Some cultural challenges

The Pope lays out some of the existing cultural conditions that contribute to the difficulty of evangelization. There exists a distorted egocentric view of freedom that makes the individual the highest level of existence rather than a socio-centric view that would allow mores to exist that would protect societies from socially destructive behaviors. The idea that there exists natural human characteristics that provide a basis for cultural norms that society would gladly and willingly embrace is entirely foreign in some of our modern day cultures. We are either in a place where individual rights allow for nearly any kind of behavior or where individual rights are completely subordinated to the dictates of the rich or powerful.  For those of us in the United States that believe we live under the former condition, you may want to think twice. 

 

The following excerpts are from the section of the letter subtitled "Some cultural challenges":

 

59. ... until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence.   

When a society – whether local, national or global – is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility.

Just as goodness tends to spread, the toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful influence and quietly to undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may appear.

60. Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric.

62. In the prevailing culture, priority is given to the outward, the immediate, the visible, the quick, the superficial and the provisional. What is real gives way to appearances.

... By the same token, the bishops of Asia “underlined the external influences being brought to bear on Asian cultures. New patterns of behaviour are emerging as a result of over-exposure to the mass media... As a result, the negative aspects of the media and entertainment industries are threatening traditional values, and in particular the sacredness of marriage and the stability of the family”.

63. The Catholic faith of many peoples is nowadays being challenged by the proliferation of new religious movements, some of which tend to fundamentalism while others seem to propose a spirituality without God.
... We must recognize that if part of our baptized people lack a sense of belonging to the Church, this is also due to certain structures and the occasion- ally unwelcoming atmosphere of some of our parishes and communities, or to a bureaucratic way of dealing with problems, be they simple or complex, in the lives of our people.

64. The process of secularization tends to reduce the faith and the Church to the sphere of the private and personal ... it has produced a growing deterioration of ethics, a weakening of the sense of personal and collective sin, and a steady increase in relativism....
...the bishops of the United States of America have rightly pointed out, while the Church insists on the existence of objective moral norms which are valid for everyone, “there are those in our culture who portray this teaching as unjust that is, as opposed to basic human rights....”
In response, we need to provide an education which teaches critical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.

The Economics of Faith

Dance Around the Golden Calf - Emil Nolde 1910

The Pope’s observations are true. And although he points to “trickle-down theories” as an example of man’s faith in man, it is only one of the many ways our lack of faith in God is exhibited. Seeking security and meaning in worldly things is not new as evidenced by the Pope’s reference to the Israelite’s worship of the golden calf. Mankind continues to attempt a cure for the longings of the heart through the finite tools it has the ability to manipulate. Enamored of our own powers, we legislate economic and social policies thinking that we can form society to our ideal.

We obstinately fail to understand that our longings are infinite. We fail to look to God for the comfort and solace that we seek. We take temporary comfort in current amusements knowing they will not succeed in keeping us happy. Knowing they are there in the periphery of our existence, we fail to look directly into the eyes of poverty, inequality and exclusion. We fail to seek solutions in the one Ideal, the Infinite, our God, who can provide all that our heart desires.

That being said, it may be the case that, worldwide, we are living in an era of unprecedented prosperity. Free market economies have proven to be the best course in providing opportunities for people to attain financial security. Once secure in the basic needs for life people become free to consider the transcendental. Are there too many without such security? Yes. Are there power hungry and greedy people who game the system? Yes. The cure – the Gospel. Unfortunately, too many turn a deaf ear to the Gospel.

From the Pope:

No to an economy of exclusion

53. Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality....



54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

No to the new idolatry of money


55. One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.


56. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from en- joying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.


 No to a financial system which rules rather than serves


57. Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics – a non-ideological ethics – would make it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs”.

58. A financial reform open to such ethical considerations would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favours human beings.

Secular influences in our life

I grew up alongside the television. I don't mean sitting next to it. We were born around the same time and grew up together. I can remember, as a child of three or four, my mother polishing the wooden console that housed our first TV. I sat on my dad's lap, the both of us singing along to the tunes on the Hit Parade. As I got older and television developed, dramas were broadcast; dramas portraying problems and conflicts between people. I can remember thinking to myself how this fantastic device gave me amazing insights into human relationships. I viewed people's lives and situations that I never would have been exposed to in my day to day life. I thought it was wonderful and good, a window into the human psyche. Of course, at my age I didn't know what a psyche was. But, through the viewing of television you were provided a moral compass: some things people did were good and some were bad. 
These memories were evoked by an article in First Things. Shalom Carmy speaks specifically to literature, but, literature is only one secular influence from which we obtain the values we live by. In fact, it could be argued that video media is even more influential in exposing the human condition and our responses to it.
Following is a portion of his article. I could not get a link to the full article. If you would like to have a copy please indicate your desire in a comment. I'd be glad to send you a copy.



On Literature and the Life of Torah

Unexpected insights into the challenges of living faithfully from the novels of Colm Tóibín.

Shalom Carmy 

Some Orthodox Jews are prone to claim that insights provided by the liberal arts are superfluous for those properly attuned to Torah. The significance of the human being, and the significance of choice, is essential to religious wholesomeness, but when the unique value of the individual and human responsibility is threatened by secular culture, why fight fire with fire by reading literature to liberate us from secularism when all that is needed is simply to enhance our concentration on Torah? Christians have cognate calls to set aside secular literature for the sake of redoubled emphasis on the Bible and the life of practical service. This confidence in divinely provided resources for realizing our true humanity is understandable, and in many circumstances commendable, but taken alone it underestimates the complexities of our human condition.

However ardent our outward professions, we cannot uphold the abiding conviction that God cares about our prosaic existence if we find that existence insignificant ourselves. “Nothing really matters; nothing really matters to me”: The words with which Queen ends “Bohemian Rhapsody” express a haunting contemporary sentiment, one that often makes the life-defining endeavors of religious devotion and moral discipline seem pointless.

Moreover, to fully understand other people is to consider that their existence, like ours, matters to God and pursues a unique and mysterious trajectory. Take away the challenge of experiencing other human beings this way and social engineering is possible, but not love or respect for others.

Further, the prevalent winds of culture today are inimical to the religious orientation we strive to embrace. A secular view of what it means to be human predominates. Whether we choose or not, our encounter with this often alien and hostile culture is the arena in which we must formulate for ourselves a stubborn and persistent religious sense of what it means to be human. 

The religious person must never forget that as we are now is not the only way to be. This awareness—nurtured and increased by the reading of literature—requires nurturing an inner freedom of the imagination, the ability to see in rich particularity different circumstances, choices, and trajectories of life. It is a freedom we need to cultivate today if we are to stand apart from the tyranny of the present secular consensus; it is the freedom to transform ourselves into something faithful yet new, disciplined yet unprecedented; it is the freedom to realize, in our own time and place, the mysterious destiny that constitutes our dialogue with God.

A Precipitate End

Hearing today's gospel (Mk. 6:14-29), the story of John's beheading, my initial reaction was, "What a precipitate and inglorious end to a life dedicated to God. How could God allow that? To have one's head cut off and served on a platter!" But the real story, as Fr. Dan explained, is the force of evil in the world. Herod, beset by anxiety and fear, afraid of appearing weak and wanting to save face, went against his better inclinations and ordered John's execution. Our world seeks meaning. It can find much in the evil men do.

Signs of the Time

The phrase "the signs of the times" brings back memories of my Cursillo weekend experience. I believe that phrase was part of the talk on the lay person in the Church. The point was made in order to emphasize the need for action on he part of the lay person to effect change that would ameliorate harmful conditions in our environments. 

Certainly, none of the horrors Pope Francis describes are new - people barely living from day to day, a number of diseases spreading, people gripped by fear, violence on the rise, inequality increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity. 

However, he does point out that there are new "spirits of evil" that are causing these conditions and we must examine ourselves and our culture to discern what they are and how to combat them.

CHAPTER TWO


AMID THE CRISIS
 OF COMMUNAL COMMITMENT

50. Before taking up some basic questions related to the work of evangelization, it may be helpful to mention briefly the context in which we all have to live and work. … What I would like to propose … is the approach of a missionary disciple, an approach “nourished by the light and strength of the Holy Spirit”.


51. It is not the task of the Pope to offer a detailed and complete analysis of contemporary reality, but I do exhort all the communities to an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the times”. This is in fact a grave responsibility, ... . We need to distinguish clearly what might be a fruit of the kingdom from what runs counter to God’s plan. This involves ... choosing movements of the spirit of good and rejecting those of the spirit of evil. … In this Exhortation I claim only to consider briefly, and from a pastoral perspective, certain factors which can restrain or weaken the impulse of missionary renewal in the Church ….


I. SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY’S WORLD

52. In our time humanity is experiencing a turning point in its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity. This epochal change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occurring in the sciences and in technology, and by their instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We are in an age of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.