TRANSCRIPT
Just before we begin today, if you could please remember my mom in your prayers, today would have been her 89th birthday. Thank you.
Roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population identifies as Evangelical. That translates to about 80 million. Evangelicals are not their own Protestant denomination, but rather a movement within Protestantism overall. As such, it draws on various denominations for its support.
Evangelicalism has deep roots in America and worked to transform society in different eras, notably compromising the backbone of the abolitionist movement. Evangelicals became notably political as big cultural, moral changes began developing in the late 1950s and especially the 60s, moving forward. They were the main ingredient, for example, in Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority helping Ronald Reagan twice into the White House.
Since the 1990s, however, their political clout has somewhat waned, and by the time we arrived at the 21st century, that so-called Christian Right had splintered to the point where a portion of those calling themselves Evangelicals also identify as “progressives.” However, despite the waning influence over political policy, they are still a strong presence in the theological and cultural spheres.
Evangelicalism has a number of core holdings that include, as the name implies, evangelizing but also, the inerrancy of Scripture as well as the need to be “born again.” These terms and labels are really nothing more than Martin Luther’s original “Sola Scriptura” and “Sola Fide” — Scripture alone as the authority, as well as simply believing as the only required response.
What supporters, however, fail to realize is that building a religion on those premises is doomed to failure, not only as a religion but, ultimately, as a nation. The idea that Scripture — the Bible — is its own authority is beyond spiritually insane — it’s destructive. It’s not only interesting but also important to note that not a single book in the Bible claims to be inspired.
The closest anything ever gets to that is when St. Paul says all Scripture is inspired. But when he wrote that, he was talking about the Old Testament. And moreover, he hadn’t even finished writing his own letters, and a good portion of the New Testament hadn’t even been written yet.
How can his passage about inspiration be laid over parts of the Bible that didn’t even exist yet, nor did he know would exist when he wrote that line? The answer is, it can’t. In order for followers of Christ to say all Scripture is inspired, there has to be a definitive authority to declare that St. Paul’s writings are inspired. That authority is the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church alone.
Yet here is the problem: Only a few Protestants accept that on its face, and the few who do, do so grudgingly and then quickly pass on. And yet, this is the key, the main point of Christian theology — from which falls morality and ultimately the life of a nation — for a nation does rise or fall on its moral code.
If the authority of the Catholic Church — not individual leaders here or there, but the teaching authority of the Church — is denied or ignored, then you have theological chaos. That theological chaos, sooner or later, translates into social and political chaos, which is what we see playing out now. Drag queen story hours, for example, have a direct line straight back to Martin Luther, as does every social and political evil afflicting the modern world.
Protestantism, simply put, allows each man to decide for himself what is right and wrong, what Scripture means, what it doesn’t mean, Who Jesus is and Who He isn’t. Despite all the good and well-meaning intentions on the part of the Evangelical movement within Protestantism, in the end, it will fail because, at its core, it is incomplete.
It does not have the stuff of being able to withstand the assaults of the Left, of communism. The reason, ultimately, why is, communism is the fullness of the lie against humanity, and Protestantism, within which Evangelicalism is a movement, rejects the fullness of truth about Christ, owing to individual interpretation.
In short, it is philosophically flawed. It is a house divided against itself. Communism is never divided against itself on its march toward global domination. It is divided, obviously, against the truth but certainly not within its own realm. As you look over social media, you see an abundance of preachers and systems and postings about this version of Christianity or that version of Christianity. Follow Jesus this way, follow Him that way.
Sign up, get the app, join in — all of that. And, for the record, there are scads more of these that are Protestant than Catholic — not surprising in a Protestant-dominated culture — but still important to know. They will rise or fall based on a combination of their content, how it acclimates to the current culture, and the personality of the preacher.
What none of them will provide is the complete picture, because if they did, they would be Catholic. So on social media and all those religions, preaching sites and personalities, what you have is the old adage: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Catholicism has always been at a disadvantage in America.
Despite the New World first being settled by French and Spanish Catholics in the 16th century, it was the arrival of the Catholic Puritan British and their eventual dominance from which the nation sprang. True, some of the original anti-Catholicism had waned a bit between the arrival of the Mayflower and the War of Independence 150 years later, but not that much.
Catholics in the United States were still marginalized and even despised up until the aftermath of World War II. It was only when they traded their Faith for a place at the table of the dominant American culture of Protestantism that things got better, materially and socially, for us. By then, it was too late. Too many generations have now passed. There are too few authentic Catholics to change the dominant Protestant ethos and, most importantly, beat back its consequences of atheism and put the nation on a path to true righteousness.
Still, it is curious how few authentic Catholics, aside from the heretical ones, are actually in the fight. Yes, there are small efforts here and there — and they are certainly praiseworthy and even to be lauded — but for the most part, most “Catholic” attempts in the land of social media are almost indistinguishable from Protestant efforts.
The internet — social media — is where all the ideas and opinions are clashing and rubbing against each other these days and forming the basis for some kind of counterattack against the communist Left. It’s too bad there are very few organized Catholic efforts, and even more sad that what few individual Catholic voices are present are relatively weak.
For example, how has erroneous Protestant theology helped accelerate the decline of the nation? The acceptance of divorce and contraception, first embraced by Protestantism, beginning about 100 years ago, and then eventually by Catholics, has wiped out any notion of “family.”
The destruction of the traditional family has given rise to a massive welfare state run by the communists, which is now used to pummel the last remaining holdouts of any true understanding of Christianity. When a nation walks away from truth, it’s only a matter of time. It’s not enough to make nice with Protestantism. It’s a heresy, and those individual Protestants who are of goodwill, but simply don’t know the reality, must be taught the truth, the reality. Chaos is in control politically because chaos is in control theologically.
