In cafes and pulpits all across the country, a similar difficulty is presented to a young generation of Christians, a similar threat is diagnosed, a danger posed, and similar offensive plans of evangelization and defensive plans of isolation are drawn up, taught, adopted, and implemented. We are fighting a culture war—so the story goes.

Modern liberal intellectual culture is against us, against the Cross, against the God of Love. People don’t think like they used to. Values are crumbling. Tolerance has turned to license. And we must fight; we must defend our Faith. We must fight against the culture. The Church is in trouble, because culture has changed.

Basilique de Notre-Dame de Montreal -- joelmann

This line of thinking has some merit, but those should not be exaggerated. And it should be acknowledged in full sobriety that this message is usually taught to the untaught by the untaught, it is shared and lived (and indeed, sometimes lived well) among people generally not much concerned with or well versed in history (either of the Church or the culture). Their assessment is a topical assessment: it addresses, correctly, the symptom, but it does not fathom the cause. In America, we like to treat symptoms; that has become our way. Sally is sad; give her a pill. Betty is fat; give her surgery. Taxpayers are unhappy; stimulate them. Companies are failing; give them money. Kids lack the education to pass standardized tests; teach special classes on tests—but don’t worry about giving them an education in the process.  This has become our way. And it is the wrong way. And in cafes and pulpits all over the country, faithful (and unfaithful) Christians are taught that the church is hurting because the culture has changed. I don’t dispute this fact. That the sharp decline in morality, accountability, decency, and reason in America is a grievous problem is not here contested in the least; but it is not the cause of the problem. It is a symptom. If it is true that the Church is in trouble because culture has changed; it is even more true that the culture has changed because the Church is in trouble. That is the real problem.

Most of the problems that churches see in our culture are real problems, and many of those problems have their source in the very churches themselves. The unfolding of those problems has been slow, but it has also been steady. We lament today that our common morality has been thrown out the window; but it was first thrown off a steeple. When Christians, who are supposed to be witnesses to the Light in a world of darkness, begin themselves to dim, one cannot expect too much from the rest of the culture. When we remove marriage from the list of sacraments, we cannot be too surprised at high divorce rates. When our generations does not call Blessed the Mother of God, we cannot be too surprised that women our objectified. When we do not decry the death penalty for what it is (an attempt to play God with human lives), we cannot be too surprised that people would do the same with babies—after all, babies and convicted felons cast the same amount of ballots. When we are not consistent in our reasoning, we cannot be too surprised when politicians equivocate. When we interpret the Scriptures to serve our own ends, we cannot be too surprised that judges interpret the Constitution to serve theirs. When Christians do not submit to the authority of Church, we cannot be too surprised that citizens do not submit to the authority of the law.

A seed of dissent has always been buried in the Church; five hundred years ago that seed grew roots, and cracked the unity of the Church; in those five centuries, that seed has but up shoots (34,000 denominations at my last count); and in the last fifty years, those shoots have borne fruits and flowers—but they are poisonous. When the Church is not united, can we be surprised that our culture is divided?

The outrages in our culture were first permitted by some church somewhere. We compromised first. Society has not abandoned us; we have abandoned society. Christians are fools if they expect society to do anything but crumble without the influence of the Church. We lament that the pro-abortion lobby will not listen to reason; but many among the faithful abandoned reason long ago. We lament that the government does not heed the cry of the poor; but we are parking our fancy cars in gated communities. We expect the culture to answer to expectations that we do not meet. And when Christians lower the bar, can we be surprised that the culture trips?

The war is not against the culture; it is for the culture; and it is within the church. Until the voice of the faithful is truly one voice, preaching one Gospel, we will not speak in harmony, consistency, or with authority. When Christians cannot agree on what is permitted, can we expect the culture to agree on what should be prohibited? If we treat the Christian faith as something that belongs to us, then we are not truly free to give it. If we rule the faith; the faith cannot rule us.  And if we are content to let the faith lead us whichever way we want to go, we cannot be surprised if the forces that lead the culture lead it wherever they want it to go. The culture is beating us at our own game, a game that we have mastered, a game that we invented—but then again, the game is an old one, won and lost in Eden long ago. And so long as we our own masters, we will be slaves of the culture. And like ignorant rebellious slaves we war with our master, we seek to cure the symptoms of our slavery, instead of seeking the causes.

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