Editorial: We Do Not Need Conservativism We Need a Classical Christian Revival

By Deacon Keith Fournier
11/26/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

At a level much deeper than political labels, we are experiencing a clash of worldviews and competing definitions of human freedom

I am afraid we will be fooled again if, after this election, we buy the idea that conservatism is the solution to what is needed in this Nation - and in the West. The collapse of Western civilization will not be remedied by conservativism. Political movements alone are inadequate for the task.

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WASHINGTON,DC (Catholic Online) - In the aftermath of the US Presidential election the Monday morning quarterbacks are out in full force. I write to address a deeper concern. We must be wary of any attempt to equate a political label with being a Christian - including the label conservative.

Make no mistake, I am not a political liberal. Nor am I what is masquerading as a political progressive these days. I have long contended that there is nothing progressive about contemporary political progressives.

The judicial manufacture of a right to reach into wombs and kill our youngest neighbors is not progressive. Judicial and legislative efforts to give practicing homosexual paramours equal legal status to marriage is not progressive.

Denying the Right to the Free Exercise of Religion, the "First Freedom" in the American tradition, is not progressive. It is a threat to the very foundation of all of our freedoms.

Catholic Christians know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ demands a response which goes beyond the walls of our Church buildings. We are our brother and sister's keeper. We do not reach out to people in need because they are Catholic, we reach out to people in need because we are Catholic.

No HHS regulation will compel us to violate our deeply held religious beliefs. Neither can a Presidential administration compel us to stop caring for the poor, the sick and the needy. Clearly, the next few months are leading to an historic Church/State showdown in the United States of America.

At a level much deeper than political labels, we are experiencing a clash of worldviews and competing definitions of human freedom, human flourishing, human progress and what constitutes a truly just and human social order. The positions espoused - and lifestyles affirmed - as progressive by some using the term as a political label turn the clock back on progress.

I will soon be 58 years old. In some ways I am still just an aging "former hippie" whose rejection of the misguided values of a consumerist, secularist, narcissistic, hedonist, instrumentalist and nihilist culture led me to re-embrace the Catholic Christian faith as the true alternative culture when I was a much younger man.

Recently, while in line at Starbucks for coffee, I heard a young couple comment on a CD offered for sale on the counter rack. It featured the best hits of the rock group "The Who", taken from their long musical career. The cover was a photo of the Who I remembered from when I first began listening to them.

The young man said to his girlfriend, "can you believe that is the Who. I can't believe they looked like that." I smiled and chimed in, "That's them, I remember it well". We all smiled. However, as I left with my coffee I recalled the words from one of their songs which haunts me these days, "We don�t get Fooled Again."

Crippled by the lies of the culture of death and indoctrinated by what Pope Benedict XVI rightly called a "Dictatorship of Relativism", we need much more. We do not need a conservative movement we need a classical Christian revival.

It was the Christian Church that gave the West its foundational conviction that every human person has dignity because we are all created in the Image of God. From that foundation came the bedrock belief that we all possess fundamental human rights which are endowed upon us by the God who created us.

These rights are not given by any Civil Government - and they cannot be taken away by any civil government. These rights must be recognized by Civil Government or it is an unjust government.

The American founders carried this vision into the experiment in ordered liberty called the United States of America. However, they did not come up with this ennobling and enabling vision on their own. They received it from the treasury of Western civilization once called Christendom.

It is only a recovery of the Jewish and Christian vision of the dignity of every human person, the primacy of true marriage and the family and the acknowledgement of the existence of normative, fundamental moral truths which can be known by all - and should govern our life together - which will guarantee the future of Western civilization.

These truths are revealed by the Natural Law and knowable through the exercise of right reason. They fueled our understanding of a just sociey. They ensured our survival against totalitarianism of every ilk and every political persuasion.

When ...

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1 - 10 of 61 Comments

judy claar
6 months ago
Vance, Thank you. O'Riely said he felt there would be an "unraveling" in the next two years concerning O'bama, and I sure Hope that there is. He is surely Not like Lincoln.(I mention Lincoln here, because some, like to compare the two of them together. Nothing could be farther from the Truth!) Lincoln managed to bring a divided country together....Obama has managed to separate the country...
to the tune that it was during the Civil War. That my friend, is unconscionable! Blessings....
vance
6 months ago
Judy, your posts are spot on. I agree with you about the small handful of Bishops who have come out aggressively against the re-election of Obama and his party of death and deceit. I can tell you that a couple of pastors from my dioceses made a half-hearted attempt to encourage the faithful to do the right thing BUT they fell short when they told the parishioners to Vote Your Conscience. But what does that mean? They would have been more effective had they said, "Vote Your Faith which defends Life of the Unborn, defends Marriage between one man and one woman, and defends Freedom of Religion". The Bishop has said nothing. But don't worry about Rob because he is jazzed that his Dear Leader was re-elected and his Party of Death retained control in the senate. God Bless.
judy claar
6 months ago
Vance & Charlotte Ostermann, The Spirit is working in the USCCB. In Today's Homily: St. James of March, Nov. 28., Fr. mentioned that Cardinal Timothy Dolan told all the bishops, and priests,and lay persons, Anyone who has Anything to do with Preaching the Word, to prayer and contemplation on "Preaching the Word".... " Faith comes through hearing the Word. There must be Word and Example....Else voting would not have been so mindlessly and carelessly."

That was Exactly what I needed to hear! Someone of authority finally came out and said it! And said it to Shepards! And now, I can feel at ease in my thoughts. Know, that my thinking was not, and is not, off the wall!

Usually I pray before I respond. And I like to think the Holy Spirit is working through me. But of course that is not always the case. In the above paragraph, indeed my personality is transparent! Wavering flame that it is. But a flame nonetheless. How warm and comforting it would be to turn back the hands of time to when I was a child at home, lit inside and outside, (by outside, I mean the world as it appeared to me) in warm and secure happy Faith surroundings. (It seemed at that time, everyone was Christian, Catholic or Jewish).

This is a different era. Indeed we will All happily and hopefully receive more of the Word. I have no complaints. I know some of you out there do. Perhaps some of you (I hope) will be hearing more of the Word as it should be preached: With Purpose and Intention.

As for us, Fr. said, when we live our Faith by Word and Example, especially to others who are non-believers, "we convict them of their sin". In Today's Readings, it is very clear that those who are against us, will be members of family. Prayerful Blessings..
judy claar
6 months ago
Rob, I don't see a lot of us as as cry babies because Obama got elected. I see people who are saddened by his re-nomination as people with insight; seeing where this nation is > more than likely headed. I see them intuition wise. In other wards, I see them with a head on their shoulders. They do not sit at home and cry. They continue their work and keep fighting the Good fight.

Actually Rob, the Culture of Death alone is an issue to cry about...even if they are silent tears.
I think you might do well to open to understanding and contemplation. Especially, if you are in a blind, and can not see, what comes after the Culture of Death.

I personally do not give way to scare tactics. Reality, History, Facts, the Church, Bible, and Prayer are my guides. But in Obama's case, the handwriting is on the wall. The people Obama associates with, also says volumes.

In short, I just do not understand, how voting in the reign of the Culture of Death and more, is nothing to be upset about. We must accept it true, but we do not have to be happy about it. Blessings...
Bill Sr.
6 months ago
A Nation in Decline is a Nation in Need
Can you imagine the thoughts and anticipation in the hearts of those first pilgrims as they began their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to a new land they had never seen? They were leaving behind their homeland with friends, family, and familiarity, for a hostile unknown, untamed, and uncertain future. What brave souls they were. What great hope they held in their hearts. Fear was not an obstacle to their desire to partake of a new life in a new world.
The brave souls who left all behind in Eastern Europe to come to a new land known as America were seeking not merely opportunity but freedom, freedom from oppressive rule and taxation of kings and queens. As all men of all ages they lived and died being bound by two things, the rule of laws set by those with power over them and their hope and trust in their God. They came from Spain, France, Portugal, England, and Ireland settling everywhere along our east and southern shores and eventually the coast of California. Understand this for certain, their former masters may have been of a variety but their God was one in the same.
After arriving in their new land these hardy souls seeking freedom and opportunity in gratitude to their God with hope in their future made it obvious by naming their settlements "New" this and that or giving it the name of a favorite Saint. Their first common structure was not a town hall but a Church to worship and offer thanks to their God. Who was that God? It was not Allah, or Buddha, or any thing else. Regardless of the denomination the one thing essential in all the churches was the Bible. America from the very beginning was a nation of believers in Jesus Christ and the God of Abraham. It has always been a Judeo-Christian nation. Another thing to be certain of is that when these people of God came together to declare their unity and independence from all their former masters they were guided by their common faith to declare all men were created equal by their creator God and as such had inalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This Christian conscience is what enabled our forefathers whose ancestors had lived centuries fighting each other at the command of power hungry rulers who enslaved those they conquered to eventually end the slavery of fellow Americans who had been brought here from Africa and forced to serve on plantations and as house servants. In retrospect those immigrants, God bless them, were exposed during their captivity to Christianity and became vivid examples for all of us of endurance and faithfulness in the face of persecution.
The truth of all of this had been accepted for over two hundred years until our current president from nowhere soon after his first election declared to the world that we were no longer a Christian nation.
That boastful announcement was not a statement of fact it was a wishful personal belief. It also was an indication of the design of his personal agenda to transform America into a nation without a valid constitution constructed by men of faith whose coin and currency bore the inscription "In God We Trust", and a nation unrestrained by Biblical integrity or a devout Christian conscience. Why would the leader of this beloved land of ours be so bold as to declare the demise of our heritage and its conscience and integrity? Was he remorsefully announcing our loss or proudly proclaiming the beginning of a new era he was about to impose upon us?
There is little doubt after decades of progressive liberal indoctrination throughout our universities, public schools and the mainstream media our society had gradually eroded its moral standards by capitulating to the onslaunt of anti-Christian rhetoric deceitfully presented as benevolent social justice. Evil is as Evil does and where better to start a last ditch effort by its Legions to corrupt the worlds most powerful Christian nation than within its own government. We can not deny its presence in the agenda of politicians, many who profess to be Christians, in the hollowed halls in Washington along with socially corrupt governorships and big city mayors all over the country driving us to bankruptcy with endless entitlement programs and dividing the people into secular camps of perverse but (now) legal behavior railing against the founding values of our nation mocking the Church and her moral teaching under the guise of social justice or benevolent equal benefits and rights.
Our country has lost a cherished pride in our deep religious faith based on Judeo-Christian values as woven into the fabric of our society. In a single lifetime (mine for instance) we have abandoned things like Blue Laws to protect the sanctity of the Sabbath and two parent church on Sunday families with stay at home mothers and embraced 24/7 shopping to satisfy a mounting hunger for every imaginable comfort and personal desire and become complacent with not only single moms and gay marriage but government subsidized abortion clinics for mothers wishing to kill their unborn paid for by a government run healthcare system which forces under specific penalties private companies and religious institutions to cooperate financially in this Holocaust of our Silent Citizens and even against their deeply held religious principles to actually perform the butchery as an act of social necessity.
Our most urgent need today is not to avoid an economic collapse or the financial cliff but rather we need to ignite and initiate a spiritual revival and search our souls admitting to ourselves we have turned from and left behind the only salvation we really have, the Lord Jesus Christ and his Divine Mercy.
Rob
6 months ago
Not sure Judy. Time of the early church they killed Christ. Not sure it gets worse than that. And under so much persecution they flourished. We on the other hand are a bunch of cry babies thinking the world is going to end because Obama was re-elected. What we need is the faith of the early church.
judy claar
6 months ago
Vance, You gave me a chuckle. The Rivival, in my mere opinion, needs to be more like the Early Church. The early Church had none of the communication luxuries we do today. Yet, they found time to write, live the Faith by example, preach the Word, and all without our modern transportation system as well. I realize we are all different with various personalities, just as in the days of the early Church. But there seems to have been more fervor. Bottom Line: I guess I tend to agree with you in needing a bit of a shake up. I do like Bishop C. Chaput though. We need more of him.
I wonder how much more our early Fathers could have done with communication and transportation the way it is today at their disposal?
But remember Rob, they had not only had Faithful members behind them to carry out their duties, but were bringing them IN at the same time. I wonder, in which era has the most evil?
Blessings...
Charlotte Ostermann
6 months ago
I'm so glad I ran across this article...Amen, amen!! I disagree with a comment that the bishops must change first, though I do see the need for their leadership and example. I think we laypeople have more 'power' than we realize to change culture by our own culture-building in the small circles we inhabit. Yes, we are small and insignificant, but to yearn for huge changes - idealizations - is to miss the small, real things that will end up having huge repercussions. For instance, David Clayton encourages us to pray the Divine Office - a small, personal gesture, but one I've found life-and-culture-building. The real renewal starts with the liturgy, in the Eucharist, and we sometimes forget that the Divine Office is also part of the liturgical renewal, which we can enter into right at home, or while traveling! Another huge-and-game-changing thing we can each do is consecrate ourselves to Mary (see Fr. Michael Gaitely's "33 Days to Morning Glory" !!!) We can renew our whole world by doing all things in, with, and through Mary as she manifests the Holy Spirit's love and brooding. Don't wait for the bishops or anyone else!!! Jesus showed us the power of 'one person,right here, right now'.
vance
6 months ago
Classic Christian Revival won;t happen until there is a Classic Christian Revival in the USCCB.
judy claar
6 months ago
Thomas. I applaud your heartfelt truth and honesty. I am overjoyed that you wrote it here. You may be an ole timer, but you are one humbled; Gifted, with foresight and thought. Combine all the above together and mix well, you have a man of God. One that is to be respected and listened too. I sadly agree with you. Blessings...

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