CC#24--The End of Christendom, What's Next?!

50 years after the end of Christendom, what's next?

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to this Catholic Corner. We haven't done a Catholic Corner in a while, so I thought we would dust off that show template and bring it back, because you guys have like these types of episodes, at least based on the feedback. That is what you tell me. Now, if you're here, if you're new here, rather, you might be asking what in the world is the Catholic Corner? Well, first of all, thank you for joining us. We definitely appreciate you being here and, to answer your question, the Catholic Corner started roughly a year ago when most of us with a biblical worldview, and predominantly most of us who are practicing Catholics and Christians, we took a look around the world and said hey, bro, this ain't Christendom. I don't know what world this is, but this culture in this world, this ain't Christendom. And then we formulated reasons as to why all this has been happening to us and to our country. Us meaning faith believers and, obviously, people of goodwill, people following, who want to follow a Judeo-Christian worldview and who are trying to practice the faith. They keep asking the overarching question why all of this is happening to our country, and the answer was that we came up with is many of us have been putting our faith and our values in the corner. In the corner, so to speak, and not speaking out about it Anything. Not speaking out about anything, essentially putting our faith in the corner as if it's a decorative piece only to be shared when people come over to the house or such. Essentially not walking the walk and sometimes not talking to talk. Therefore, one year ago we started these Catholic Corner episodes to remind us to get our faith out of the corner, to live that faith, to talk about that faith, to walk with the Lord, jesus Christ and people of goodwill, to make a better society here and ultimately, to be a people on mission. That mission is to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone with ears to hear and eyes to see. Now, right away. That will not be everybody. Why? Because even in our Lord's day, not everyone had eyes to see or ears to hear that true God made man was walking in their midst. So too, in our own day and age that will be the case. So, to be clear, we will give the good news and we will talk about faith in light of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer. But we will not try to please everybody here. That is not our mission. Now, that was a quick summary of what the Catholic Corner is and speaking of Christendom and people on mission, that's a good segue to introduce our first poll quote for our first book today. And with that let's go to the book. In 1974, archbishop Fulton Sheen said in a conference quote we are at the end of Christendom, not of Christianity, not of the church, but of Christendom. Now, what is meant by Christendom? Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending. We have seen it die. But he went on to say these are great and wonderful days in which to be alive. It is not a gloomy picture. It is a picture of the church in the midst of increasing opposition from the world and therefore, live your lives in full consciousness of this hour of testing and rally close to the heart of Christ. This hour of testing calls us to recover for our age the apostolic mindset and the bright hope of those first Christians of the Seneca. Now this quote comes to us from a great little book I have been reading from my spiritual reading, titled From Christendom to the Apostolic Mission Pastoral strategies for an apostolic age, put out by the folks at the University of Mary. This book has been a very good read. There's wonderful good stuff in it and we would have to agree that certainly Fulton Sheen was right. In 1974, at the end of Christendom was here and I really would say we've probably been running on fumes since probably 2001. At least that's when I began benchmarking a great turning with the attacks of 9-11. We had up until then been living on the fumes of Christendom just coasting as a society. Previous to 1974 and going all the way back to the 1950s, america was overwhelmingly a Christian country with a firm grounding in Western civilization society. It was imbued with a Judeo-Christian culture all around it. It was in the air you breathe, it was in the stuff you read, it was in the way people talked and interacted, how they conducted themselves, and going all the way back to our founding. Just picture this Picture the 17th century and a group of English Puritans are setting sail for the New World. They're seeking religious freedom, a place where they can practice their Christian faith without interference. This is the beginning of America's Judeo-Christian heritage and it's going to have a profound impact on the nation's culture and values for the next 300 to 400 years. The influence of Christianity can be seen in the beliefs of America's founding fathers, for instance. Did you know that many of them were deeply religious men? Men like George Washington and John Adams believed in the moral teachings of Christianity and saw them as essential for a just society. First up, george Washington. Did you know that he was Anglican? That's right. While he was rather private about his faith, it's clear that his religious beliefs played a significant role in his life. For instance, during the Revolutionary War, washington would often attend church services with the troops, demonstrating his commitment to his faith. Never hear about that, do you? But it wasn't just his personal devotion. Washington's faith influenced his political decisions just as well. He believed in the moral teachings of Christianity and saw them as essential for a just society. Even his farewell address highlighted the importance of religion and morality in public life. He certainly led by example. And now we can turn to John Adams. Like Washington, adams was deeply religious. He was a humanitarian Christian, so he didn't believe in exactly Orthodox Christianity, but he believed strongly in the moral teachings. In fact, he once said our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. And it wasn't just about politics. With him, both Washington and Adams faced challenges due to the intersection of politics and religion. For instance, during Adams presidency, he faced criticism for his support of a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer A clear demonstration of the tensions between religion and politics during that time period. And it wasn't just about his personal beliefs. These principles were integrated into the country's governing structure, our founding documents, the declaration of independence, for instance, speaks of unalienable rights endowed by our creator. Isn't it amazing to see how these ideas have shaped America's political landscape? And that influence of Christianity didn't stop a politics like we talked about. It permeated every aspect of American life, shaped its art, its literature, even its commercial projects. Think about the beautiful churches that dot across our country and the moral themes explored in classic American literature. And what about Western civilization's culture? Well, it's deeply rooted and influenced by Judeo-Christian values. Concepts like human rights, the rule of law, individual freedom All these have the roots in Christian teachings. These ideas have had a profound impact on American society, shaping its values and its ideals. Now we'll certainly explore these themes and further Catholic corners, but for now, let's come back to our book, because let's continue to talk about this end of Christendom and what it means. We are dealing with the first culture in history that was once deeply Christian but that, by a slow and thorough process, has been consciously ridding itself of its Christian basis. Our society is full of many, including those baptized and raised with some exposure to the faith, who believe that they have seen enough of Christianity to see that it has little to offer them. We are therefore not attempting to make converts from pagans. We are attempting to bring back to the church those knowingly or unknowingly in the grasp of apostasy, a different and more difficult challenge. C S Lewis once described this difference as that between a young man wooing a young maiden and a man winning a cynical divorcee back to her previous marriage. The situation is made yet more complex in that many who have abandoned Christianity have embraced an entirely different understanding of the world, but they still call themselves Christians. Moreover, we are in the midst of a technological revolution that has radically altered the way people live and appears to hold in store yet more far-reaching effects on human life. This change goes much deeper than the obvious differences in the details of physical existence Automobiles instead of horses, or electric light, and central heating instead of hearth and candle, telephones and televisions and computers are regular features of life. The enormous changes these and other technological developments have brought about in the daily organization of life has had its impact on all aspects of the human personality and on all social relationships and ways that are probably too profound to entirely comprehend. Our view of ourselves, of the natural world, of our families, our work, our mental and emotional furniture, our hopes for this life, all have undergone a radical change. The elements and instruments of this change are well known Developments in transportation and information, communication technologies and entertainment, media and manufacturing have so changed our way of being that a person who lived a hundred years ago was closer, both in modes of consciousness and in the daily rhythms of life, to the time of Christ than to our own. And here's the key nugget of wisdom. Technological development has also brought about an attack, often unwittingly, on human nature itself. Longstanding assumptions about what it means to be human are under siege. Yes, the attacks on human nature itself are under siege. We can see what once was so basic, so ordinary. It was almost assumed that there are only two sexes, male and female. But now that is a progressive and radical notion which many will want to object to, for many people carrying their thoughts and in their minds nowadays that there can be whatever number of genders you want to create. You think it up and it will exist. Perhaps your number is 53 or 92 or 115, all with a variety of definitions. Christians even will say this stuff. They will say that there can be any number of genders. The gender is a social construct. Now, christians believe in the holiness of Scripture. Scripture tells us that God created male and female. There is no ambiguity about that. To say otherwise is simply to say something false. Now that notion is in jeopardy. For the last 200, 250 years, there has been an assault on truth. There is no truth. Something is relative. So what you say is false cannot be false because there is no truth. And if there is no truth, then nothing can be false because nothing can be true. So where does that leave us? Well, father Murray, father Gerald Murray had written a book about a year ago called Calming the Storm, and in it he addresses this gender ideology question. Let's go to that book to find some perspective. The question is, it does seem that many problems we face today boil down to man claiming for himself the right to decide the nature of things. Father Murray answers exactly, and the perfect example is gender ideology. The idea is that I'm going to treat something in a certain way because that's the way I think it should be. I'm going to determine that something is this way and if you disagree with me, then you are a hateful person who has to be coerced and somehow constrained or even cancelled. This is gender ideology, fascism that we're going through today. Were you to travel to a certain region and you were instructed that Mrs Jones is now Mr Jones and if you ever call her she, you're going to be fired or fined or perhaps arrested. That's coercive use of power in order to enforce an imaginary worldview which is, of course, false. It's really a pathological view that is now being elevated to a legal status in our country. Gender ideology is just one example of this flight from reality. The same can be seen in the case of abortion. It's not a baby because I don't want it to be. The same is true for some so-called same sex marriage. It's a marriage because I want it to be a marriage. No, it isn't. The same is true for gender nonconformity, the idea that there can be a transgender person somehow who says he's a male but really is biologically female, or the idea that something beyond male or female, non-binary, that there is something beyond male and female, as the notion of non-binary indicates. It's all a denial of reality and a failure to make proper use of the intellect to conform one's thinking to what is true. Now, speaking of what is true, a little side note here. Catholics and Christians in the state of Ohio, you have two important votes coming up First vote on August 8th 2023 and then a November 7th 2023 vote on an extreme abortion ballot initiative. But on August 8th, ohioans, I'm going to urge you to vote yes to keep Ohio's constitution safe and help life-affirming medicine thrive. A yes vote would protect our Ohio constitution by raising the threshold to amend the constitution to a 60% plus one. It's currently at the very low bar of 50%. Just one 60% just one would actually get us in line with most other states around the country and that would help to secure a pro-life and pro-family culture in our state. And also, a yes vote would prevent outside groups who support abortion and assisted suicide, and especially drug legalization, from mobilizing outside money in special interest, and that's what they do. There's a lot of outside money pouring into the state of Ohio currently, and especially tons of special interest, because they want to enshrine the culture of death in our state through deception. And finally, a yes vote in August, just next week, would be consistent with all of our Catholic bishops, our Catholic priests and our Catholic faithful that have been encouraged to live out the moral obligation and to vote, and to vote in a way that aligns with the moral truth of the gospel and that references the Catechism, points 2239 and 2240. Now, just to continue on. It doesn't stop in August. In November, we do have a extremely important vote and that's to vote no on this extreme abortion ballot initiative. This initiative would legalize abortion to the ninth month of pregnancy After well after the baby can feel pain, and nullify parental consent laws. It pushes us radically past the anti science tragedy that was Roe v Wade. It actually a vote no on this radical abortion initiative because it deceptively mentions protecting quote unquote contraception, fertility treatment and continuing one's own pregnancy and miscarriage care, though there's no threats exist in our state to any of these. Life performing medical care is already available to every woman in our state, so none of those currently are being taken away. It's a deceptive language in the ballot initiative. We recommend to vote no as well because it's anti woman. This initiative fails to recognize the dignity of women and mothers. They don't even use the words mother or woman in their ballot language. It's also deceptive because it would erase 50 years of pro life legislative and judicial victories in our state. It would make us an abortion sanctuary state, along with California and Michigan, two states that have radical, radical notions of sanctuary status. Finally, the vote no is completely anti science. It contradicts sound science and medicine, which has unequivocally acknowledged the humanity of the unborn child. So I would urge you to vote no in November. Vote yes to increase our constitution to 60 plus one. If you're in the state of Ohio, and if you're outside the state of Ohio, I ask for your prayers. As John Paul II told us in Evangelium vitae in 1995, it is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all other unalienable rights of the individuals are founded and from which they develop. Only the respect for life can be the foundation and the guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace. So again, vote yes in August, august 8th, get out and vote in the state of Ohio and vote no in November, on August or on November 7th. Now getting back to our book which we are covering, which is from Christendom to Apostolic Mission Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age. Again, it's put out by the folks at the University of Mary. Let's grab one more poll quote, because we're going to talk about the progressive vision that we see all around us, and to be able to combat the enemy, we have to understand and know the enemy. Going back to the book, the modern progressive vision is all around us and cessantly hammered home with all the pervasive power of electronic imagery and consumer affluence. But compared to the one given to us by God, it is a weak and anemic vision. From its beginnings it claims to have been unreal and it has been so weakened by generations of dismal human experience that it can now be sustained only by economic prosperity and the apparent lack of a good alternative. The hope that mankind would be made better has in practice been replaced by the hope that we can build yet faster and more powerful phones and screens. The dreams of a perfected world of justice and freedom are ebbing into vague hopes of biotechnological enhancement of physical powers. Much of the current strength of the modern vision is in its immediacy. It appeals with great skill to the human propensity to be distracted by the sensual and the scene and here's the key point but it offers little of substance to the deepest aspects of the human person. It is intellectually bankrupt and spiritually impoverished. It should not therefore be a source of intimidation or anxiety for Christians who have a much more compelling way to understand the world and a much richer life to experience and to offer our fellow pilgrims in this world. It is not coincidental that so much of the entertainment eagerly pursued by the young minds among us involves epic dramas, cosmic battles among powerful spiritual forces for good and evil. That demand of the young hero or heroine extraordinary character, commitment and sacrifice for the saving of the world, with a progressive vision tossed out the door, has snuck back in in a mutilated form through the window. This should not be a surprise to us. Those who have been deprived of the real thing will grope after pale substitutes. The Holy Spirit is at work in every age or is included. If it is true, as we are assured by St Paul, that grace is more present the more that evil abounds, we might expect an especially abundant action of the Holy Spirit in our own time. Our task is to understand the age and we have been given to trace it out with the Holy Spirit and how it is working through it, and to seize the adventure of cooperating with Him. May we be given the wisdom and the courage to rise to the challenge of this new apostolic age, of this coming upon us, and to prove faithful stewards and a generation of the saving message in the liberating life given to us by Jesus Christ. And so, by believing folks and those folks following and living a life through the worldview lens of Jesus Christ and the Judeo-Christian worldview, they will have solace in the words that St Paul reassured us in that quote just now where sin happens, grace happens all the more. And again, our book is from Christendom to the Apostolic Mission Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age, and it is written by the folks at the University of Mary. So, to answer that question, the end of Christendom has happened. What's next? Well, what's next is Christians begin to live their faith again, and a revival and a renewal that follows that of Romans 5, where sin happens, grace happens all the more. There has been difficult times throughout the history of the church and there will continue to be difficult times. These are the times in which we live, these are the times in which our Lord has placed us, and these are the times in which we will rise to the occasion. So let us close with the great words of my hero, the saint that I follow, st John Paul II. Let's pull these words from his Apostolic letter at the beginning of the new century, in the year 2000. This quote is taken from paragraph 58 of that letter, where he says Let us go forward in hope. A new millennium is opening before the church, like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying on the help of Christ, the Son of God, who became incarnate 2,000 years ago out of love for humanity. Is that work? Even today, we need discerning eyes to see this and, above all, a generous heart to become the instruments of his work. Amen, let us pray today to become those good and willing instruments of his work, with generous hearts and eyes to see and ears to hear. The world is quickly becoming a dark, dark place as we look out at the horizon. But our Lord is the light of the world we will walk in the light of the world.

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