Replies

“The spirit of the people appears to be quite down these days. Indeed, de-spiritualization of the public square seems to be a main ambition of those influential cultural elites who are the ideological descendants of Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx & Co. The mainline churches have been extraordinarily incompetent to counter this attack. Rather, they have sought to compromise with "elite opinion" instead of faithfully proclaiming the truths of God and man.”

I say: Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled! [grin]

If ever there was a time to give in to despair, it would have been over thirty years ago. We were faced with an undeniable, though preventable, defeat in Vietnam; Democrats out-numbered Republicans; a Republican President was about to resign in disgrace; our university students were more radicalized than either their faculty or administration; the economy was terrible and promised to become worse (and it did, thanks to a numb-skull Carter Administration); the Supreme Court had just blessed unrestrained abortion; Democrats had complete control of the agenda; it had been ten years since the first clear conservative voice in nearly forty years had suffered a devastating political defeat, and no relief was in sight (does anyone want to claim now that they were certain then that relief was but six years away?); the so-called mainline churches, though beginning their now-obvious decline, were our only powerful spiritual voices and they were determined to turn us all into good little socialists; the Big Three networks and the major newspapers - all Liberal - had a strangle-hold on news reporting; ultra-left advocacy groups were making such a din no other voice could be heard; and Al Gore was years away from inventing the Internet.

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.”

. . . . . Matthew 18:20

What the elites of our society had not counted on is that, where there is a demand, measures will be taken to satisfy the demand. That is not simply an economic principle, it is a principle of human action (see Ludwig von Mises, et al). It may be that some responsive action turns out to be wrong-headed (you mentioned new-ageism), but that action will be punished, not rewarded, and behavior will again be modified. Or, not; and, this is where it sometimes becomes funny.

For instance; the consternation of Democrats at their inability to retain or regain political power. Apparently they cannot connect their behavior to the results they have obtained. But, Democrats don’t seem to be alone in that. It’s been noted, more and more of late, that Republican office-holders, in increasing numbers, are coming to act very much like Democrats. They’ve seen what happened to Democrats, yet they adopt Democrat behavior. Is it just barely conceivable that it isn’t the party that’s the problem so much as it is the political power? (I think it is the party, but the thirst for political power undeniably plays a deadly role as well)

What’s not funny is the Catholic Church. For years the power elites in the Church knew they had a problem with homosexual priests using the Church as cover to screen themselves from the consequences of their sexual predations, yet nothing was done. Now the curse of the dual loss of membership and of priests has brought the Catholic Church to understand the ends do not justify the means (a priesthood had to learn this?) Not only did bad priests drive away members, just as in money, the bad priests drove out good applicants for the priesthood (again, a priesthood had to learn this? - they didn’t know that good must drive out bad, or the reverse will be the consequence?).

It seems apparent that increasing numbers of Christians have heeded the message of Matthew 18:20 and have opted out of the mainline denominations. It must be just as apparent, that this is an interim action, and not the final step in resolving the problem of an inattentive ministry. Surely, the grand ministerial authorities must know they are losing their flock, even if they cannot yet bring themselves to face the prospect. When they finally come to grips with the fact of their declining power, in effect a profound rejection by the majority of their flock, their reaction may, or may not, have a funny element to it. That remains to be seen.

“Personally I think the only way out of this impasse is a major spiritual revival.”

Pesonally, I think you’re right.