In the title: modern democracies: lovers’ of death, ‘lovers’ is deliberately in the possessive, for they own the culture of death which they have, primarily by legislation, frequently by their supreme, or equivalent courts, forged into law, in the cold, black, fires of hell, the culture of death.
When we pray, as we must, for those in government at all levels, we would to well to beseech the Holy Trinity that this word penetrate the hearts of all in government: Hear, therefore, kings, and understand; learn, you magistrates of the earth’s expanse! Give ear, you who have power over multitudes and lord it over throngs of peoples! Because authority was given you by the Lord and sovereignty by the Most High, who shall probe your works and scrutinize your counsels! Because, though you were ministers of His kingdom, you did not judge rightly, and did not keep the law, nor walk according to the will of God, Terribly and swiftly He shall come against you, because severe judgment awaits the exalted—For the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test. [Wis. 6: 1-11]
It is true that many of our Christian brothers and sisters live in countries where there is persecution by blood, and not just by terrorists, while all Christians who live in ersatz democracies live under the immense weight of the culture of darkness and death where the only politically correct discrimination is to be anti-Christian and primarily anti-Catholic.
In this 21st century we are called to be one with Christ in His sufferings as we live out the Beatitudes: Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. [Mt. 5:10-12]
Even just a cursory check of actual and semi-democratic countries around the world today reveals virtually everyone in either a state of flux, i.e. a weakening of true democracy, or a state of chaos, the former would include Canada, Great Britain, the United States, the latter Bolivia, Chile, Hungary.
Even states where democracy is more of a fledging peoples’ aspiration than fact, unrest is intense, such as in Hong Kong and Iran.
In a telling article in CRISIS MAGAZINE, Donald DeMarco notes, referring to the recent Canadian election: What is most striking about the election for this observer, living in Canada, is that many Canadian voters seemed indifferent to the fact that their culture is clearly shifting in a totalitarian direction. A profile of the candidates is a sufficient indication of this. The Trudeau government required students applying for government-funded summer jobs to sign an attestation professing their support of abortion, same-sex marriage, and the LGBTQ coalition. He banned certain Christian summer camps serving underprivileged children from participating in the Canada Summer Jobs Program because of their religious beliefs. (This “is nothing short of anti-religious bigotry,” commented Justice Centre staff lawyer Marty Moore.) He has committed $7.1 billion over the next ten years to promote abortion at home and abroad. He will not allow Liberal MPs to vote their conscience on matters of abortion and LGBTQ matters, and he will not allow pro-life candidates to run as Liberals. He opposes conscience rights for health care workers. [1]
Totalitarianism, no matter how it is disguised, in Canada’s case Trudeau and those of his ilk disguise it under various slimy garbs such as ‘social justice’ or ‘equality’, it is what it is, the persistent destruction of democracy of which unrelenting attacks on Christianity and the Gospel of Life, and on the family, are foundational policies.
If we look at the famous Five Eyes [Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States] intelligence alliance, each of these countries is a democracy with Judeo-Christian roots, each also, when it comes more so to Christianity, has seen in the past sixty plus decades a precipitous drop in adherence to the Faith, in practice of faith and an increase in the culture of death, a thickening of the darkness and all but persecution by blood of Christianity and Judaism.
True there are countries in the world where Islamic terrorists, but not exclusively them, slaughter Christians and Jews, sometimes this happens in the above-mentioned countries.
What is disheartening is the often-weak response of governments, for fear of labeling the terrorists, Islamic ones mostly, as what they are, that is the group/religion they belong to, because that would be discriminatory.
As attributed to W.C. Fields: “a rose by any other name is still a rose.”
Is it any wonder so many people of faith, even many citizens of no particular faith, feel so anxious and discouraged living in this culture of darkness and death, under the guise of increasingly totalitarian ‘democratic’ governments?
While as yet in the democracies that comprise the Five Eyes governments, and most others, are not persecuting by blood, yet as DeMarco illustrates there are other ways of applying persecutorial pressure.
True, while actual democracies do not have concentration camps per se, restricting the right, for example, to protest the death camps of abortion clinics anywhere near such places, and putting people who violate the distance restrictions in jail, here we already see the extent to which democratic governments are willing to push against their own people.
Thus, is it any wonder we see in modern democracies an increasing distrust of government, of politicians, a polarizing of populations into hardened political allegiances, and an increase of politicians tweaking the truth into whatever variations of facts best suit their continuing to hold power?
Benjamin Carter Hett, in his work which while actually a work of history in the current context is prescient, reflects on how Hilter, in his efforts to gain absolute power, stated: “the greatness of a lie there is always a certain element of credibility.” [2a]
Given the polarization in most democracies either along party lines or around issues such as climate change, Hett also notes the hardening of “political confessionalization” in the politics of the years in Germany leading to Hitler’s seizure of power: “……people are often conditioned to voting as they do by the influence of the social surroundings: by their neighbours, colleagues, churches, clubs, newspapers, and other media.” [2b]
Modern politics, such as surrounding the Brexit issue in Great Britain, are proof positive modern politicians know how to manipulate confessionalization. The disingenuous expressions, of anti-life politicians, for example, that their goal is protection of rights, are Hitleresque in their vileness, since the subsequent laws they pass first and foremost deny pre-born, already living human beings, the right to life outside the womb.
“There are hours when we can do only one thing: gather up all our extreme woe and extreme plight into one imploring shout, one simple cry for mercy and help. And to cry it out or scream it or weep it or whimper it to God who wants to save. To moan out all the woe within us into the sacred space where God touches our self and loves it and is good to it. [3]
Like Fr. Alfred Delp, who wrote the above while waiting to be executed by the Nazis in 1945, exploring in these essays the reality of living in democracies who are lovers’ of death, we too must hand our extreme woe and plight over to our Beloved Abba, to our Beloved Redeemer Jesus, to our Beloved Holy Spirit who guides us into the depths of fidelity to Christ and the Gospel of Life in these dark days.
Jesus comforts us when it comes to the challenge of confronting evil spirits in our day, showing us the effectiveness of prayer and fasting. {Mk. 9:29}.
[1] https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/welcome-to-the-peoples-democratic-republic-of-canada
[2]a: pp.38-39; b: p.67, from: THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY, Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett; [Allen Lane] Penguin Random House, 2018
[3] quoted by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis in: FIRE of MERCY HEART of the WORLD, Volume II, p. 461, Ignatius Press, 2003
© 2019 Fr. Arthur Joseph
