Catholic Unscripted Episode 12: The Monarchy, The C of E & UK Culture
Imagine a Christianity which stood up to the moral and theological challenges of today - that taught the beauty and power of Christian truth instead of the mediocre, please-all pseudo gospel of nice most of us hear regularly from the pulpit. As the Church of England moves further and further towards obscurity, can we see a situation where the Catholic Church steps up into the void left by the disappearing Anglicans?
Harry & Megan virtue signal and whinge about their suffering at the hands of the Royals, but to what extent does it wash with their audience? Can we say that anyone criticising them is guilty of hate speech?
Their approach is vaguely recognisable as virtue, but somehow twisted to subvert the truth and push an alternative agenda which facilitates an agenda which only seeks to dismantle established structures which are tried and tested moral norms.
Does what we observe in our culture, which seems to broadly amount to a desire to deconstruct that culture, really mean we hate our country our beliefs our history and our civil structures? Are we no longer allowed to be proud of being citizens of the United Kingdom? Do we think nurturing such a self loathing can end well for us as a society?
The turnout and public support demonstrated by UK citizens when the Queen died show that there is a need and a desire to celebrate our culture. The problem is that those at the head of the structures of our culture no longer seem to believe in them enough to defend them.
Perhaps the biggest problem is the apathy born of comfort so prevalent in Catholic culture. As our culture is increasingly challenged we might find those familiar norms increasingly challenged. Will we recognise the value we have taken for granted for so long!
Since I grew up Anglican I have watched its core being eaten out by the longing to be relevant in the world, a kind of love of the world, something which is the problem of all human beings not just Anglicans. John says "love not the world or the things in it" Its easy to make the mistake of seeing this as partying ,revelries etc but it is far more subtle, the love of titles , knowledge and power can be understood as "The pride of life" (1John 2:16) . So therefore the world is always a fifth column within the church..any church. I wish it were not so with the Catholic Church , for a long time I had hoped that with the magisterium there would be a citadel, but it seems that is not going to be. The World is entering into and beginning to dominate all the denominations, Culture is an emanation of the spiritual substance , not a thing in itself. As the church loses its spirituality the World and all it consists of will take over. No more salt. Quite honestly I see this happening in our time as a fulfillment of prophecy..the Great Apostasy which will precede the final return of the Lord Jesus. So we will win in the end! In the meantime we must be ready for persecutions if we remain true to the Lord. ( I came here from Twitter.. God bless you. Craig Wallace.
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