Time for Christians to Unplug from Our Secular Culture

Crisis Magazine ^ | October 20, 2016 | Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

[Mr. Douglas]

A BIG help for me was dumping TV in 1997. One thing it did that I didn’t see coming was skewer my consumerism. It’s a LOT cheaper living without TV. But, more importantly, you buy things you truly need or want, rather than things for which you’ve been given a false appetite.

[Alberta's Child]

They’ve done so well that by now many of us Catholics are largely assimilated to, and digested by, a culture that bleaches out strong religious convictions in the name of liberal tolerance and dulls our longings for the supernatural with a river of practical atheism in the form of consumer goods.

This is the money quote right here.

I've spent a good part of my adult life walking a fine line between living in this world and trying to detach myself form it. I gave up TV a long time ago, and I wouldn't have the internet if I didn't need it for work.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[mjp]

Here’s another example: A theologian in my own diocese recently listed “inclusivity” as one of the core messages of Vatican II. Yet to my knowledge, that word “inclusivity” didn’t exist in the 1960s and appears nowhere in the council documents.

This a response to the charge by John Dewey and other secular humanists that a democratic church must include believer and unbeliever to be compatible with the ideals of democracy.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

Thanks for posting.

[knarf]

A very long seed planted to disengage from voting .. imo.

I see more of these, Catholic and Protestant, cropping up as we near November 8th.

Come the 9th, religion will no longer be a political topic.

[bella1]

“A very long seed planted to disengage from voting .. imo.”

I did not see it that way at all. If it full of truths that make us examine our hearts to see where our loyalty truly lies, and I say this as a Protestant.

[longfellowsmuse]

This was excellent. Thanks for posting. Not being dragged into the cultural rot and keeping your children out of it is hard, but it is the only way a family can survive spiritually.

[bella1]

“In Philadelphia I’m struck by how many women I now see on the street wearing the hijab or even the burqa. Some of my friends are annoyed by that kind of “in your face” Islam. But I understand it. The hijab and the burqa say two important things in a morally confused culture: “I’m not sexually available;” and “I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.”

This did strike at my heart as an indictment against the “Christian” culture, what is left of it anyway. Except for the Amish, I would have to agree with this. Modern-day Christians...men and women... are not known for their sexual morality. Far from it. In our church we just had, yet again, another out of wedlock birth. I'm sure there will be a baby shower congratulating her any day now.

[knarf]

If, after examination, you can spiritually question or hesitate to participate in the electoral process, as a non-Catholic, not protesting a thing, I would agree to being critical of this piece.

[bella1]

Again, I did not see it that way, rather a poke at our hypocrisy on how we choose who to vote for and our reasoning why. And yes, I will be voting.

[Arthur McGowan]

The bishops have been slobbering all over pro-abortion Democrats and treating pro-lifers like lepers for 45 years—and NOW Chaput is throwing in the towel.

[mdmathis6]

“Time for Christians to Unplug from Our Secular Culture”

Translation: Revelation 18 Then I heard another voice from heaven say,

“Come out of that city, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins.
Then you will not suffer any of the terrible punishment she will get.

5
That city’s sins are piled up as high as heaven.
God has not forgotten the wrongs she has done.

6
Give that city the same as she gave to others.
Pay her back twice as much as she did.
Prepare wine for her that is twice as strong
as the wine she prepared for others.

7
She gave herself much glory and rich living.
Give her that much suffering and sadness.
She says to herself, ‘I am a queen sitting on my throne.
I am not a widow;
I will never be sad.’

8
So in one day she will suffer
great hunger, mourning, and death.
She will be destroyed by fire,

[Boogieman]

“We can too easily forget that Mary is also the woman clothed in the sun who crushes the head of the serpent”

No, she isn’t. The one who crushes the head of the serpent is the seed of Eve, as stated in Genesis 3, and that seed is Jesus Christ. The woman clothed in the sun (who is described with the prophetic symbols of Israel from the Old Testament), runs and hides from the dragon, she never fights him. Just as it is stated in Genesis, it is her seed, Jesus Christ, who destroys the dragon in Revelation as well.

[Biggirl]

Excellent article. Also we Christians and Catholics must not only get back with the Bible but also not be afraid to proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus.

Also if I am not mistaken, Mr. Trump is a or baby Christian.

[Scrambler Bob]

“I’m not sexually available;” and “I belong to a community different and separate from you and your obsessions.”
= = =

“And I may have a bomb under here. If not now, in the future. And that is my ultimate reason for existence.”

[Petrosius]

I do not think Archbishop Chaput is saying that we need to disengage from the electoral process. Rather, we need to disengage from the culture and its values, and reassert what it means to be Christian. This would mean that we should reject those politicians who present themselves as Catholic but as so in name only. Indeed, rather than withdrawing from politics we need to engage in it and fight for Christian principles.

[Arthur McGowan]

He published a column on August 12 in which he said he’s not voting for either candidate.

That’s a half-vote for Hillary. And it’s a mortal sin.

[ExGeeEye]

Every time Christians abandon a portion of the battlespace for being insufficiently holy, the Enemy occupies it and turns it into a totally un-holy base of operations from which to invade more territory.

Every time.

Eventually, our churches come under direct-- spiritual-- assault. Some might say this has already happened. I would say, historically, it has happened a lot, is happening now, and in the Last Days will become very widespread.

What is the solution?

Ephesians 6:12-- For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

1 John 4:4-- Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

We make the battlespace holy by occupying it. We do not surrender to the Enemy.

"Our secular culture" is just that. Ours, belonging to us: do not surrender it. Secular, everything we do that is not ceremonial worship. Our work, our play, our enjoyment of God's creation and man's invention-- done in honor to God, it is rendered holy by our touch. Culture, yes, we have a culture, and we will always have a culture, that's what happens when you have a significant population. Don't give it up! Indeed, seek to take and hold more and more.

A little extra encouragement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwrWUlq7Xk4