How to win the culture war

Main ideas

Introduction

To win a war you need to know:

1.      That you are at war

2.      Who your enemy is

3.      What kind of war you are in

4.      What the basic principle of this kind of war is

5.      What the enemy’s strategy is

6.      What the main battlefield is

7.      What weapon will defeat the enemy

8.      How to acquire this weapon

9.      Why you will win

I. WE ARE AT WAR – A wake-up call

There is evidence that our society is dying. The suicide rate is exploding, especially among the youngest. More and more marriages commit suicide by divorce, more than half of them. And one-third of American children are killed before they can be born. This is not peace or prosper.

If God is God has to respond to this culture of death. But isn’t he forgiving? Of course, but he can’t forgive those who refuse this gift. But isn’t he compassionate? Of course, but not to the demons who “make their children pass through fire” (Ez20;31). But isn’t Jesus different from this violent Old Testament, kind and all? No. The first part of the sentence is heretic. The second… Read the data: Mc9;42. But he is a lover, not a warrior? Wrong: he is both of them, like every true lover. “The theme of spiritual warfare is never absent in Scripture and never absent in the life and writing of a single canonized saint.” (p.20)

Here it is. We are at war and the enemy is in. There must be a fight, and that implies blood and suffering. Where Christ is, so is His Cross.

II. THE IDENTITY OF OUR ENEMY – Principalities and powers

Most of the time, we fail to find who the true enemy is. It is neither the anti-Christians, neither the media which are the mouths of the culture of death, neither the various murderers, neither the heretics within the Church.

The enemies are demons. “Do not fear those who kill the body and after that do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.” (Lc12;4-5) “Simon, Simon, listen! Stan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat.” (Lc22;31) “Discipline yourself, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith.” (1Pi5;8-9) “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, the authorities, against the cosmic power of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph6;12)

The second adversary is even worst. It is sin. That means doing the evil’s work against God’s work. There is nothing worse.

III. THE KIND OF WAR WE ARE IN – True & false spiritual warfare

            The main problem we have to face is that most people may be classified as “spiritual”. They refuse Christianity to promote “values”. They tend to reduce morality to compassion or tolerance. They are inhabited by a vague optimism and feeling of general goodness. The point is there is no middle. You have to be an extremist, in one sense or another. Moreover a spiritualist can’t accept the existence of the devil, and therefor can’t fight his real enemy (see quotes below, p.36-37). This enemy fighting to prevent us from receiving the Christ in our lives. He is fighting the light with darkness, love with hate. He is the one building the culture of war instead of the civilization of love.

IV. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ALL CULTURE WARS – Colson’s law

To understand the nature of a culture war, one must know and understand the “Colson’s law” (name given by the author), also called the “Four C’s law”: Community, Chaos, Conscience and Cops. Chaos is inherently opposed to Community. It’s the evil fighting the good. To protect itself, the Community has the choice between two possibilities: Cops and Conscience. The more you use one, the less you use the other. They are like shields. The system has two shields: the inner, natural and preventive one (Conscience) and the outer, artificial and remedial one (Cops). The inner law is made of freedom for it comes from the inside, it is a natural law because it is discovered and not created. The outer law is a positive law made of force and fear, which means it is unfree.

Now here is the law: the only alternatives to conscience are cops or chaos. “If the inner shield is lowered, the outer shield must be raised to prevent chaos. Therefore a democracy that loses its conscience will necessarily become a totalitarianism.” Everyone can understand this law by raising children. In fact the only way to ensure the survival of a society which has lost its conscience is the use of cops. And even then it is only a matter of time before death. History gives us dozens of examples. The longevity of a society depends on its morality: just look at the Confucian society (over twenty-one centuries), the Islamic (fourteen centuries), the Roman (seven centuries) or the Mosaic (thirty five centuries and counting). When the Confucian society and Rome lost their morals, cops, totalitarianism came (dictators, Mao Zedong) and the society died.

V. OUR ENEMY’S BATTLE PLAN – Satan’s strategy for the third millennium

            First, fight anything dealing with absolutes. The only thing that can be absolute is super-relativism. Here is a list of the past events. Relativism has been promoted by a revolutionary political correctness. A strong propaganda is spread in the whole society. Then after the first temptation to hate the sinner with its sin, the devil made the society love the sin with the sinner. “They find it extremely difficult to burn heresies without burning heretics, or to accept heretics without accepting heresies.”

There are five principles used by our enemy: corruptibility of power, divide and conquer, the “Big Lie”, blindness on war, the 7 S.

1. First, use our own strength against ourselves. Each time the Church becomes big and powerful, it loses its true faith, and falls asleep in power, lust and greed. The worst time is not the one of martyrs. It’s the one of a sleeping Church, the time when the Church seems grand and omnipresent but where people have completely evacuated its moral. It is a cycle. And moral is the only way to recognize those who follow the Christ. In fact, the enemy uses the corruptibility of power.

2. Second, divide and conquer. The Church was supposed to remain united. There are now twenty thousand protestant churches. Then once there is division between the Churches, create division within the Church between the faithful and the “dissenters”. The third division is dividing Christians between “Left” and “Right”, heart and brain, love and justice. We created some kind of categories within the Church and are constantly opposing them.

3. Third principle: the “Big Lie”. That is absolute relativism. Forgiving the idea of objective and universal truth implies the end of real faith. God, his Son, his Law are absolutes. This attack is extremely effective, for it does not only consist in fooling someone into a wrong path but in preventing him from trying to walk in a path, from trying to search truth and God! The method to accomplish this is simple: take control of those who teach others, that is schools and media. This attacks the roots of any reflection and is particularly effective because people look down on philosophy which is the best way to prevent relativism.

4. Fourth principle, make people think there is no war and “cover up the battlefield with peace banners, deny the very existence of the war they are in”. This is almost a consequence of the Big Lie.

5. Fifth principle, the “Satan’s Spectacularly Successful Seven-Step Sexual Strategy”. (1) The final aim is to gain souls to hell, and they forget it. (2) To achieve this goal, a powerful mean is to corrupt society, that is a society “where it is easy to be bad”. (3) To achieve this goal, attack the cell itself: family. (4) Family is destroyed by the disappearance of stable marriage. (5) Marriage is destroyed by loosening its glue: sexual fidelity. (6) Fidelity is destroyed by the “sexual revolution”. (7) The “sexual revolution” is spread by the media: movies, TV,… The effect is clear: sins are no more considerate as sins. Again it was a revolution in philosophy (the premises) and not only in practice as we think. There are seven reasons explaining why the 7 S principle has such a great impact, almost greater than many spiritual-sins. (1) The philosophy itself is changed so it’s almost impossible to fight it. (2) Because sex is something central in God’s plan (“be fruitful and multiply”). (3) It is the way of originating life. (4) It is an image of God’s unity itself. (5) Marriage is the image proposed by God for his union with humans. (6) “Their appetite is wildly out of control.” (7) Because sexuality has to do with everything in us: “Change their sex-understanding and you will change their self-understanding.”

John Paulus II seems to have understood everything. He did what was needed against each point. (1)He was the pope of hope, hope for the future, the coming generation and millennium. (2)Against “divide and conquer” he was the most ecumenical pope of all time! He was perfectly clear with his own position but yet opened an incredible of doors! (3)He spoke directly and clearly about and against relativism (see Veritatis Splendor, Cathodocs>Encycliques). He showed how self-contradictory it was to set as an absolute that there is no absolute! (4)He is aware that he is at war and calls Satan’s work “the culture of death”! (5)He built the “theology of the body”, creative an alternative to the traditional opposition matter-versus-spirit dualism.

VI. THE FIERCEST BATTLE – Sex wars

One can find a very interesting thinking about Church and homosexuality from pages 89 to 95, which really deserves to be read. The point is: the Church makes a clear and fundamental distinction between the sin and the sinner. As the opponent says it can be done and asks what the author would think if the state did the same thing with Christians and Christianity, the conclusion is that those who defend homosexuality this way take it as a true religion! An absolute.

The conclusion drawn by the author is that the sex battle is the main one, because sex is the effective religion of our culture. The reason is not only that sex is holy by itself for it is the way of giving life, but also that is gives a taste of self-giving, self-transcending which is what we are made for. So sex is the new religion, the new absolute.

Acknowledging this helps us in 6 ways. (1)We can understand better the reaction of people for we know we are attacking their “god”. (2)Do always insist in distinguishing sins and sinners. (3)Make it clear for you and others why sex is holy: it brings God himself to earth. “Conception is a divine act, a miracle.” (p.98) (4) Recognize the existence of true love in sinful relationships. (5)Use your imagination and tell them what you would have wished to hear if you were trapped in their position. (6)Make heroic and secret sacrifices in purity and chastity for the enslaved. In fact there is only one solution otherwise we will lose the battle: be saint.

VII. THE SECRET WEAPON THAT WILL WIN THE WAR – Saints

The weapons of the devil are greed, lust and pride. Jesus’ ones are poverty, chastity and obedience. That’s sanctity. The point which have never been understood by the world, in one sense or another is the usual one: saints hate sins more than anyone else and love sinner more than anyone else. So the solution is simple: become a saint. Imagine that: twelve Jewish boys conquered the Roman Empire. Imagine what ten Mother Teresa or seven John Paulus II would do. You really can become a saint. We really can. Why don’t we? Because we are afraid of the price. What is it? Everything. Everything you have. This thing we fear is our only winning weapon. And this is a war for souls and eternity.

VIII. BASIC TRAINING – How to be a saint

It’s both all about you and all about grace. But in fact, the real answer to this “how” is: stop trying to understand. Stop trying to find tips and stop asking question. Just do it. Now. Do it. Stop wanting to have control.

IX. THE PROGNOSIS FOR VICTORY – Why we must win

We will win because: (1) Truth is stronger than falsehood, light shines into darkness. (2)Love is stronger than hate. (3) Because Jesus is the King, the Lord.

And we will win because God and love will never never never never never never never never never give up.

Quotes

“I have a theory about the Times. That it is simply Playboy with clothes on. For one kind of playboy, the world is simply one big whorehouse; for another kind, it’s one big piggy bank. For both kinds of playboy, thing are getting better and better.” (p.14)

“The richer you and your country are, the more likely it is that you will find life so good that you will chose to blow your brains out. Suicide among preadults increased 5.000 percent since the “happy days” of the fifties. If suicide is not an index of crisis, especially of the coming generation, what is?” (p.15)

About a doctor in Congo being asked questions about the west by a tribe: “There were two things that they literally couldn’t believe. One was that in the West there are atheists. […] The other was that in one nation alone (America) over a million others each year pay doctor to kill their children before they are born.” (p.16)

“When a mother can kill her baby, what is left to civilization to save?” – Mother Teresa

“The theme of spiritual warfare is never absent in Scripture and never absent in the life and writing of a single canonized saint.” (p.20)

“But the Muslim are often more loyal to their merely human Christ than we are to our divine Christ, and they often live more godly lives following their fallible scriptures and their fallible prophet than we do following our infallible Scriptures and infallible Prophet.” (p.25)

“Our enemies are demons. Fallen angels. Evil spirits.” (p.28)

“There are three kinds of people in the Western civilization and they are clearly distinguishable by the answer they give you if you ask them why we celebrated the third millennium. (1) Only a minority will mention Christ. It is, of course, the third millenary anno domini, but the media mind molders kept that secret under wraps. (2) The answer of the molders and moldees to our question is more likely to be a slightly more articulate version of “Duhhh”. I classify “believers in the future” into this second class. They are, I fear, the majority. (3) A third group –the materialists- will answer the question by pointing to the “evolutionary accident”. If our whole society consisted only of the first and third groups, then real debate might ensue, with the likely result of a stream of conversions. It is the muddled middle that is the devil’s triumph: the “spiritual” people.” (p.36)

“They tend to reduce morality to compassion or “tolerance” – the virtue Chesterton said is all that remains after a man has lost all his principles.” (p.36)

“They think religion is a bad thing because it fosters “fanaticism”. They do not know that all saints and all lovers are fanatics” (p.36)

“They do not realize that “organized religion” is an oxymoron.” (p.37)

“Believing in the devil means believing in (1) supernatural evil, (2) moral evil, (3) spiritual evil, (4) personal evil and (5) evil itself. Every “spiritualist” disbelieve in at least one of these five.” (p.37)

“Community and Chaos are “vertical” opposites of good versus evil while cops and conscience are “horizontal” opposites of two goods. Community and chaos are inherently opposed forces, like battling armies. Cops and conscience are the two possible weapons or strategies of the defensive army (community) against the offensive army (chaos).” (p.47)

“The paradox of democracy is that it is founded on the premise of strong moral consciences yet tends to produce weak ones by its very permissiveness. Its maximization of freedom (that is freedom from cops) depends in its willing submission to conscience, yet this freedom from cops tends us to free ourselves from conscience too. And then, paradoxically, this excess of external, physical freedom requires more cops to save off internal, spiritual chaos. Thus we get more cops and less freedom. For the two kinds of freedom – freedom from cops and freedom from conscience- are also inversely proportionate.” (p.49)

“No officially secular society has yet survived more than seventy-two years, the USSR being the history’s clearest test case.” (p.52)

“If nobody wants to crucify you, you’re not doing your job. Or else your job isn’t his work.” (p.54)

(Satan speaking) “They find it extremely difficult to burn heresies without burning heretics, or to accept heretics without accepting heresies.” (p.59)

(Satan speaking) “Back then when they still believed in truth, they called them “heretics”. People who call moral laws “values” call heretics “dissenters”.” (p.67)

(Satan speaking) “They now use world’s categories to judge the Church instead of using Church’s categories to judge the world.” (p.67)

(Satan speaking, definition of relativism) “I [refuse] to let him define reality or truth or goodness for me. I am who I am, I am the measure of all things – of what is real, of what is true and of what is good; of the origin, of the meaning of the end; of the creation of being, of the design of being and of the appreciation of being.” (p.68)

(Satan speaking) “Once we get them to believe in relativism and subjectivism, and to disbelieve in objective truth, it doesn’t matter what else they believe or disbelieve. Even if they believe in the Enemy and his Son and his Spirit and his Church and his Law, as long as it’s on the basis of their own mind, we have won.” (p.69)

“It is a vastly more efficient expenditure of energy to attack the seeking, not the finding; the premises, not the conclusions; reason itself, not specific arguments.” (p.72)

“They don’t deny objective truth when it comes to stick and stones, only when it comes to morality. And even in morality they don’t deny objective truth about good and evil when it comes to anything but sex. “Anything goes” is their morality if and only if it has anything to do with sex.” (p.75)

“Their principles have conformed to their practice instead of vice versa.” (p.77)

“Change their sex-understanding and you will change their self-understanding.” (p.80)

“Why are you guys [gay] the only class of sinners who not only deny that your sin is a sin but insist on identifying yourself with it? We’re all sinners in one way or another, and I am not assuming that you sins are worse than mine, but at least I think I am more than my sins, whatever they are. I love the sinner but hate the sin.” (p.90)

“-Because when you attack homosexuality, you attack homosexuals. –But alcoholics don’t say that the Church attacks alcoholics when she attacks alcoholism. And murderers don’t say the Church is hypocritical for condemning their sin but not them, the sinners.” (p.90)

“[The Church] hates your cancer because she loves your body.” (p.92)

“Be realistic. Don’t expect the victims of the sexual revolution to be objective and rational. You are attacking their god.” (p.97)

“Conception is a divine act, a miracle” (p.98)

“The strongest weapon in the world is sanctity. Nothing can defeat it.” (p.100)

“The world thinks, rightly, that saints are masters of love and, wrongly, that love is nice.”(p.101)

“You can become a saint. Absolutely no one and nothing can stop you. It’s our totally free choice.” (p.103)

“Give Christ one hundred percent of your heart and life one hundred percent of the time, holding nothing back, absolutely nothing at all, anywhere, never.” (p.103)

“Saints reproduce themselves simply by being what they are.” (p.104)

“Being a saint is the most prosaic thing in the world.” (p0114)