Onward Christian Soldiers

Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng
blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.

In this time between Christmas and the New Year it is appropriate to reflect on our blessings. We who live in “this greatest nation on God’s green earth” have a lot to be thankful for. Although there are many who have had to struggle during the economic downturn, we all of us enjoy the most freedom and economic opportunity ever experienced in the history of mankind. Yet we read that many well off people are unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Depression is a growing malady. Perhaps the remedy is to “choose life.”

At our church (Neighborhood Church in PVE) my friend, the Rev. George Baum, conducts a monthly Happiness Hour (or two or three). At these gatherings we try to follow the admonition of Dennis Prager that “Happiness is a Serious Problem.” We owe it to others – our family and friends foremost -- to be happy, or at least to pretend to be happy. Of course this instruction did not originate with Dennis. Indeed the Church fathers preached the same message. “The Apostle Paul — who spent an inordinate amount of time in cold, dark Roman prisons — instructed his followers to give thanks in all things. Paul's advice is consistent with research showing that the single biggest ‘happiness variable’ we can control is our attitude.” (Oliver Thomas, “In New Year's trying times, choose life,” USA Today, 12/26/10). My aunt Judy was wrong: We were not “put on the earth to suffer.”

That said gratitude and happiness are not cause for Pollyanna. Indeed, there are troubling signs of moral decay in culture and society. Much of the trouble can be traced to a loss of faith associated with growing secularization. In the twentieth century secularism was enforced by totalitarian regimes. Totalitarianism cannot tolerate God since the state must be the source of all human rights. The extreme consequence was the mass murder of over one hundred million in Europe, China and the Soviet Union.

But secularism does not need to be enforced. In advanced democratic countries God can be chased from the public square in the service of toleration and “the separation of church and state.” Europe provides a sad example of the loss of faith. In his books, “The Abolition of Britain” and “The Rage Against God,” Peter Hitchens, brother of the flagrant atheist Christopher Hitchens (“God is Not Great”) chronicles the parallel decline of religion and culture in the formerly great -- Great Britain.

We Christian Soldiers must be diligent. Faith is like a muscle that needs to be exercised to remain strong. In America the protestant mainline churches became flabby and lost millions of members. But the void of belief had to be filled. Some turned to environmentalism, others to post-modern religious movements such as Emerging Christianity that welcome flabby Christians. But that story is for another time.

When I was a blogger a few friends found my musings to be of interest. Now I would like to resume the practice with a weekly post on the subject of culture and its most significant artifact -- religion. You may well wonder why I care enough to expend the effort of writing a regular blog on religion. It's simple: If we do not speak up the other side will win. I refer again to St. Paul: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).