Bieszad: A Massive Apostasy Is Taking Place Right Now As American Evangelical Christianity

An interesting article from Andrew Biezad on the failing Evangelical groups in America, as well as the failing of many Catholic Churches in America:

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"The essay by Rod Dreher that Eric Metaxas is referring to is well worth the read. In summary, American Christianity is rapidly disappearing, having lost its social strength and becoming a target of scorn and rejection by the greater society. In his view, Christians need to adopt a “Benedict option.” Named in honor of St. Benedict of Nursia, the patron saint of Europe and exorcists, Christians need to form small communities in which to transmit and pass down their faith as the greater society around them dissolves just as Christians of the world of antiquity did:

Millennials, even those who identify as Christian, are shockingly illiterate, both in terms of what the Bible says and more generally regarding what Christianity teaches. I trust you don’t need me to repeat again Christian Smith’s findings showing that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism — a bland, undemanding, non-specific religion parasitic on Christianity — has taken over US religious institutions and has displaced authentic Christianity, especially among the young.

In my own informal conversations with college professors — both progressive and conservative, and both at Christian and secular institutions of higher learning — this finding has been abundantly confirmed. The ignorance is so widespread and profound that most of their students don’t even know what they don’t know. Which leads us to:

If we lose the middle and upper classes, we lose the church. For various reasons, churchgoing in America is primarily something that educated middle and upper class Americans do. Charles Murray, among others, has highlighted research showing that the working class has largely abandoned church. If Christianity is to survive in the US, it cannot afford to lose middle class Americans. Of course Christianity must especially be for the poor and working classes, but at this point in its history in the US, the poor and working classes have already left, and the middle classes are hemorrhaging.College is (at least for now) a common middle class experience. If we lose these kids in (or by) college, they’re gone. According to my anecdotal information, supplemented by the research from Smith et al., this has already happened. (source)

Both of these articles are well worth the full read, as they discuss major issues that are often times ignored. They are well reasoned and thought provoking.

But I’ll give a simpler and more daunting reason why “American Christianity” is collapsing. That reason is because “American Christianity” is a social religion. It is a product of and subject to the spirit of the times in which it lives, existing an independent organism with a false conception of its very self. It could never survive long-term because it was inherently heretical and doomed from its inception, and what we are witnessing is its natural and really, inevitable death.

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Now it is only fair that at the same time in mentioning the evangelical Protestant sects, one also address the dire situation of the Catholic Church in the United States. Having been highly influenced post Vatican II by a desire to become like the world instead of standing in resistance to it (which was a major criticism of the encyclicals Gaudium et Spes and the infamous Rerum Novarum). This desire to become “Americanized” is a huge problem and has caused much of the scandal, heresy, and problems in the Church in America in the past and today. Just like the Evangelicals, the Catholic Church is also suffering its own free-fall collapse in the main Novus Ordo ranks. ..."

Read the whole article HERE

Why do evangelicals vote for Trump?

Trump and the most choosen of God, Jerry Falwell

Have you asked Trump or Cruz to come into your heart and be your temporal Lord and savior?

It's humorous to hear the talking heads [As compared to the mute heads?] blather on about the evangelicals supporting the Trump campaign. They are flustered by this support, saying they understand not how such people of faith could back such a bad candidate. [As compared to the the canadian mounte demigod]

Why is this such a wonder?

Evangelicals base their faith not on objective principles, but on the experiences that brought them to a belief in Christ Jesus.  Let us call it the magical joy of find unicorn Jesus. (since Jesus is who they make him out to be, so why not a unicorn?)  Trump is perfect for them because he is a showman. He is going to give the emotionalists their money's worth.  He will tell them what they want to hear, and whose to tell an individual evangelical they are wrong? It's a pick and choose religion, and if Trump is going to promise them something - and thump the erroneous bible he carries - of course they will love him.  He plays to the lowest common denominator, just like their faith plays to the lowest common denominator. And yes, the normalists like Wiegel and Novak do the same when they reject the kingship of Christ... oh you didn't know he did that? Hmmm....

Trump's got what evangelicals crave, he's got flag waving and emotions... maybe even tongues!

Yay go freedom! Religious freedom is soooooo much fun!

Begging the question again and again and again….

There are a few great joys in my life.

Daily Mass at the Gesu with Jesuits (from time to time frustrating, but St. Stans daily masses are at 12pm)

Eucharistic Adoration at Mary Queen of Heaven or St. John the Evangelist

A solid beer

But I would be remised to not say I don’t love watching and listening to The Glenn Beck Program every weekday.  It’s like an addiction, he delves into technology, politics and the occasional spiritual bit.  Glenn is an apostate Catholic, now referring to himself as a Mormon.  In general, as I have said in the past, I think he is a decent person with a good heart, but as Chesterton says, “a heart in the wrong place”. 

People along the lines of Beck or Rush Limbaugh appeal to many Americans because they speak to their crowd appealing to the common denominators.  Specifically speaking they appeal to the ideals of America in how they were founded and the culture that developed around it. 

Well every once in a while Mr. Beck will get into an emotional mood and start down the way mixing his religious views with his American views (which is common in Mormonism, mind you they see the US constitution as a divinely inspired document).  Today was no different and I figured I’d run through a couple things that were said and add my own commentary to it. The context of the words spoken is in a dialogue with a protestant pastor from Washington state. So enjoy:

“We all wanted America to succeed and we all believed in America, but it is so troubling at this time.”

- First I think it is reasonable to want America to succeed since most of us were born and grew up here.  We have attached a certain fondness to the American way of life, the flag stands now for something greater then a bobble on ones desk.  We attach meanings to this country, freedom, the American Dream and the joys of Capitalism.  All of these things are neutral and shouldn’t offend anyone.  There might well be many people in other countries that attribute such things to their own homelands.  Yet I don’t really believe in America like Mr. Beck does.  To him America is a country set apart by God with divine providence as its guide.  To me America is a great country but if tomorrow it would all come to an end like Rome did during St. Augustine’s time then oh well.  America has no divine promise of prosperity.  Mother Teresa reminded people of this when she said a country where mothers kill their own children will not survive.  I dont know whether or not abortion will ever be ended in this country but I know that the contraceptive mentality will not end.  It is this contraceptive mentality, which even Catholics can fall into with NFP, which really destroys life on a generational scale making abortion look like child’s play. 

“Pastor Hutchinson has the truth and America needs to listen because he is being lead by the spirit”

- I want to give you as the reader some background here.  Mr. Beck though not an outward anti-Catholic clings to the typical list of lies told about the church (ie: inquisitons, crusaides, evil Popes, burning of witches), so he is not interested in hearing a Catholic view point of authority.  The few Catholics that he has had on only addressed things vaguely.  But back to the statement.  The claim that Pator Hutchinson has the truth might well be true to a degree.  It is Catholic teaching that other religions might well hold to Catholic truths and proclaim them loudly, yet such truths are not their own but they are first Catholic truths.  Second it would be a falsehood to say that this protestant pastor/laymen has the truth since he rejects the whole of Christian truth.  Now the question of whether someone is worthy of being listened to because they have the “spirit leading them”.  One has to ask what authority does Mr. Hutchinson have in the so called church?  Who gave him authority?  Is it because people like what he says because he challenges them?  Is it because he proclaims Christ crucified for all?  And what with the lead by the spirit comment?  What spirit?  If he has the truth then why would Beck not leave his Mormon beliefs and embrace Protestantism?  If he is lead by the spirit can he err?  Will the spirit allow him to err when he is giving his teachings?  Just like with all protestant beliefs there is a lack of substance to what they proclaim.  Their stances might well be emotional and appeal to the masses, but they lack an objective presentation of the faith that can be traced all the way back and that can be supported with evidence.  One has to ask both people two questions by what objective authority do you preach?  What objective reason do we have to believe that every book in scripture is actually infallible?

Tired of heresy yet? James 5: 19-20

+JMJ+