I logged on to Dr. Susan Windley-Daoust’s blog, The Ironic Catholic today. Dr. Susan is a professor of theology at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona, Minnesota. SMU is my alma mater, and Dr. Susan a couple of years ago was kind enough to review a paper I had written about Hans Kung’s book, Christ Sein.
On May 30 she posted, Theological Rant #10: It Ain’t “the culture of bothersome unpleasantness” and Satan isn’t a “gentleman caller”. It is a great read, and in my opinion, right on the money, as my father would have said.
I refer you to the link highlighted above to read this post and many other good ones. If you choose to not click the mouse, here is a portion of her comment:
“…. I used that phrase: culture of death. I am flummoxed by people who dismiss this idea, that we are afloat in a culture of death. Of course good things happen, and there are good people out there, but that isn’t culture! Culture is the way human beings come together to make sense of the world through concrete policies, practices, and values. And this culture does not consistently value human life. Period.
Let me put it this way: I live a pretty charmed existence, (lower) middle class in the sedate Upper MIdwest, with a lovely family and work I love. But I am also surrounded by people interested in slashing human dignity at every turn: hospitals that ask me with every pregnancy (for over two hours at the mandatory genetic questioning intake) are you sure you don’t want to kill your child, part of a Church where a majority of practitioners support torture, a country that increasingly encourages assisted suicide over being human and holding that person’s hand, a nation at war for reasons I *still* cannot understand, a neighborhood where a mother of a child with Down Syndrome had an acquaintance tell her (IN FRONT OF THE CHILD) ‘why didn’t you just abort him?’, a town where there are homeless families facing the ‘slow kill’ of living on the street, and more. If this isn’t the culture of death, well, what the ^%(&%)# is?
Really, where is the denial coming from? …. I think people with a dismissive attitude about spiritual warfare tend to pooh-pooh the culture of death diagnosis. I don’t know anyone (who’s Catholic, anyway) who denies the existence of Satan. But I do think most people think of him as a kind of generalized way to talk about evil.
Here’s the thing: Satan is no generalized concept. Satan is a hyena.… People!! This is Satan we are talking about, not the opposing football team! Satan is the father of lies and a thief from the beginning!….. And that “making sure everyone else gets the ‘support’ to choose to end life’ is called the culture of death.
Name it for what is is people. And maybe a little missiology is exactly what American Catholics need right now. That, and the courage to say God has overcome the Evil One, and the revealed venue of the grace to cling to God is most fully held in the Catholic Church.
Live reality, people….
Magnificently said, Susan!
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