Monday, July 8, 2019

Do YOU remember?

I was reading back a year or so ago and came across this nugget from Anthony Esolen:

Do you remember a time, readers, when you could spend a whole day, actually a whole month, occasionally even a year, and not give one passing thought to the issue of sexual perversions?
Do you remember a time when not one liberal in a thousand would have thought it a good idea to have drag queens do story-hour for children in a public library? When people who fell into sexual perversion, or who are alleged to have done so, or who are alleged to have wanted to do so though they did not, or who are alleged to have been the sorts of people who would have wanted to do so if they had known What We Know Now, were not held up for the admiration of children, in their school textbooks?

Do you remember a time when not one liberal in a thousand would have thought that a man who said he was a woman or a woman who said she was a man was in touch with reality and not prey to a destructive fantasy or delusion?

Do you remember a time when liberals, precisely because they were liberals, held men and women up to high standards of sexual decency, and (wrongly) believed that they were capable of maintaining those standards without the ministrations of the Church?

Do you remember a time when it would not have occurred to you in a hundred years that your priest was anything other than an ordinary man, a real man, following the special call of the Lord? A man who in another life, with a different call, would have been married with a passel of children, a pillar of his community?

Do you remember a time when a priest could march alongside miners and auto workers and look like one of them, not like a breathless female reporter in the locker room of a football team? Do you remember when nobody, absolutely nobody, would have considered that a female reporter should even be in that locker room?

Do you remember a time when divorce was a scandal? I do. Do you remember a time when family-owned motels would not let unmarried people book one room instead of two? Do you remember a time when boys and girls actually dated, and when the vast territory between loneliness and going to bed as a married couple had not been strafed and scorched and left with not a single healthy custom standing – a cultural Nagasaki and Hiroshima, from sea to sea?
It occurred to me that the numbers of those who cannot recall such a time is shrinking!!  It is not deliberate, mostly the cause of age and mortality rates, but the fact is unmistakable.  The numbers of those who do not have any recollection of such a time will continue to shrink until the oddity becomes the norm and the memory of cleansed from those who would object to these things as aberrations or deviations or immoral.

Why is it so important to teach the faith to the children, to address the cultural changes that set the world adrift away from our moorings in Scripture and tradition?  Because the press of media and the mantra of change soon normalizes these and impresses into our youth that this is the only reality that ever was.  So forgetful are we of history, that our past is always a mere wisp of a memory that will fade unless rehearsed in conversation, teaching, devotion, and life.  That is why the vocation of parenthood for Christians is so very essential and important.  Parents, do not ever forget it.  The forces educating and entertaining your children are against you so you must be ever vigilant and devoted to your task and vocation.  Children are not toys or playthings but a sacred trust from God.  God help us if we fail in this task.

14 comments:

Matt said...

Yes I do remember. And I remember when I began to realize I was attracted to guys and not to girls there was no one to talk to or ask questions. I remember being alone and afraid and hating myself so utterly that I no longer have any concept of God being able to forgive me or even wanting to. I remember slogging through each day of high school as if I were walking through jell-o and wondering if I could make it another day without killing myself. I remember the fear in my mother's eyes when she thought I might be one of "them." I remember it was hell on earth because I was no longer among those whom God loved, even though I was in church every Sunday. It was a horrible time.

The reality is that we are not caught between right and wrong, or even right and left, in the culture wars.

We are caught between two competing theologies of glory. The one side says there is no reason to carry a cross, find pride in your sexuality and be happy - why suffer? This side turns the Gospel into license. The other, like Esolen, say it can all be fixed if only we could return to the good old days and if only dads would step up to the plate then there would no longer be any problems, there would be no cross to carry and all would be just peachy on the keen side. This side turns the Gospel into little more than a tool of the law.

Both attempt to solve the problem through legalism. And both are as useful and effective as a bicycle to an elephant.

The fact is that the Church long ago forgot the Gospel. Even in Lutheran Churches (LCMS) where the Gospel is said to be central and predominant, it isn't really. Pastors no longer know how to unpack and illuminate the Gospel, instead, thinking that really driving home the point of what dirty rotten sinners we are will make a few mumbled words of "God forgives us all" more powerful. It is the loss of the Gospel that has brought us where we are.

We no longer really know what it means to carry a cross. We no longer know how to apply the cross beyond a sentence or two. And we certainly have little interest in helping others carry their cross. Oh we will exhort them to do so. But actual help. Nope.

Esolan is no prophet nor an historian calling us to a world that once was. He is a fictionalist rewriting history into golden memory that never was. It doesn't help that a lot of times he is also kind of a jerk.

David Gray said...

Esolen bears witness to the faith. It is not a theology of glory. You either don't really read him or you don't understand him. And he is one of the most gracious men I've had the pleasure to interact with. Recognizing that some periods of time are more morally sane than others doesn't mean a clarion call to return to a time without problems, it is simply a call for a return to sanity.

Matt said...

No you obviously do not understand what a theology of Glory is. Go and learn. Read some Luther. A theology of Glory always looks good and reasonable to those who espouse it. But Mr Esolan does not uphold morality nor the law. Rather he reduces the power of the law by neglecting the Gospel. He is a most thorough going theologian of glory - a fault not limited to RCC bloggers but by many Lutheran bloggers as well who do mention the gospel in their sermons but fail to be able to apply it outside the confines of the Church walls.

David Gray said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Gray said...

I will simply say you are bearing false witness regarding Mr. Esolen and encourage people to read him and judge for themselves.

Anonymous said...

Matt, I've read your remarks elsewhere on this subject and in order that I might more fully understand your points, would you do me a favor?

Would you play the part of a pastor and give us a couple paragraphs (as much as you want) of what precisely the pastor would say that would be how you would have the Gospel articulated to speak directly to your concerns?

I'd find that extremely helpful, and I'm sure others would as well.

Daniel G. said...

Matt,

I thing you are criticizing Mr. Esolen in a state of resentment of your orientation and the Cross that comes with bearing that orientation. I have same sex attraction, grew up in the sixties and seventies when all of the craziness began to manifest and also heard from my parents of the glory days when you did not hear about what Mr. Esolen speaks of. I believe them. Mind you, they never said that what we are seeing now did not exist then; it just wasn't to the insane degree to which we are bombarded with on a daily basis. So again, I know your pain and you bear your Cross much better than I do based on previous interactions I have had with you on earlier posts. Just do not be bitter about it. God bless you.

Anonymous said...

The rest of the article, you quoted from, is really fascinating, well worth the time to read it.

Anonymous said...

Matt, if you are celibate (and if you fall and fail, you repent, confess and are absolved), then you are no different from the rest of us sinners. The Law has certainly been preached wrongly to many, many people, Evangelicals and Lutherans alike. It is why people become atheists and agnostics, or obnoxious Pharisees. It is very easy to see the specks and miss the logs. God help you, and God help all of us sinners to avoid theologies of glory, whatever form they may take. God help us to always put the best construction on things, especially when we disagree.

Cliff said...

For those who read scripture on a regular basis should understand that God's people, and that includes Christians are wont to backslide from one generation to the next. The bible is full of examples where everything is cyclical, being faithful upstanding people to the next generation where, "where all hell breaks loose ". To think that just because grandpa and grandma are in heaven that there will be a continuous link of good faithful members of the family in heaven. That is simply not the case in history.

So why get our shirt in a knot about the "good ole days" ? Simply by returning to yesteryear is not the answer, for scripture makes that plain.
There are many Catholics yearning for pre-Vatican II days as if that's going to solve every problem that exists in their church? Just because in our grandparents day everyone went to church all we need to do is to turn the clock back and all the people will become Christian.

Study scriptures, especially the Old Testament to find out the psychology of the human race. Life is not simple and every day is new.

Anonymous said...

Pastor Peters was not referring to the old days but simply reminding parents that they cannot expect help from the culture to teach the values of the Bible to their kids. And unless those who know those values teach them, no one will be left to remember what everyone has forgotten.

Anonymous said...

Followers of traditional, historical Christianity are beginning to feel more and more like Lot.

It doesn't help when Evangelical leaders announce that homosexuality is no longer a sin:

https://churchwatchcentral.com/2019/07/08/the-open-letter-to-beth-moore-finally-receives-a-response/

Anonymous said...

Matt...in case you missed it above:

Matt, I've read your remarks elsewhere on this subject and in order that I might more fully understand your points, would you do me a favor?

Would you play the part of a pastor and give us a couple paragraphs (as much as you want) of what precisely the pastor would say that would be how you would have the Gospel articulated to speak directly to your concerns?

I'd find that extremely helpful, and I'm sure others would as well.

Anonymous said...

@7:33 ... apparently Matt just wanted to make a drive-by comment. I've seen him make basically the same post, be asked to do what he was asked to do, then ignore the request, make excuses why he won't. Very odd.