As the tide of Modernity sweeps across the land imposing its individualistic credo on society at large, Western man is forgetting that he is a creature of God and thus accountable to Him, as well as denying the capability of reason to determine right from wrong, and our possession of the gift of free will to perform the duties of life.
In opposition to Christianity’s basic tenets, Modernity has established as its premise that the individual is the autonomous measure of all things and accountable to none. This dictum thusly denies fallen humanity and therefore finds Christianity both offensive and oppressive.
Philosophically and politically opposed, Modernity is prepared to expel Christianity from its current marginal status to forthright exile. This envisioned exile is not one in which the inhabitants are pushed to the geographic margins of society, but rather an exile condemning Christianity to cultural irrelevance.
Today the world is becoming a colder, harder and more impersonal place to survive. We are at a point in our history where people do not call evil good and good evil primarily because they are confused or not thinking clearly. Rather they do so because they are in basic rebellion against God and reason. Modernity is, therefore, fully prepared to expunge Christian principles from the public square.
The question is: Can Christianity survive in exile? Mainline Protestantism has already succumbed to Modernity, while American Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism start their exile with heavy baggage. Evangelicalism has largely wedded itself to the vision of America as a Christian nation, a conception that goes back to the earliest New England settlers. They continue to believe that America belongs to them by right.
For Roman Catholics, the challenge of cultural exile is different and more complex. Rome has somehow managed to maintain a level of social credibility in America despite holding to positions regarded as intolerable by the secular world when held by Protestants. Her refusal to ordain women or sanction the use of contraception or approve abortion does not seem to have destroyed her public reputation. However, if secularism revokes the Church’s tax exempt status for educational and social services, for opposing the increasingly mandatory, sexual revolution, the Church will face a stark choice: capitulate to the spirit of the age or step out into the cold wasteland of cultural exile.
Catholicism’s institutional footprint is so large and Catholic theological investment in it so significant that the temptation to preserve the Church’s place in society will be very great. Such preservation, however, will require compromise, even complicity, and it will very likely blur the clarity and integrity of its Christian witness.
Survival, in short, depends on more boldly proclaiming God’s commandments, insisting on absolute truth, maintaining a clear and conspicuous identity, and perhaps most of all, nurturing a singular focus on the drama of sin and redemption, inwardly known. This will be a great boon in our time of exile.
The doctrine of Divine Providence – the knowledge that history is under God’s control – can provide encouragement to the faithful. However weak the Church may be, however many setbacks it continues to face – the end of history will be determined by Christ alone. This knowledge must be our consolation, assurance and the source of personal strength.
--Xavier Rynne