Denver Catholic

2024_DC Magazine_April

Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1518662

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 34 of 59

Indeed, it is through this ambiguity that the progressive religion has gained so many followers. As The Religion of the Day points out, "Progressive campaigns often attack situations that are genuinely morally problematic" (30), and "Progressive religions often begin with an assault upon real injustice" (31). While their cause may seem noble and even well-inten- tioned, the reality is that they are operating from an entirely different ontological premise than that of the Christian worldview. This is perhaps most evident in their attacks on the unborn and the elderly. Rather than heed the distinctly Christian call to love others who are suffering, the progressive religion seeks to eliminate suffering altogether: "The deeper principles of the two faiths only emerge ... when it becomes apparent that poverty cannot be overcome, or that disease and old age cannot be entirely conquered" (31). It is here that the progressive religion overplays its hand: "At that point, the logic of the Progressive mindset makes itself felt, and an insistent call is sounded to eliminate the poor, to abort the abnormal, and to euthanize the elderly. It is not so much love for those who suffer, but anger rooted in pride at the fact of suffering that provides the deepest motive power in the drive for societal change among Progressive faiths" (31). The key difference here is this: Christianity proposes an eternal hope, one rooted in love of God and neighbor, while the progressive religion only sows despair under the guise of a false and temporary hope — a hope that will never find its right fulfillment. As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "A healthy mind pays more attention to what is good than to what is bad"; and as can be clearly seen in its tenets, the progressive reli- gion only sees the bad. Christianity sees the bad too, of course, but all that is bad in the world is illumined through the infinite good of Christ. To use a layman's analogy, the constant revo- lutions of progressivism are fueled by a "glass half empty" mentality, while the divine reve- lation of the Christian religion sees the world and everything in it through a "glass half full" mentality. They may appear to be the same glass to the untrained eye, but they are diametrically opposed to each other. ⊲ It is not through man-made revolution but divine revelation that we find our proper place in the cosmos. 33 DENVER CATHOLIC | APR-MAY 2024

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Denver Catholic - 2024_DC Magazine_April