Timothy Birdnow

Here is a ridiculous essay by National Review's Victor French about how "Christendom" is damaging Christianity (as if there is such a thing as Christendom anymore). And here is a fine rebuttal.

Here are my thoughts on the subject:

The French/Kierkegaard argument is at odds with C.S. Lewis, who argued that the disciple of the present has an enormous advantage over the disciple of Jesus' time because we have a culture that, until the last half century or so, fostered and nurtured the Christian faith aka we had a Christendom. Lewis, himself originally an atheist, became a zealous defender of the Faith, and that could only have happened in a "Christendom" type of setting.

There is a reason why the Church became an institution and did not practice the early Christian manner of communal religion. It was needed to act as a bedrock for the multiplicity of pagans and the onslaught of heresies. It provided the foundation from which souls could be saved. Without that Christianity would have withered away as it would have been swallowed by other, less democratic, more immovable faiths. (Just as Mithraism died in the Roman Empire, despite being similar to Christianity in some ways; it did not have the structural integrity of the early Christian Church.)

French's idea that millions of Americans are somehow under the spell of Christendom is laughable; many people don't have a particular church in America, and those who do are often luke-warm at best. And much of what is preached is insipid Barney the Dinosaur "let's all be nice" kindergarten religion. Churches stopped the fire and brimstone preaching long ago, and certainly stopped talking about politics since L.B. Johnson reformed the tax law to make it hard to enter the political fray without risking losing your tax-exemption.

As to French's flagellating sin and it's cover up, that is the old Progressive playbook, only put to French's service. Any large institution will have sexual and other misconduct. In fact, there are more public school teachers raping underage students than in the Catholic Church, but French fails to mention this because it upends his thesis.

Notice how French says "falsely proclaimed" about the fear of Hillary Clinton becoming President; shows the man has no understanding of the moral and spiritual danger we are in at this point in history.

And his raging against Trump shows both an unhinged mind and calumny; he is willing to falsely accuse Trump of sins in violation of the admonition of Jesus and the Commandment against bearing false witness.

I'd really like to know how French thinks we can spread the Gospel and hold Christianity together, prevent the spread of heretical doctrine, without a structure to keep it together? His vision would lead to endless fracturing of the Faith until it became as meaningful to society as Druidism or Manicheanism.

The fact is Christianity has been a light to the world and that is in no small part because of the structures and institutions put in place. Pure Christianity, were it to be kept somehow pristine and transmitted without error, is the key to the salvation of souls, but it can not remain in it's pristine form without someone acting to keep it thus and to transmit it, and that means a structure in place. There is no value to a doctrine that is malleable and idealistic. People live in a real, physical world and have to adapt their faith to life. That adaptation has to be nurtured and guided by a Church. Jonestown is an example of what can happen without a central guiding moral and spiritually accurate authority; Jones became essentially king because his followers stopped listening to "Christendom" and wound up accepting the word of a charlatan.

The Church alone can't get you into Heaven, but without the help of this "Christendom" French so despises few will find their way out of the maze that Mankind is trapped within. These are flip sides of the same coin. French fails to understand that.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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