Standing on My Head

Why Fasting?

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:27:00 +0000

Fasting, Almsgiving and Prayer during Lent, and today a few thoughts about fasting. Why fast?

First of all, let's put to rest that ridiculous, girly idea that Lent is all about "taking something up" not "giving something up". I've always considered that to be a soft option. By all means take something up, but you should give something up as well.

Why give something up? Not because it is bad in itself. We're not Manicheans. We don't believe that physical pleasures and physical things are bad in themselves. Instead we give something up not because it is bad, but because we are seeking a greater good. We're seeking self mastery and self discipline and self control.

All of that is good, and also the idea that by giving something up we are focusing more on Christ the King and the Kingdom that is not of this world.

Here's another idea--something more radical: by giving something up we are countering the pleasure obsessed culture in which we live. We are standing the whole thing on its head. We live in a society that is not embarrassed to call itself "consumerist". We live in a culture which considers "more" to always be better and "economic growth" to be a good that cannot be questioned. We live in a society in which "self indulgence" is called "self esteem", where unlimited acquisition is considered a sign of success and where uninhibited pleasure is called "self expression."

So fasting cuts right across all of that. Fasting and abstinence calls it all into question--first for ourselves and then for others. Fasting says to the gluttonous, lustful, greedy society in which we live, "Fuhgeddaboudit"

Fasting is therefore a sign of contradiction. It is being counter cultural. It is being subversive.

I'm for it. At the beginning of Lent I feel like I want to be a hermit--to live a shack in the woods and grow a long beard and be silent and be a sign of contradiction. Suddenly I admire St Simeon Stylites who lived on top of a pillar in the desert for thirty nine years.

Why fast? To be a voice of one crying in the wilderness.

That's why.

Take Up Evangelism with Holy Cards

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:34:00 +0000

At the beginning of Lent you are often encouraged to "take something up" as well as "give something up". OK, but you'd better give something up as well.

So give something up, but also, why not take up Catholic Evangelism with Holy Cards?

Here's how it works. I have had four types of holy cards printed up with a beautiful Catholic image on the front and Bible verses on the back. There is a Jesus/Church card, a Jesus/Eucharist card, a Divine Mercy card and a Blessed Virgin card.

The Bible verse on the back explains the image on the front.

So for example, on the back of the image of the Blessed Mother is the text:

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, Blessed are you among women" -- Lk. 1.28
Jesus said about Mary, "Behold Thy Mother" Jn. 19.27
Jesus commanded, "Honor thy Mother" Mt. 15.4
Mary said, "All generations shall call me blessed." Lk. 1.48
On the back of the card with Jesus in the Eucharist the text reads:

Jesus said, "Take, eat this is my body" Mt.14.22
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh,for the life of the wordl. Jn.6.51
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life within you." Jn. 6.53
St Paul wrote, "The cup we bless..is a participation with the blood of Christ...the bread we break is a participation in the Body of Christ."

To do Holy Card Evangelism you buy the holy cards and hand them out like Protestants do gospel tracts.

At the supermarket check out you just smile and say to the person helping, "Would you like one of these prayer cards? It's a reminder that Jesus loves you and I'm praying for you" or "Why not take one of these nice prayer cards? God bless you!"

Or maybe you leave it at the restaurant with your tip (but you better leave a good tip!)

This can be your way of "Taking something up for Lent."

If you would like to purchase some of these cards they are just a quarter each. Buy 20 cards for $5.00.

Five cards of each style.

After you get the cards, and before you hand them out remember to get them blessed! Then they are sacramentals, and not just pretty cards. Also remember to pray as you hand them out and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

If you would like some just send me an email: and I'll tell you how to make payment and we'll send them in the mail.

The Deadly Seven

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:45:00 +0000

I have a weekly series for Lent on Catholic Online on the Seven Deadly Sins. Here's the first article on Greed and Envy.

How Feminists Kill Themselves

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:39:00 +0000

Excuse me for the shocking headline, but this is what it means: this article in the Daily Telegraph reports that in the UK abortionists are performing abortions according to gender. This goes by the euphemism of "family balancing." Don't want another boy and the blood test shows your baby is a boy? Poison him, dismember him, use a chemical to flush him from your womb.

But of course, it is more often girls than boys who are unwanted. Asian cultures value sons rather than daughters and so it is the little girls who are more often killed than the little boys. Some balancing act.

I realize that the feminists are horrified that girls are chosen for the slaughter just because they're girls, but they must see that behind the gender selection is another horror--the devaluation of human life, and the biggest cause of the devaluation of human life in our society today is abortion--which is one of the main campaigns for the feminists. In their campaign for "reproductive freedom" they destroy both reproduction and freedom.

They may be horrified that little girls are being killed just for being little girls, but the pro abortion crowd are content for an unborn child to be killed because the "college aged mom needs to finish her education" or because "another child would complicate her career plans" or "we can't afford another child at this time" or a whole range of other reasons for her "choice". Indeed, for the radicals the woman's "choice" to kill her own child is so sacrosanct that she need not even have a good reason. Her freedom of choice is her reason, and so despite the weasly words we have abortion on demand for any reason at all. If these other utilitarian reasons (which no doubt seem very important to the mother at the time) are valid, and if the woman's "choice" is all that matters, then it is just as valid for a mother to kill her unborn child because it is the "wrong" gender. Why should any pro abort be upset?

Thus, feminists kill themselves. In other words, by supporting abortion they are killing the future feminists. The culture of death will die because it supports killing. Any culture of death will die out because it kills the next generation.

The problem with this is that it take time. The culture of death in Nazi Germany didn't die before millions were killed in concentration camps and a terrible war. The culture of death in Stalin's Russia didn't die until millions died in the Gulag and through starvation and miserable poverty.

We have to face the grim reality that through abortion the culture of death reigns in our Western society too, and if it prevails, our society will also die.

Series for Lent

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:04:00 +0000

I have a four part Lenten series starting over at National Catholic Register. It looks at four sets of modern "ism's" that are countered by the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith. Here is part one.

...To Dust and Ashes in Its Heat Consuming

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:36:00 +0000

Anglican hymns are the best hymns:

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn, til earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

The Economics of Contraception

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Tony Layne blogs here on the coming economic disaster as profligate living crashes into a plunging birth rate.

Gargoyle Code Excerpts

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Crisis Magazine are running as series of excerpts from my book, The Gargoyle Code for Lent. The first one is up today. Go here.

Lent in a Tent

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:28:00 +0000

From the archives: Lent in a Tent.

Reasons for Renunciation

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:01:00 +0000

Hermit's Cave

Several times in my journey through this vale of tears I have been summoned to make a crazy sacrifice in order to follow Christ.

One of those times was when I left the Anglican priesthood to become a Catholic. We had a large house in a sleepy English village, two beautiful thousand-year old churches, a quiet life and a secure living. I could have hunkered down and stayed there for a very long time, walking the dog, reading books, raising a family and serving the Lord.

But I had to become a Catholic. So we left it all. We moved across the country where I had a job with a video production company that went bust soon after I joined (it wasn't my fault) and so I was unemployed. We lived in a little duplex. More kids came along. Things were not easy.

I'm not telling this to toot my horn, but to mention something bigger. It's this: when persecution comes to the church the only ones who will survive are those who have already learned renunciation.

If you just once give up everything for the Lord Christ you will never again be in chains. If you walk away from everything--just once in your life-- you will be able to do it again.

I have no recipe for how each other person should face renunciation, it may come to you voluntarily when you have to choose between your conscience and your job, or when you have to choose between being enslaved to a boss and an institution that has compromised the faith, or it may come to you through life's circumstances.

You may lose your job. You may lose your health. You may lose your marriage. You may lose your security. You may lose everything. Embrace it. This is your chance for renunciation. This is your chance to learn how to rely on your wits, your wisdom, your faith and your God, and you will find an inner freedom you did not know was possible.

What are the benefits of such renunciation. First of all, your own courage and self esteem and personal power will flourish. If you make an act of renunciation of your own free will you are given a new and amazing power and energy.

Secondly, through renunciation you claim authority over whatever it is that enslaved you. This is where renunciation of worldly goods through crazily generous giving will set you free. When you give an amazingly stupid amount of your money away you are telling your money who's boss. You are taking charge. You are no longer enslaved to money and the things and security you think it can buy.

Thirdly, renunciation reverberates. When you renounce something (even if it is in secret) that action of strength and generosity reverberates in the world. Other people notice your new found freedom. Other people follow your example. Other people live like you do, or at least they want to.

I said to my fifteen year old son the other day, "You know what? I don't care about material things. I really don't. We have a nice house and cars and nice stuff, but I could walk away from it all tomorrow. I really could." He thought for a moment and said quietly, "I'm like that too." See? Live the life even a little bit and it reverberates.

Fourthly, renunciation sharpens your spiritual life. When you renunciate immediately your true values snap into place. Suddenly you can listen to God's voice because a lot of the other clutter and noise has been thrown away and turned off.

Finally, through renunciation--freedom. This is why the friars and monks and sisters and nuns and priests are supposed to be poor--not because there is any particular virtue in being impoverished, but because through renunciation they are free. They can serve God not mammon. They can serve Christ the King and not their boss or their bank account.

This is why, when persecution comes only those who have already been practicing renunciation will survive. Only those who have already been living sacrificially will be able to make the ultimate sacrifice. Only those who have already broken their slavery to material things, to power and to worldly security will stand. That is because the earthly power will discover that they have no power over these brave souls. The earthly power will not be able to take anything from them, for they already have nothing to lose.

How will Americans stand when they have become so soft, so self indulgent, so egotistical, so enslaved to their material wealth and worldly pleasures? How will they be able to give up everything for the truth when they cannot even give up a little of their wealth and security and pleasure for the sake of God's kingdom now?

This is the real reason for renunciation during Lent--not just to give up some little pleasure or to enact some personal discipline.

It is to practice renunciation, for the purification of our souls and for the encircling gloom.

Heaven and Hell from a Bad Catholic

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:14:00 +0000

I'm kind of jealous because Bad Catholic over here writes in such a cool way and seethes with passion and uses language which I can't use 'cause I'm a priest and he makes me realize again why blogging is vital because stuff is written and published and read through blogs which would never before have been published by some boring editor somewhere who only has his eye on what would attract the most readers in order to sell more advertising.

So read Marc on heaven and hell. Good stuff.

Meanwhile, here is an archived article from the Anchoress on how persecution emerged in the Chinese church, and what to look out for today. I especially liked this quote from a sermon by Cardinal Kung Pin Mei, who resisted the Chinese and was imprisoned for years.

"So we must not be surprised when persecution comes because it is a normal event for the Church to suffer persecution. Once, when Pope Pius XII received a group of seminarians in audience, he asked them how many special signs distinguished the true Church of God. They answered immediately without further thinking, “It is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” The Pope said, “There is still a fifth sign.” The seminarians did not know how to answer. The Pope said, “Persecution.” So, if the Church enjoyed peace all the time without any persecution, it would be very abnormal. It would be a reason for us to worry and examine ourselves lest anything was going wrong. Perhaps we were not living as faithful disciples of Christ? As persecution must be expected, it comes as a special sign of the Church and we should not try to make compromises or concessions of any kind in order to bring the persecution to an end quickly. We ourselves cannot take the initiative to create or arouse persecution. But if it comes to us one day, not only should we accept it readily from the hand of God but we should even rejoice and be glad. As the Acts of the Apostles records, .”… after they were beaten, the apostles left the Council, full of joy that God had considered them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.” (Acts 1:41)"

And Elizabeth wrote: Look, liberty is not lost in a day. It is lost in increments and inches. Today you will not smoke in a pub – or smoke at all – even though those in charge might. Tomorrow the government will set your house temperature for you, while keeping their own set to their comfort levels. They will tell you how much money you may fairly earn, while “they” are not quite so limited. Next year your son will be forced to participate in mandatory volunteerism, and so will your mother. Soon you will be advised to abandon your hate-filled intolerant church for the approved and correct one. Someday, you may be asked to bow before someone and you will have to say “yes” and then live with yourself, or say “no”and live with those consequences. The banality of slavery…it is almost a tedious thing.

Just be ready, is all I am saying. And practice prayer – which is the most subversive of liberties; it can never be taken from you, and is a source of power and strength. Train yourself in prayer. Begin now, so that you are a fit, skilled practitioner when the need arises.

Good advice as we look forward to Lent.

Gargoyle Code - Day One

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:59:00 +0000

Here is an excerpt from The Gargoyle Code--the entry for tomorrow--Shrove Tuesday. There is a Screwtape type letter for each day in Lent.

So you have seen the excesses of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and got all excited have you? How amateurish of you to start frothing at the mouth with anticipation! How little you know your own patient! I have checked the files on him Dogwart. A lily livered Catholic boy in his mid twenties is not going to suddenly descend into serious decadence. Having gone to that Catholic High School, the enemy’s agents have unfortunately honed his moral sense. As a result he’s likely to feel guilty just thinking about a girl in a bikini, and your hopes of him getting ‘down and dirty’ as you so crudely put it, are nothing but ridiculous fantasy.

You don’t seem to realize that little brats like him are actually repulsed by the more extreme forms of fun. The flamboyant decadence enjoyed in San Francisco and New Orleans is a bit rich for the little greenhorn. It’s an acquired taste dear boy! Too much too soon and they run away. You need to lead them downward slowly but surely.

Ignore Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday—whatever you want to call it. You may get him to take a few risks at a party or overindulge in some way, but the most predictable result of your bringing Fat Tuesday to his attention is that he will most certainly remember that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and what we don’t want him to do is attend Mass and go through that ridiculous ceremony where they smear ashes on their heads.

Block the whole thing out of his head Dogwart. Remind him of a television program he wants to watch, then get him to sit there all night and watch whatever banal trash comes on the screen. Make sure he has a big bag of snacks and a half gallon of ice cream. Once he’s sated he might sit there for hours simply hopping from one channel to another. Get him into this state of mind Dogwart, and keep him there, and he’ll be yours forever. Make sure he does this alone. Before long he’ll be in a downward spiral of loneliness and depression, and then you can really have some fun.

In my younger days I had several patients who might have accomplished great things for the enemy, but I succeeded in getting them to fritter away literally years of their lives watching mindless drivel on television. In the end their brains were fried very nicely and they not only stopped having creative thoughts, they stopped thinking altogether. Both of them grew enormously obese, missed the chance of marriage and one of them eventually descended into depression and blew his brains out. Messy for the cleaning lady, but satisfying; very satisfying indeed.

I know this sort of tempting is boring at first Dogwart, but persistence yields great rewards. Babylon wasn’t built in a day! We must learn to accept some drudgery as part of the price of our freedom. I realize that these souls are utterly boring, and when they finally make it onto our menu they are bland and tasteless. Never mind; we must all earn our bread and butter dear boy.

If you order today you won't get it in time to start with Lent, but you can catch up real quick! Go here.

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:23:00 +0000

Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Why I Don't Go to Church

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:37:00 +0000

I don't go to church to meet my friends.
I don't go to church to sing the songs I like
I don't go to church so the neighbors think I'm respectable
I don't go to church to increase my self esteem
I don't go to church to learn more about the Bible
I don't go to church to drink coffee and eat donuts
I don't go to church to have an emotional experience
I don't go to church to plan how to change the world
I don't go to church to "have fellowship"
I don't go to church to learn more about God and Jesus
I don't go to church to be a good example to my children
I don't go to church to please my mother
I don't go to church to avoid hell
I don't go to church to achieve heaven
I don't go to church to cheer on my team
I don't go to church to feel spiritual
I don't go to church to be better than everyone else
I don't go to church to boost moral
I don't go to church to launch an agenda

I don't make the church. The church makes me.

Look not on my sins, but the faith of your church.

The church is the four men who took paralyzed me on a long journey to meet the Lord.

The church is the four men who took apart the roof--everything that separated me from my Lord and God.

The church is the four men who brought me-- paralyzed by sin-- and lowered me down to where I ought to be--at the feet of Jesus.

The church is the four men who brought me to receive forgiveness and healing.

The church is my mother. Within the church I was spiritually conceived, gestated, brought to life, given birth, nursed and nurtured.

It's simple:

The Church is the Body of Christ and so I go to church so that the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ might preserve my body and soul unto everlasting life.

Articles Archive

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:29:00 +0000

The articles archive in the left sidebar has lots of good stuff in it. Most of it is free, but there are a few longer articles that cost a couple of bucks to download. Check it out and see what you think.

When this blog moves over to Patheos in a few weeks' time I'll continue to load up all my archived articles.

I would do so now, but Blogger keeps getting jammed when I try to create new pages.

Catholic Evangelism

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Evangelize with holy cards.

Here's the idea: I have had holy cards printed up with a beautiful Catholic image on the front and Bible verses on the back. It makes non-Catholics think twice--"errr a Catholic holy card, but with Bible verses??!! Maybe those Catholics know their Bible after all!!"

So for example, on the back of the image of the Blessed Mother is the text:

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, Blessed are you among women" -- Lk. 1.28

Jesus said about Mary, "Behold Thy Mother" Jn. 19.27

Jesus commanded, "Honor thy Mother" Mt. 15.4

Mary said, "All generations shall call me blessed." Lk. 1.48

On the back of the card with Jesus in the Eucharist the text reads:

Jesus said, "Take, eat this is my body" Mt.14.22

If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh,for the life of the wordl. Jn.6.51

Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life within you." Jn. 6.53

St Paul wrote, "The cup we bless..is a participation with the blood of Christ...the bread we break is a participation in the Body of Christ."

There is also a Divine Mercy card and a Jesus-Body of Christ-Church card.

So here's how it works: Catholics buy the holy cards and hand them out like Protestants do gospel tracts. It's real easy, at the supermarket check out you just smile and say to the person helping, "Would you like one of these prayer cards? It's a reminder that Jesus loves you and I'm praying for you" or "Why not take one of these nice prayer cards?"

Or maybe you leave it at the restaurant with your tip (but you better leave a good tip!)

Or if you're too shy to do that you put it in the envelope when you pay a bill. Somebody somewhere opens those envelopes!

You can think of more ways to share the word of God and the Catholic faith. Heck, you can stand on the street corner and hand them out!

I am encouraging our people in the parish to use them, but if you would like to purchase some of these cards they are just a quarter each. Buy 20 cards for $5.00.

Five cards of each style.

If you would like some just send me an email: and I'll tell you how to make payment and we'll send them in the mail.

A Prophecy for the Church in America

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:22:00 +0000

A prophet is not necessarily someone who has a supernatural vision of the future. He may simply be a person who can see certain trends in the present, understand the underlying issues and therefore attempt to predict how things may go in the future.

Here are some trends I see in the American Church and how I see the future developing. The first thing is the disintegration of denominationalism. It used to be that the different Protestant groups were distinct in their theology and their style of worship. There were boundaries. You pretty much knew what to expect in a Southern Baptist Church, a Methodist Church, Lutheran, Presbyterian or Episcopal. There were clear distinctions theologically and culturally and historically.

The boundaries are disappearing fast. In all Protestant churches there is a kind of post-modern pick and mix attitude. The old distinctive markers are falling and a new experimental attitude is taking place. So a relative of mine, a young Baptist minister, enthusiastically claims to "read all those guys" meaning that he avidly reads Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Independent and classical Lutheran and Methodist theologians. He and his generation are also open to all sorts of worship styles. Their attitude is shared by the younger generation of Evangelicals in all denominations. People are no longer Methodist or Presbyterian or Baptist for life and for clear theological reasons. Instead they gravitate to a church that suits them and their lifestyle. Utilitarianism and market forces reign supreme.

The two trends within the Protestant churches seem to be toward free "mega church" type worship which conforms to the trends in society or a reaction against that to move toward "liturgy". So a neighbor who goes to a conservative Presbyterian church likes to tell me how "liturgical" they are. They observe Advent and Lent and Ash Wednesday. They light candles on the "altar" when they "celebrate communion" and every once in a while they have "Choral Evensong." Another friend tells me he goes to a Baptist Church that is "very liturgical."

I predict that the disintegration of denominationalism will continue and that trends within the Catholic Church will converge with what is happening within Protestantism to produce some very interesting and new configurations.

As the "cultural Catholics" who were leaders in the seventies and eighties continue to die off, their children will be less likely to practice the Catholic faith. As it becomes increasingly odd to be a "faithful Catholic" in our society--even leading to persecution and isolation, the Catholics without any backbone will simply stop being Catholics. If they did not have enough faith and courage to send their children to Catholic school and take the teachings of the church seriously, then if hardship comes, they will melt away.

At the same time the Catholics who remain will have the fervor and dedication of the faithful Protestants who have been moving in a liturgical direction. These Protestants are looking not only for liturgy, but for the historic church--the apostolic church. They will be increasingly attracted to the Catholic faith and as they Catholic church population shifts in a more committed direction they will feel more at home there.

This is where the new Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter may play a very crucial role. As an increasing number of Protestants explore the liturgical and historical church they will be looking for a church that is faithful to the Scriptures, faithful to the historic liturgy, faithful to the magisterium and ready to show forth a committed, radical kind of Catholicism fully committed to the new Evangelization.

The short version: two vibrant forms of Christianity will emerge in the United States--a free flowing, relevant and 'cool' kind of personalistic Pentecostalism and a renewed and revitalized and young Catholicism. The others will fade away.

But I may be wrong. I'm not really a prophet...

Dealing with the Devil

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Go here for my latest post at Integrated Catholic Life-- on dealing with the devil.

Ideologies, Ideas and Idols

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Is Christianity an ideology? First we have to ask, "What is an ideology?" An ideology is a good idea. But when the good idea is the only idea it becomes not only an ideology, but an idol. That is to say, it is a god that looks good, but it is a false god, and as we know, all false gods must be thrown down. False religion must be named and shamed, and not only named and shamed, but damned.

This idol appears when Christianity is twisted into an ideology. This happens when the "good idea" becomes more important than the Christian religion and the Christian religion is made to serve the "good idea." How do we know when a "good idea" has become an ideology? It is when the "good idea" becomes the idea of the good. That is to say, the "good idea" becomes the only Good. When the "good idea" becomes such it is not a delightful ideal, but a destructive idol--an idol that will devour all that is offered at it's altar--for that is what all idols do. They devour.

The worldling treats the Christian religion as simply another ideology. That is because so many Christians have turned their religion into an ideology. The difference between the Christian religion and an ideology is that the Christian religion is not a good idea. It is God's idea. That is to day, it is divinely inspired. An ideology is just a good idea that somebody thought of. It is one good idea of many, and one need not be any better than another. Communism is a good idea. So is Capitalism. Monarchy is a good idea. So is Democracy.

The difference between the Christian religion and an ideology is that the Christian religion is more than a good idea. It is God's idea. That is to say, it is revealed to man by God. It is divinely inspired. Furthermore, the Christian religion is not essentially about an idea, but about a person.

However, the reason so many people consider the Christian religion to be just another ideology is because so many Christian scholars have told them so. They have maintained that the Christian religion is merely a human construct--made up by human beings in a particular social and historical context.

In other words, Christianity is, after all, simply a good idea. The problem is, they can't decide which good idea Christianity really embodies. So they choose the good idea they like best and then claim Christ as the authority. Allow me to coin a portmanteau word for such people: they are Christologues.

You can always spot a Christologue because their agenda is of this world, not the next. The Christologue wants to make the world a better place and believes that is what the Christian religion is all about. If he doesn't want to use the Christian religion to make the world a better place, he wants to use it to make his world a better place. The Christian religion will be used to make his church or school or family or parish or the person he sees in the mirror more agreeable and nice and more respectable and more successful.

His "big idea" gives him an interpretative grid through which he filters Christianity. Here is one example: The big idea is the need for peace and justice. This good idea then becomes the ideology by which everything else is judged and which drives everything--Biblical interpretation, the liturgy, church governance, finance, education, social involvement and politics. The Christian faith itself becomes the servant of the ideology. This is but one ideology of the Christologue. It may be racial purity, the dominance of a particular country or political party, a feminist or homosexualist agenda. It may be the cause of "freedom". It may be the driving force for a war of aggression. It may be the spark for terrorism.

Whatever the Christologue's cause, he has hijacked the Christian religion for himself and made it after his own image. He does this because he believes in a hotch potch of modernistic ideas:

The Christologue is guilty of relativism--the idea that there is no such thing as Truth or if there is, you cannot state it in any dogmatic way. For him Truth is relative, and unknowable so what becomes important is how practical the religion is.

The Christologue is guilty of historicism--that aspect of modernism which says the Christian religion is determined by historical circumstances by people with a certain historical worldview in a particular social context. He argues that we are in a different historical context and different social structure and so all can be changed to adapt to present needs.

The Christologue is guilty of utilitarianism--that aspect of modernism which says the Christian religion is essentially practical. It is not there primarily to save souls for eternity, but to make the world a better place.

The Christologue is guilty of sentimentalism--that aspect of modernism which says the Christian religion is there to make people feel good and be happy.

The list could go one. Modern Christianity is totally infested with Christologues. This is because the smoke of Satan--which is modernism--has got into every corner of Christianity.

At the heart of this false religion is the denial that the Christian religion is of supernatural origin. It is the attempt to make the Christian religion socially relevant, personally useful, usually pleasant and always up to date.

Spot the Christologues. They are all around you. They don't even know they are Christologues for they have simply swallowed the wisdom of the world that they were given by others.

Nevertheless, the threat of the Christologue should not be ignored. Their sincere work and their "good ideas" will destroy Christianity except for the promise that the gates of hell will not prevail.

Gargle for Lent

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:12:00 +0000

Gargle to get rid of a cold. "Gargoyle" to get rid of sin. The Gargoyle Code that is.

If you order The Gargoyle Code today you'll probably get it in time to start reading for Lent.

The Screwtape Letters type book for Catholics has a devilishly clever letter for each day in Lent from Shrove Tuesday through Easter Day.

It's bound to entertain, challenge and inspire. Go here to order.

The Prophetic Pope

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:49:00 +0000

The Anchoress quotes an early book by Joseph Ratzinger on the coming trials facing the Catholic Church. Go here.

It's All or Nuthin'

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:58:00 +0000

In the musical Oklahoma! Ado Annie and Will Parker sing a song about love saying that it's "All or Nuthin'." What they didn't realize is that they were also making a profound philosophical and theological statement. It is All or Nuthin'.

From the ridiculous to the sublime, Blessed Cardinal Newman writes in the Apologia, "I came to the conclusion that there was no medium in true philosophy between atheism and Catholicism, and that a perfectly consistent mind, under those circumstances in which it finds itself here below must embrace either the one or the other."

When we say it's All or Nuthin' we are making a big assumption with Newman that the person in question has a "perfectly consistent mind." Not many folks fall into that category, and this raises the question that a young guy who is about to go into the Dominican novitiate asked me the other day, "What do you say to a nihilist?"

My smart aleck answer was, "Nothing."

The nihilist must be given the credit for having a "perfectly consistent mind" because he has considered his options and chosen to believe that there is nuthin' rather than somthin'. My reply that the answer to the nihilist is to say nothing, has a deeper reasoning.

It is this: to say nothing is not only to affirm the nihilist's own belief--which is a negation, but it is also to affirm (by silence) the value of language, and therefore of meaning. What I mean to say is that what I say has meaning. In other words, there are words, and because there are words there is the Other. I am talking in riddles, but that too is the point, because riddles are only riddles because they have answers. A meaningless riddle is no riddle at all.

To put it more simply, the nihilist has chosen nothing, so he must have nothing. He must have no meaning, but if there is no meaning, then his nihilism has no meaning. But this cannot be so because we understand what he means by saying that he is a nihilist.

The nihilist has used words to tell us that he is a nihlist, and the simple use of words assumes that words have meanings and if words have meanings, then there is not only meaning, but words to convey that meaning. No wonder then that the inspired writer says, "In the beginning was the Word."

Because we use language a human being cannot be a nihilist. A gorilla might be a nihilist, but he is not able to tell us so. If the existence of language therefore annihilates the nihilist, it does more. Not only is the Word in the beginning, but "the Word was with God." Not only was the Word with God, but the Word was God. There is more: "Through the Word all things were made that were made."

Of course, I didn't make this up, and neither did the Apostle John. It was also there in the philosophy of the Greeks, who thought all these things through before some sophomoric 'nihilist' came along imagining that there was nothing. The upshot of all this is that language not only proves that there is meaning, but if there is meaning--any meaning at all, then there must be someone who means it. If there is meaning to the universe, then there is someone who had an idea, and that person articulated that idea into words.

From that word all things were created, and they were created out of the nuthin' that the nihilist longs for. This belief we call creation ex nihilo.

Language therefore not only proves that there is somthin' rather than nuthin', but it proves that there is meaning, and if there is meaning then there is a God who creates all that is out of nuthin' at all.

How that God goes on to communicate to Man is also given in that concise chapter of philosophy at the beginning of John's gospel, for there we learn that this same Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Or you could say He who was All came to our Nuthin' to give us All.

All or Nuthin' indeed.

Gargoyle Code Author Interview

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:03:00 +0000

I'm interviewed over here on Catholic Online about The Gargoyle Code. Worth a try if you're suffering from insomnia...

Follow My Tweets

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:35:00 +0000

Follow me on Twitter by clicking on the Twitter link on the left sidebar...

The End of a Beautiful Friendship

Fr Dwight Longenecker (Fr Dwight Longenecker) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:14:00 +0000

William Fahey on the end of a beautiful friendship...go here.