of intentional ignorance, has dismissed the role of Christianity, and especially Catholicism, in the development of European civilization. And here in the United States religious freedom, once thought to be the most fundamental of our freedoms, is under constant attack. Enshrined in our Bill of Rights as the first and foremost right of the people, it is now treated as meaningless by those who hold positions of power thanks to that same Constitution. Yes, the dwarfs still refuse to climb onto the shoulders of the giants who went before them.

Of course, this is all just symptomatic of the disintegration of Western Civilization. If the foundational elements of a civilization are tossed aside, if the cult is excised from the culture, the civilization can do nothing but crumble. When and how this will happen is anyone's guess. Will it occur with a whimper or a bang? Will it happen tomorrow or a century from now? I certainly don't know. But because our Christian faith is universal, unattached to any civilization or culture, I know it will survive and flourish until the end of time. 

Instead of worrying about the future, or trying to predict it, perhaps we should simply echo the prayer at the very end of Sacred Scripture: "Come, Lord Jesus!" [Rev 22:20]

Worldwide Persecution of Christians

Open Doors has published its latest World Watch List of the fifty countries with the worst records of Christian persecution. As you might expect North Korea's brutal communist regime once again tops the list, as it has for the past dozen years. And although it is joined on the list by a few other communist states (Vietnam, Laos, and China), the vast majority of nations on the list are Islamic nations. In some countries -- for example in the African nations of Kenya, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, and Tanzania -- the large Christian population is persecuted not so much by the government as by Islamist terrorist groups. India is also listed because of the deadly persecution of its Christian population by Hindu fundamentalists. Christians in Myanmar, a nation still ruled by a communist government, suffer persecution by both the government and Buddhist extremists. Buddhists are also largely responsible for the persecution of Christians in Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Colombia, because of the ongoing conflict with the FARC rebels, is the only nation in the Western Hemisphere among the top-fifty.

It is particularly disturbing to note that Iraq and Afghanistan, the two nations for which we have spent so much treasure and spilled so much American blood are listed among the top five.

I've included the list of 50 nations below. Islamic states and those with a majority Muslim population are listed in boldface type. These represent 35 or the 50 nations listed. I suggest visiting the site. The world map provided there is especially telling.

1. North Korea
2. Somalia
3. Syria
4. Iraq
5. Afghanistan
6. Saudi Arabia
7. Maldives
8. Pakistan
9. Iran
10. Yemen
11. Sudan
12. Eritrea
13. Libya
14. Nigeria
15. Uzbekistan
16. Central African Republic
17. Ethiopia
18. Vietnam
19. Qatar
20. Turkmenistan
21. Laos
22. Egypt
23. Myanmar (Burma)
24. Brunei
25. Colombia
26. Jordan
27. Oman
28. India
29. Sri Lanka
30. Tunisia
31. Bhutan
32. Algeria
33. Mali
34. Palestinian Territories
35. United Arab Emirates
36. Mauritania
37. China
38. Kuwait
39. Kazakhstan
40. Malaysia
41. Bahrain
42. Comoros
43. Kenya
44. Morocco
45. Tajikistan
46. Djibouti
47. Indonesia
48. Bangladesh
49. Tanzania
50. Niger

Fogging the Looking Glass

I grew up in the fifties and the early sixties. It was actually quite a wonderful time to come of age, and I've always felt a bit sorry for those only a few years younger who had to navigate their way as adolescents through the turmoil and the stupidity of the late sixties and the decade that followed.

From 1962 to 1967 I was a student at Georgetown University for one year and then at the Naval Academy for four more. After graduation I spent almost 18 months as a student Navy pilot in Pensacola. Dear Diane and I were married in late 1968 and I was then assigned to my first squadron in San Diego which I joined in 1969.

It was a busy time. Still in our twenties, we considered ourselves adults and lived adult lives. We were not the spoiled, rebellious children who despised their country while living off the largesse of working parents. Although my involvement in the war in Vietnam was minimal and certainly nothing heroic, I willingly flew into harm's way because it was my duty to do so and because I believed we had an obligation to defend an ally from the predations of totalitarian, atheistic communism. I considered our military involvement in Vietnam to be honorable -- and still do -- but I also believe it was a war foolishly waged by incompetent politicians of both parties who believed they were military strategists and by generals and admirals who acted like politicians. I blame them all for the deaths of so many friends. Throughout it all, or perhaps because of it all, I kept my faith.

It's that faith that keeps me going today by helping me place all the world's happenings in perspective. Even in the midst of rapid societal decline, I find myself laughing at the insanity that so many take so very seriously. For example, every so often I encounter odd stories in the news, particularly stories about religion, that amaze me. I realize I shouldn't be amazed since the world has become very odd indeed, but I can't help myself. I suppose my amazement stems from my upbringing in what can only be described as a fairly stable family environment at a time when it was normal to have faith, when virtue was prized, and when most people accepted that sin was real.

Here's a sampling of some recent stories that caught my eye:

Jesus Mentally Ill? The Church of England continues to surprise. It seems they prepared a suggested sermon for Anglican clerics who want to address mental illness and the stigma sometimes associated with it. The proposed sermon names John the Baptist, St.Francis of Assisi, St. Paul, and even Jesus as people who may well have suffered from mental illness. This just confirms what so many in our society now believe: Christians are obviously crazy. Read more here, if you can stomach it.

President as Crucified Lord and Savior? These two stories absolutely floored me. I realize that those who like the president are somewhat prone to hyperbole, but one can take such rhetorical emphasis to the extreme and beyond. Perhaps the more disturbing of the two stories relates to a painting, "The Truth", by Boston artist Michael D'Antuono and currently on display at Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery. The painting depicts President Obama standing in front of his presidential seal with his arms outstretched and wearing a crown of thorns. See below...

 You can read more about this remarkable piece of art here.

The second and similar story is almost as disturbing and relates to actor Jamie Foxx, who at the Soul Train Music Awards made a rather curious and blasphemous statement when he said, "First of all, give an honor to God and our lord and savior Barack Obama..." You can read more about it here. I've included a video below...

The Holy Family as an Alternative Lifestyle. MSNBC offers its audience a steady stream of surprising commentary. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving MSNBC weekend anchor Melissa Harris-Perry, in an attempt to provide examples of alternative family lifestyles that should be cherished by our society, used the Holy Family as an example when she stated that “even Jesus was born to an un-wed mom and raised by a doting stepfather.” Wow!

You can check out her comments by viewing the video here.

Islamists Just Love Killing Jews. Hamas...you know, that's the terrorist organization that the Gaza Palestinians voted into power a few years ago. (Way to go, Palestinians!!) Hamas is the same peace-loving group that began the recent conflict by launching hundreds of deadly rockets into Israel because...well, just because they wanted to kill as many Jews as possible.They're also the same terrorist organization that the new Muslim Brotherhood dominated government of Egypt supports 100%. Now, just in case you think I exaggerate, here's what their official TV station had to say on the subject of Israel and its Jewish citizens:

“Bless [Hamas'] Al-Qassam men, guardians of Palestine. Oh pride of Salah Shahada, oh wisdom of Immad [Aqel] (Hamas leaders killed by Israel), [Oh] the explosives of [Yahya] Ayyash, (Hamas bomb maker killed by Israel), Martyrdom, [oh] lovers of the trigger: Killing the occupiers is worship that Allah made into law. (Arabic text: “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah”). Arise, oh determined men. The color of [the Martyr's] blood protects the land. Oh masked one wearing a keffiyeh (Arab head scarf), terrifying the Jews…call out in Zionism’s face: ‘Muhammad’s army has begun to return.’”

Don't you just love it? Killing Jews becomes an act of worship. And you wonder why so many Muslim leaders were avid allies of Hitler's Nazi Germany during World War Two. See the video below:

I think that's enough for today. Any more and I might have to scream. My neighbors wouldn't understand.

Oh, yes, Dear Diane and I leave soon for a brief vacation -- visiting friends and a Caribbean cruise. I've already packed the books I intend to read while sitting in my deck chair.

Pax et bonum.

Decadence and Decline

The American people have spoken and, as my late brother once cynically remarked, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American voter." It would seem his cynicism has been borne out by yesterday's election.

As you have probably guessed, I am not happy with the results. My displeasure, however, has less to do with who won or lost in particular elections than the direction these results are taking our society and the unexpected speed of that movement.

To be blunt, I honestly believe Western civilization is nearing its total collapse. It's been coming for some time but I never expected to be alive when it finally happened. Europe, of course, has led the way and only the morally blind cannot see the depth of its decline. I am aware, too, that our nation must eventually go the way of every other nation. Original sin pretty much guarantees that. But I had optimistically held out the hope that the United States of America would last longer than most, that it would rediscover its uniqueness, that its people would somehow reclaim its birthright, that we would defy history and the forces of evil and bring about a rebirth of freedom. Alas, this is not to be. We have, I believe, passed a societal point of no return.

As a nation we seem to have fallen prey to democracy's fatal weakness: the awareness by the majority that they can bleed the minority with impunity. Once politicians grasp this, they use their considerable powers, especially the power of taxation, to aid their friends and harm their foes. Our founding fathers hoped to prevent this by means of a Constitution that would protect the rights of all, include checks and balances, and guarantee separation of powers. What they didn't foresee was: (1) a judiciary that would, in effect, rewrite the Constitution, adapting it to the prevailing zeitgeist; (2) an executive that would increasingly usurp the powers of the legislature; and (3) a weakened legislature that would allow this to happen. When the collapse will occur, I cannot predict, but it will occur, and soon enough.

This modern Western civilization of ours came to be through Christianity, but once its religious foundation crumbles it will cease to exist as a civilization. No civilization can survive when the core values that gave it purpose have disappeared. And Western man cannot survive in the shell of a civilization deprived of these values, its Christian underpinnings. These values are rapidly disappearing in the face of internal decay and corruption. Civilization grows closer to barbarism as it drifts father away from Christianity. Evidence of this can be seen in Western Europe where Christianity is now the faith of only a small minority and consequently is discounted as irrelevant by the politically powerful. These same worldly forces are not content to ignore the remnants of our civilization but have turned on Christianity and its values in an inexplicable suicidal attack. We are now witnessing much the same here in our own country. And, believe me, the signs cannot be dismissed.

Only the most brutal society will slaughter its children by the millions simply because they are inconvenient.

Only the most self-centered society will neither honor its elderly nor aid its infirm, preferring instead to find ways to eliminate them through "managed health care".

Only the most decadent society will equate sodomy with marriage.

Only the most corrupt society will pile up astronomical amounts of debt onto future generations merely to satisfy its own immediate wants.

Only the most faithless society will allow its government to undermine our nation's most cherished freedom, the people's free exercise of their religious beliefs.

The citizens of our nation have reelected a man who sees no evil in either abortion or infanticide, no problem with the continuing destruction of our free-market economy, and no contradiction in same-sex marriage. He bows to those who despise us and shows disdain for our allies. He is a man of his time, a man of our times, a man so certain he is right that he will never admit to being wrong. And he is, once again, our president.

Who's to blame for all this? We all are, along with those who came before us. Too often we stood by silently and watched as our citizenry slid into the decadence that surrounds us. Although I dislike doing so, I assign much of the blame to our American Catholic bishops whose reaction to all this was too little, too late. For years they said little and did less when Catholic politicians screamed their rejection of Church teaching from their bully pulpits in Congress and governors' mansions. Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo,  John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Martin O'Malley...these and too many other Catholic politicians have set an example that millions of uncatechized Catholics have followed. If it's okay for them, it must be okay for me. As one educated layman said to me a few years ago, "My pastor told me it would be sinful to vote against a candidate just because he's pro-choice or favors gay marriage." Comments like that make one wonder about the involvement of that pastor's bishop.

But perhaps this will wake up our bishops, our clergy, and our laity, and turn them into a holy remnant seeking God's will in their lives. Maybe it's exactly what we need. As my pastor said this morning, "It seems we all have a lot of work to do." He's right. The world is littered with so much dirt and squalor and hatred. Millions devote their lives only to the aimless and irresponsible pursuit of pleasure. These are the obvious symptoms of internal decay and corruption, and God will probably allow a purging. As Evelyn Waugh once wrote [Vile Bodies, 1930], there is "a radical instability in our whole world-order, and soon we shall be walking into the jaws of destruction." But we must always remember: even if our entire civilization crumbles around us, the Church will remain.This was promised us.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A New France...or the End of France?

While reading several reports out of Europe on the recent election of France's new president, socialist Francois Hollande, I came across some photographs of the post-election celebrations at La Bastille Plaza in Paris. In the first photo below I couldn't help but notice that the victors are waving lots of flags, but could spot only one French flag. There are flags from Palestine, Turkey, Syria, Algeria, and Morocco. There's even a European Union flag along with a number of unrecognizable flags that probably represent trade unions and other organizations. The sole French flag is in the lower right corner. It would seem, then, that a large percentage of those celebrating Hollande's victory were Muslims who apparently express little loyalty toward their adoptive country.

One published analysis of the election results stated two million Muslims voted in the election, and over 90% of them voted for Hollande. This was more than enough to ensure Hollande's victory over Sarkozy. (See this article in the Business Insider.)

I searched for other photos of the celebrations just to make sure the above photo wasn't an aberration, and I found another (below) and, once again, I could spot only one French flag, this time a small one in the upper right corner.

In addition to the overwhelming support he received from Muslims, Hollande also received 70% of the vote of those who consider themselves irreligious. On the other hand, nearly 80% of practicing Catholics voted for Sarkozy. And a significant majority of French Jews, unlike American Jews who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, also voted for Sarkozy. This no doubt stems from the European left's overt antisemitism and hostility toward Israel.

I don't usually make predictions when it comes to things political, but these election results are less political than they are cultural. With the socialists now in power -- and if there's one thing the left knows how to do it's wield power -- they will strive mightily to maintain that power. Since the Muslim vote handed him the election, Hollande will do what is necessary to keep the growing Muslim community on his side. If he doesn't, he risks a violent backlash that could lead to a level of unrest approaching civil war.

Unfortunately for Hollande, he's a socialist and his economic policies will do nothing but further damage the nation's already sick economy. All the bones he tosses to the Muslim community will mean nothing when unemployment soars and the French welfare state no longer has the money to pay for all the benefits much of the populace has come to expect. As the indomitable Maggie Thatcher once said, "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."  When that happens, the wealthy will leave the country and take their wealth with them, the middle class working people will be dumbstruck wondering what has happened to their country, and the mobs will hit the streets. And mobs are never a good thing.

So...any way you look at it, France seems destined to encounter a violent future, and I think it will happen sooner rather than later.

France may have the largest Muslim population in Europe but it's not unique, and the left has begun to recognize that Europe's Muslims generally support candidates on the left. This will no doubt continue until that population reaches a level where Muslims can field their own candidates in nationwide elections, and win. When that occurs, they will discard the secular left and embrace an Islamic future, and Europe will no longer be Europe. Here's a link to an article addressing this: Muslim Voters Change Europe.

It's all very interesting, and symptomatic of Europe's rejection of its Christian roots and the faith of its fathers. Only by reclaiming and living that faith can Europe hope to reverse the current trend and save itself.