He said, if not exactly in these words then very near them, "Within a short time, the next five years at the most, the Catholic Church will be history. And that will be a very good thing for humanity." He was, as I'd also been, a "cradle Catholic." One of our late aunts had been a teaching nun until her retirement. Obviously, this brother had missed the point of his education in Catholic schools a long time ago.
My brother prides himself in being a progressive. Hence I should not have been surprised by his arrogance or its related hatred of the Catholic Church. While many readers might well consider me "brainwashed" for disagreeing with "progressives" regarding a necessity to abolish the Catholic Church and Christianity in general, I find that position ludicrous.
Faith, for everyone who has it, is deeply personal. In fact, it's a personal power in the sense that Carlos Castaneda wrote about personal power.
My brother's statements, though, are best understood in the larger context in which we are placed.
Faith, and all other forms of personal power, are under attack by political powers that be, as well as economic powers wielded by corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit.
The present context is very much like that of Germany during the period 1928 through 1945 regarding attitudes towards Jews and Judaism. Although the National Socialists, or Nazis, did not take official political power until 1933, they had real power within Germany from 1928 forward. The blame game they played cost thousands of lives before 1933. Many targets and victims were not Jews at all; any influential person who voiced outspoken disagreement with the Party, its agenda or philosophy would meet a violent death. This included Catholic priests and nuns, Lutheran ministers, other Christian leaders, mayors, police chiefs, military officers, local politicians, leaders within political parties, and just about any influential person who spoke out. A very small percentage of victims were communists or Jews; most were ordinary Germans.
Opposition was systematically culled. Thousands of unsolved murders muted voices and created a docile population. This set the stage for a coming Jewish Holocaust within the midst of a Second World War.
Although I don't agree with much of the official story regarding the Holocaust, or its official numbers, it is indisputable that an atmosphere existed targeting one group of people identified primarily by its religious beliefs, the Jews of Europe.
The same thing is happening today in this world. John Allen argues in his new book that persecution of Christians is as virulent and widespread ever.
Living Dangerously: Christian Persecution Around the World
Also noteworthy, that there will be No toy drive in South Carolina this year ... due to Christianity being the basis of Christmas.
Interference in the practice of Christianity in any form, and a concerted effort to eradicate any influence of Christian tenets on the behavior of individuals, especially children, is rampant in America and other developed zones of the world.
Another warning appears in England, coming from a government minister, Lady Warsi, Minster of Faith. "There are parts of the world today where to be a Christian is to put your life in danger. From continent to continent, Christians are facing discrimination, ostracism, torture, even murder, simply for the faith they follow." Baroness Warsi wrote for The Telegraph.
[www.telegraph.co.uk]
Now we have the docile population of the United States passively accepting religious suppression without an audible murmur. It goes further than suppression when numerous individuals are prosecuted for "offending someone" within a military base for merely expressing a personal belief that happens to be based on religious teaching. Like a Christmas toy for a homeless child, it need only be a derivative of Christianity to invite persecution or suppression.
This is not the same country that my father and grandfather, and genetic predecessors going back to the American Revolutionary War, were fighting for in numerous wars to defend "freedom," including religious freedom.
Just as it happened in Germany during the years 1928 through 1945, there will continue to be an acceleration of religious persecution as its tolerance becomes more widespread. Poverty and the fear of economic loss were driving forces in the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The same fears, the same descending economic conditions, are present in America, Europe, and other developed countries today. Yet today, there are estimated to be about two billion {2,000,000,000} Christians in this world compared to an estimated fifteen million Jews in Europe in 1930. The number of targets and the vehemence of persecution set a stage for unprecedented violence and inevitable bloodshed to come. We are but a few shorts steps away from total acceptance of the persecution of all Christians, a tragic development that my brother, raised in the Church, would likely welcome.
True Christianity teaches tolerance if nothing else: "love your enemy as you love yourself." Why is this deemed to be a threatening and intolerable belief?
The answer is found in other trends sweeping this globe, all under the banner of "Progressive adjustments to this modern world." Expounding on these trends must be reserved for future posts.
For now, it seems clear that we must re-energize and reconfirm basic tenets of decency for the benefit of all humanity, no matter what source those tenets of decency spring from, no matter whose writings, or which religions, if any. We need those seeds of civility and decency replanted in order to regenerate tolerance of all, and freedom of all to express and live their religious beliefs.
No engineer would deprive a house-builder a strong foundation for the structure. No person should deprive, or seek to deprive, another person from building a stronger foundation for their life. For some, religious beliefs provide that foundation.
The persecution of Christianity is here in force. It will continue; it will become increasingly tolerated by docile masses living in economic fear if for no other reason. The persecution of Christians and Christianity will gain momentum in the future, and follow a similar path to that of the Judaic Holocaust of Europe in the Twentieth Century. Throughout the coming decades, this necessitates a continual regeneration of core values, and regeneration of the personal power provided by faith.
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