Special to the Catholic Business Journal—NAPA, CA – Author, Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute and former Senior Fellow at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Mary Eberstadt, addressed an overflow crowd Friday at the Napa Institute with a provocative talk on what unites the forces that are attacking Christianity.
Eberstadt began by noting that the tectonic plates of Western civilization have shifted, resulting in increased animus by secularists towards Christianity. Secularism believes the Judeo Christian doctrine is no longer archaic but evil. We have now passed a tipping point – “it is no longer about tolerating Christianity. Secularists want it [Christianity] crushed.”
“This is not a battle between people of religious faith and people of no faith. We all have some faith. The question is what we put our faith into. Secularists want the Church to replace its beliefs with their beliefs.”
Secularism today mimics Christianity. Eberstadt notes there are secular saints like Steinem, Saenger, Kinsey, etc.. Abortion for the secularist is for others not to have a choice. For the secularist, “Abortion has the status of a religious ritual. It is sacrosanct.”
Dig deeper into the sacrosanct belief in abortion for the secularist and its foundational history is exposed. Taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood, “the WalMart of abortion clinics,” gives prizes to pro-abortion journalists. Yet both Planned Parenthood and pro-abort journalists go to great lengths to avoid and hide the toxic history of (1) Margaret Sanger, a strident advocate of race-based eugenics and the founder of what became Planned Parenthood, and (2) Alfred Kinsey, whose famed sex research many observed to be driven by his own personal, unnatural explorations, including his referring to child molestation and rape as merely “sex play.” Planned Parenthood and pro-abort journalists, however, prefer a revisionist approach to this history.
“Secularists even have foreign missionaries who export contraceptives and abortion to people outside the United States. Who are the women being targeted and “evangelized” by the secularists on contraception and abortion? They are not women in Denmark or Sweden, but in countries where there are black and brown people.”
Who are these secularists who have a preoccupation with the fertility of other people and who actively intervene in the lives and families of others? Eberstadt tells us that they well-off white people, who live in the richest countries and who want fewer dark people.
Illustrating this point, Eberstadt noted that “President Macron of France recently said the problem of Africa is that Africans have children!” (Macron, along with eleven other EU leaders, has no children.)
The underlying logic behind the animus of the secularist “faith” is that it is centered on sex. “It [Sex] is the single common denominator,” Eberstadt demonstrated, referring to abortion, contraception, radical feminism, marginalization of men, objectification of women, gender identity, etc.
“Up until the sexual revolution,” said Eberstadt, “expectations about life were consistent. Now expectations are upended. Who am I? Who is my dad? The family has imploded. Many do not know who is their father.”
This has been an underlying driver of identity politics.
Trying to answer the question “Who am I?” has led to a preoccupation with identity, self-indulgence and fame. “I am…” This has led to great damage, “with many people being burned by secularism and its promises.”
Many people are genuinely seeking Truth and a sustainable path to happiness, but they cannot find these in secularist beliefs.
“This has given us, who do not believe in secularism, a great opportunity,” Eberstadt underscored. “The overbearing church of secularism is seeding revival of Christianity. There is a burgeoning counter-culture. There is an explosion of groups on campuses with freshly minted organizations responding to the faith of secularism.”
“Turn the energy of secularism against itself… there are signs that it is turning around. People are waiting to be saved.”
“Our world overflows with human damage and damaged people are showing up. A pre-Christian society is emerging with refugees from a faith of empty promises. They are on the shores.”
“We must think of the long game. Change will not come overnight. The Church will be rebuilt stone by stone, one person at a time.”
At the close of this session, Rev. Robert Spitzer, co-founder of the Napa Institute, added, “The sexual revolution led to this new religion. It has brought us a world that overflows with human damage. We need to exploit the inconsistencies of this new religion [secularism] and confront it with Truth.”
The Napa Institute was inspired by a 2010 essay, “The Next America,” (First Things) by Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput and resembles the Aspen Institute with provocative talks given by leading Catholic clergy, authors, and laypeople. The Institute which celbrated its seventh year was co-founded by the Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J., former president of Gonzaga University and Tim Busch, a successful lawyer and entrepreneur in the hospitality business. The aim of the Institute is to better equip Catholic leaders to face the challenges of the “next America.” Over 550 people from all over the world attended this year’s four day conference.
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Thomas M. Loarie is the CEO of BryoLogyx, a rotating host of THE MENTORS radio show, and a senior editorial advisor and columnist for Catholic Business Journal. For a more robust bio click here . He may be reached at TLoarie@CatholicBusinessJournal.biz