Secularism
The Religion of Secularism
Michael Coren
The western world is more religions than at almost any tome in its history. No, it's not a typing error, not some spasm of absurdity. Again, the western world is more religious than at almost any time in its history. Religious to a fundamentalist, literalist and vehemently screaming degree. It has its own crusades, inquisitions and lists of banned books and it will seldom listen to contrary opinion.
Which is not to say, of course, that North America and Europe is Christian. Nor is it Muslim or Jewish or part of any other historically recognized. No, its gods are several and its faith perverse. The altar sparkles and shines with the sacraments of sexual licence, self-esteem, ecology, materialism, instant gratification, animal rights, abortion, the cult of progress and the dictatorship of the living. Some of the dark priests of the creed are easy to identify. Stephen Lewis and Henry Morgentaler wear bishop's robes and helping them serve are David Suzuki, Svend Robinson and a whole host of comrades. Their seminaries are our state-funded colleges and schools, where the new creed is taught by rote. Truth is relative, right and wrong are mere human concepts, life begins when one wants it to, death is a choice and those alive now know more than anyone who has lived in the past. I breathe, therefore I am.
Pretend that everything is improving, when in fact since the 1950s teenage suicide in North America has increased by 5000%. Argue that we are safer and healthier and more sexually balanced when since the almost universal availability of condoms and the contraceptive pill the rate of sexually transmitted diseases, abortions and so-called unwanted pregnancies have increased almost every year.
Are we happy? Survey after survey reveals that we are not. Unhappy in work, unhappy in marriage, unhappy in promiscuity, unhappy in life and unhappy in death. As our surround-sound systems grow louder and our giant television screens become more gigantic we are supposed to feel content. I-pods, MP3s, X-boxes, satellite radios and pornography at the touch a button.
We have confused justice with sentimentality and compassion with effeminacy. In other words, we cry when we are told and show sympathy when it seems fashionable. Put your car in a handicapped parking spot and you wi11 be fined. Kill an unborn handicapped baby and you will receive public funding. A culture that is numb, dumb and high on artificial stimulants and artificial wisdom.
The only entity standing firm against this soiled storm is the Church. Holy, Catholic and founded by Christ Jesus at Caesarea Philippi. The place is more significant than it may appear. Now known as Banias, it is in the far north of Israel and was then and still is tucked away from the major trade routes. For the Messiah this was a long journey outside of His central ministry in Galilee and Judea. He chose it with a precise purpose.
The reason was that it was one of the most important pagan worship sites in the world. At its centre is an enormous rock dedicated to the god Pan, into which ancient cultists would throw animals and even children. Christ was establishing His Church in the face of filthy paganism, showing to the world that St. Peter and the Papacy and the Catholic Church would stand firm against hell and all its schemes.
The new rock was Peter, the new instrument of God's will was the Church. But the old enemy remained and remains. Just as there is nothing new about the New Age, there is nothing modern and recent about paganism. Today it is electronic and noisy and often superficially glamorous, but at heart it is precisely the same as its ancient predecessor.
Child sacrifice has become a national law. Nature worship is official policy for every party in parliament. Marriage bas been twisted into a raw, bleeding mess by government and lawyers. Children are indoctrinated into chaos theories of decadence.
But there in Rome sits a small, old and often tired man. Empowered by all the truth in the world and the hand of the Son of God, he is sti11 in front of the pagan rock of Caesarea Philipi, humbly accepting the authority of the Church and guiding and guarding us against all that the world can spew.
Personally, I have nothing against mp3 players and ipods, they are tools, nothing more... after all, they will play religious music as well as whatever other things people want them to play... I also do not believe that all talk about the environment and saving it and recycling etc, is nature worship... But this article makes some very good points that are worth thinking about.
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