Get Out of Your Sphere of Complacent Piety

Some people have a ‘leave well enough alone’ attitude.  They don’t like to ‘make waves’ or ‘rock the boat.’

Today, however, it appears that more than just some Americans don’t want to rock the boat.  According to a new Cato national survey, 62% of Americans agree “the political climate these days prevents me from saying things I believe because others might find them offensive.”

When it comes to family though, it should be a different story.  Yet too often even family members clam up.  They turn a blind eye to one another’s faults, goofy opinions, or immoral life style choices.  They back off instead of rocking the boat.

But sometimes backing off puts us in a quandary.  We wonder, for instance, if or how we should react when we see our adult children making poor mistakes in judgement.  It is unsettling when we see loved ones – our children especially – turning into lapsed Catholics, espousing heterodox opinions, or choosing or excusing a sinful lifestyle.

What should we do when we see our children or loved ones choosing the wide gate and the broad road over the narrow gate? [MT 7:14-15]  Should we turn a blind eye?  Or should we make waves?  Should we leave our comfortable spheres of complacent piety and rock the boat?

Today’s Youth Are Abandoning Religion

Rod Dreher used the term “complacent piety” in a piece he wrote earlier this year,” The Deadly Power Of Ideology.”  It’s a term that is an all too fitting description for maybe too many during these present times.

Dreher was writing about a conference he had attended with a “bunch of academics” and “old friends who teach at Christian colleges.”  He wrote, “These are professors who are on the front lines, and what they report ought to blast to smithereens the complacent piety of most older American Christians.”

The professors were discussing some of the problems even conservative Christian colleges are facing today.  One problem is that young women are unable to get dates.  This is because so many young men today are hooked on video games and porn, the Profs opined.  Young men, they said, are just not interested in relationships – they seem to be stuck at around age fourteen.

Not New Concerns

But these problems should not come as much of a surprise to anyone.  Fr. Dwight Longenecker, as well as others, has written about these problems.  He addressed them again on an article on July 17, titled “The Abolition of Man…Literally.”  In the article he said,

“Why are young men not bothering to woo young women and make love and make babies? The reasons are complicated but among them are the aggressiveness of the modern feminist. High powered career focussed [sic] women are not interested in marriage and babies and many young men are not interested in this type of woman so the guys just opt out. I’ve written on the effects of feminism on dating habits here.

“. . . An article in London’s Daily Mail explains the research done on the effect porn and masturbation have on male libido. The short version is, guys find porn more stimulating than the real thing and self abuse easier than building a real relationship.”

Ideologies are Replacing Religion

But over and above male-female interaction problems, said the Profs, ideologies, like the trendy new ‘wokeness,’ are replacing religion.

Wokeness, white privilege, relativism, feminism, critical theory, and LGBTQ-ism are all ideologies.  They are causes that are relegating Christianity to the dust bin.  And they are transforming our Judeo-Christian culture into a wholly secular one.

An article in Elle explained “wokeness:”

“[‘B]eing woke’ is not just about being aware of societal norms and injustices. It encompasses the need to search for more knowledge, understanding and truth in order to engage and challenge the negative progression or evolution of society” [Italics added].

The explanation shows how the left twists language.  According to relativism there is no such thing as truth.  There are only facts and opinions.  But leftists will use the word truth when it suits them.

And the “negative progression or evolution of society” is due to one reason and one reason only – the fact that society is turning away from God and His truths instead of turning to God.

Our culture is devolving because our public educational system is being run by secular liberals. Our children and grandchildren are being indoctrinated with ideologies and relativistic ideas throughout grade school and high school.  At a college level they are often taught by radical leftists and socialists. Ideologies are replacing God’s truths.

Complacent Piety

I have to wonder how many good Catholics, priests and bishops included, are really aware of what is happening today.  I fear that too many are living in spheres of complacent piety.

Instead of challenging the idiotic ideologies being pushed by liberals, many Catholics and Christians seem to want to avoid rocking the boat.  They let the left control the narrative.  They prefer to not make waves.  This is a mistake.

What all, good, devout Catholics should be doing is putting on the armor they received when they were Confirmed and start acting like the Church militant – soldiers for Christ.

The radical left, and even the not so radical left, are never going to let up.  They are ideologues.  They are uncompromising, blindly partisan advocates for their causes.  Their ideologies are their religions and they are modern day zealots.

Even when the left’s lies are exposed and their sophistic arguments are shown to be fallacious they continue spouting them.  They continue to offer them up as justifications for their actions and behaviors, and ‘reasons’ why our country needs to be ‘fundamentally transformed.’  It’s the old propaganda technique of ‘keep repeating a lie long enough it will be accepted as true.’

Ask the leftists how our country needs to be transformed and they will offer up only old, worn out, socialistic social justice platitudes.  “We have to tear down our outmoded systems and replace them with systems that will eradicate poverty and insure equality, free health care, a good education, and justice for all.”

This is not New

Over 70 years ago, a man named Towner Phalen published a monthly newsletter for St. Louis Union Trust Company customers.  In American Affairs, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1947), he wrote the following:

“Modern liberals, as the term is currently used in the United States, are faced with an inescapable moral and intellectual dilemma. This dilemma arises from the fact that they are trying to go in two different directions at once and to follow two wholly conflicting and opposite philosophies of life.

“They want everyone to be decently housed, decently fed, decently clothed, and they are willing to give government unlimited authority to accomplish desirable ends. They wish to override individual liberties only when individual liberties hinder government in accomplishing results which they approve. They want government to be powerful to do good without being powerful to do harm.”

Today’s liberals have either forgotten or have never learned the lessons of history.  The French Revolution, the Communist revolutions in Russia and China, Mussolini’s National Fascist Party, and Hitler’s Nazi Germany were all about transforming society and making it better.  A new, ‘better’ form of government was imposed.  And in each instance freedom gave way to totalitarianism.

Socialism Rearing its Ugly Head Again

Today’s radicals – like Black Lives Matter and Antifa – want to turn our country into a socialist country.  They want to throw away our Constitution and our democratic republic form of government.  And the Democratic Party is aiding and abetting them.

As Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life has stated, “. . . the Democrats do indeed pose a grave threat to ‘the rights of the Church’ and ‘the common good,’ a point I’ll be making constantly between now and November 3.

“Any cleric who doesn’t see that point has his head in the sand or in a Democrat echo chamber.”

The radicals say we need another revolution.  We need a government of the people, by the people and for the people!  Well, don’t look now all you lefties and radicals, but we already have that.

Our form of government, and the socio-economic systems that are in place, are not causing the problems we have today.  The root cause of our problems has been with us since the dawn of man.  The devil is the cause of all our problems.

It is the devil preying on mankind’s weaknesses that is the cause of man’s inhumanity toward man.  It’s the devil who encourages racist behavior, greed, and envy.  And it’s the devil encouraging immoral sexual behavior and violence.  The devil will stop at nothing to turn us away from God and His truths toward darkness.

More laws and new socio-economic systems are not going to fix anything.  You can’t fix something that isn’t broken.  And you can’t fix stupid either unfortunately.

Where Do You Stand?

In an article entitled “Be Prepared for the Sifting” Fr. Dwight Longenecker asked, “When the time comes will you stand strong? If you are already weak and inclined to give in to peer pressure and the power of propaganda, if you are the sort of person who will do anything to “keep the peace” then you may already be taking the path of cowardice and compromise.

“Then when the sifting comes you may be like the worthless chaff which the wind blows away, but if you stand strong you will be the grain. You will be immortal gold.”

We need to don our armor and start standing up for Gods truths.  We need to start acting like the Church militant – especially when it comes to family members.  When we see people straying from God’s truths, we should make waves.  When we see our children or grandchildren straying we should not stay silent.   We should strive to bring them back into the fold.