CD – Winning
the Culture War
The latest installment for members of Lighthouse Catholic Media’s
CD of the Month Club is Peter Kreeft’s “Winning the Culture War.” I’ve long been a fan of the theology, wit and
down-to-earth common sense Professor Kreeft is known for in his books and
presentations, and this CD is no exception.
Professor Kreeft begins in the voice
of Screwtape, C.S. Lewis’s fictional senior demon from The Screwtape Letters. He is
giving advice to the junior demon Wormwood as to how to destroy the Catholic
Church, the last threat to their goal of the total corruption of society.
Screwtape suggests that they turn as
many Catholics as possible (bonus points for clergy and theologians) into
“P.H.O.N.E.Y.S.,” an acronym that defines seven attitudes poisonous to the
Church.
Politicize
the Faith – This should be easy, suggests Screwtape because “they have to
absolutize politics since they have relativized religion.” They should be made to believe that their
faith should be based on political success.
And once they have found a pet issue, even if it truly is a virtuous
one, the rest of their faith should be used as a means to advance their
political goals. Convince them to
generically “love humanity instead of their neighbor.” In the end, “It doesn’t matter if they
worship the donkey or the elephant as long as they don’t worship God.”
Happy
Talk – This advice is to keep Catholics drunk on “happy talk.” Convince them that the Faith has never been
stronger; blind them to the crumbling of society, the lack of vocations, and
the scarcity of authentic faith. Keep
them patting themselves on the back and celebrating how much they have
accomplished.
Organization
– Teach Catholics to see the Church as an organization, not an organism. They should see it as a business, not a
mystery. Teach them to fear failure, not
sin. And reverse Mother Teresa’s famous
maxim that “God does not call us to be successful, but to be faithful.”
Neo-Worship
– The key here is the idea that “new is true.” Teach Catholics to grasp on to novel ideas
and dismiss their most powerful weapons for spiritual warfare by declaring them
“pre-Vatican II.” Don’t let them
recognize that everything in Vatican II was based on things that were
pre-Vatican II. This should be easy
because heretical theologians who have hijacked the teachings of Vatican II are
far more popular reading than the actual documents of the Council.
Egalitarianism
– Catholics should be taught to worship equality, especially of the
sexes. Equality, of course, means
sameness. Do not let them see that men
are superior at being men and inferior at being women, and vice versa. Feed them the lies of the radical feminists
(whose name is even a lie since “calling them feminists is like calling cannibals
chefs.”) Teach them to loathe femininity
and convince them that those in awe of its beauty and power are actually
sexists.
Yuppie-dom
– Turn them all into consumers. Make
them shoppers instead of saints. Give
them Christ without the Cross. Make them
expect an easy, comfortable life with little to no sacrifice. Convince them all to be self-indulgent,
self-centered and childless.
Spirituality
– Lead them on the road to gnosticism by making them “spiritual” instead of
religious. Teach them to value
“niceness,” not holiness. Convince them
that the worst thing is not sin or damnation, but “fanaticism.”
These seven attitudes, says Screwtape,
if they can be imbibed by enough of the Church, should destroy it and pave the
way for a complete take-over.
At this point, Kreeft drops out of
character and continues his presentation with seven ways we truly can win the
culture war, build up the Church, and become more holy.
This talk can be found for download or
CD at Lighthouse’s online store, a link to which is on the sidebar of this
blog. To sign up for the CD
of the Month Club and receive a new Catholic CD in the mail each month,
click on the link below.
