When are we going to stop yelling at each other?

“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand.” (Mt 12:25)

I haven’t posted as much in recent times, because many things have happened in our lives in the past few months: Policraticus and I happened to get married in the middle of a hurricane, I have been on extensive business travel, working on a Masters part-time, trying to publish a paper and I honestly got burned out from the Catholic blogosphere during the election cycle. The latter got to the point that it was hurting my spiritual life and my hope in decent and charitable dialogue with other Catholics.

That being said, I am not going to have time to write posts and read comments extensively until probably June when I finish my Masters, but I can somewhat follow the discussion that went on in my post regarding Cardinal DiNardo’s response to the Notre Dame “incident”, so to speak. I rejoice every time that a bishop defends the dignity of every person. I rejoice that our own Cardinal DiNardo has chosen to be outspoken about Notre Dame inviting President Obama and granting him an honorary law degree. I rejoice every time that our bishops speak sternly about the sins against undocumented migrants. I lament, on the other hand,  when they are not as outspoken about torture and war. However, I will not fall into the trap of not rejoicing when a bishop speaks strongly about abortion and not about, say, health care or war. A pronouncement that defends life at any of its stages is always welcomed and a reason for rejoicing. I will not fall into the same trap that conservatives sometimes fall into when Democrats make a move that protect life and cannot recognize it as a victory for the pro-life cause, regardless of how small it may be. Liberals make the same mistake when they cannot come around to recognizing that, for example, former President Bush also happened to do things that ultimately helped the pro-life cause. Yes, he led an immoral war. He also allowed torture. That should make us, as Catholics, take things that either conservatives and liberals do with a grain of salt, but at this point, any small victory we can have in the pro-life cause should be a cause for rejoicing.

This country is not Catholic. The language that dominates the public sphere in this country is not Catholic; not even Christian. It is the language of the Enlightenment: a Lockean language of individualism that defines the individual prior to society. We need to wake up to this reality and stop naively thinking that the American culture that embraces abortion is somehow different from the American culture where virtue can be found: hard workers and people of good will who want to serve and help others. Liberals and conservatives, in the political sphere, differ only in the way that they interpret the individualism upon which this nation was founded.  The former advocates, for example, the individual right to privacy while the latter focuses on, say, right to gun ownership.

Our friends at the Creative Minority Report recently flattered us by making us part of their March Madness brackets where they had us in the “Top 64 People Destroying Our Culture.” (Unfortunately, I heard we only made it to the Elite Eight.) I am assuming they meant American culture, but who knows? I wonder if they even know what they mean by culture or how they define culture. I don’t think they do. It is flattering, nonetheless, because as a member of Vox Nova, I am all for destroying the culture of death, consumerism, and individualism that pervades the American consciousness.

Folks, whether we like it or not, the dominant American culture is not Catholic. It is even far from thinking in line with Christian principles. What are we going to do about it? At this point, I will take any small victory I can take. I will take any pronouncement from the Magisterium that speaks for human life even if it doesn’t happen to satisfy my “personal expectations”. I will also take any move that protects the unborn from politicians with whom I disagree on those same life issues. In a culture that is not Catholic, I think we should rejoice in the small victories and keep fighting behind the scenes to make the Catholic voice louder than the individualistic voice. But we can’t do that if we keep yelling at each other.