{"id":7193,"date":"2011-11-14T08:05:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T14:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=7193"},"modified":"2011-11-14T14:37:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T20:37:24","slug":"the-sky-is-not-falling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/the-sky-is-not-falling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky is Not Falling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a news junkie.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably a diagnosable sickness.<\/p>\n

I get out of bed in the morning and immediately grab my phone off of the alarm clock cradle in which it rests.\u00a0 The glow of the screen guides my steps to the bathroom.\u00a0 I turn on the water for the shower and get my first \u201cfix\u201d of the day while I wait for the water to warm up.<\/p>\n

The news I read is mostly political, but from time to time, I venture on to Catholic news sites for a different perspective.\u00a0 I enjoy reading about the goings-on of the world through the lenses of our faith but, over the last several months, I have noticed a trend, a Chicken Little \u201cthe sky is falling\u201d mentality that permeates much of American Catholic reporting.<\/p>\n

There is little doubt that we are fighting a culture war.\u00a0 To take it one step further, I\u2019d say that there is little doubt that we are fighting a spiritual battle. The struggle between God and Satan for the hearts and minds of people the world over makes itself infinitely evident each day.\u00a0 Why is it then, that we seem so consistently surprised by what we see?<\/p>\n

As disciples and followers of Christ, we are called to be different.\u00a0 Our system of values should be inherently different because we see the world for what it is rather than what it pretends to be when imbued with all of the lies and deceptions of our enemy.<\/p>\n

When we answer the call to be like Jesus, to love in a radical way and seek holiness that magnifies our rightful place in creation, we challenge the status quo of the world around us that lives by the rule of personal gain and ambition.\u00a0\u00a0 While we should never seek to condemn or judge others, the fact remains that when we answer a higher calling, people around us can\u2019t help but react defensively.<\/p>\n

Jesus knew that, as believers, we would face this kind of persecution.\u00a0 In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, \u201cblessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me.\u00a0 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be be great in heaven.\u00a0 Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you\u201d (Matthew 5:11-12, NABRE).<\/p>\n

So, if we are to expect this kind of persecution, why are we so surprised when we receive it?\u00a0 I suspect that it\u2019s because our expectations and values as Americans so often conflict with our expectations and values as Christians.\u00a0 As Americans, we expect religious liberty, the freedom to express our religious values in any way we see fit.\u00a0 We get defensive when lawsuits are filed that would limit our expressions of faith in public life.\u00a0 We scream and holler when government programs undermine the values that are central to our faith.\u00a0 In short, we\u2019d just like to assume that Jesus didn\u2019t have to be right when he foretold of persecution against believers.
\nI am not calling for us, as Catholics, to give up on the culture war.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we should roll over and stop defending our values.\u00a0 It just seems like we can tone down the level of shocked disbelief and fervent declarations of the evil around us.\u00a0 First and foremost, it seems that we should respond in prayer and a quiet commitment to live differently.\u00a0 On the social front of our war, I have rarely experienced a situation in which the loudest voice takes the day.\u00a0 No, its usually the mostly saintly that prevail, the ones that quietly and unwaveringly commit to what is right.<\/p>\n

After all, the sky is not falling.\u00a0 The battle is not lost.\u00a0 It\u2019s already been won by the one to whom we need to turn in prayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a news junkie.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably a diagnosable sickness. I get out of bed in the morning and immediately grab my phone off of the alarm clock cradle in which it rests.\u00a0 The glow of the screen guides my steps to the bathroom.\u00a0 I turn on the water for the shower and get my… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,90],"tags":[359,330,106,358],"class_list":["post-7193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blog","category-faith-blog","tag-culture","tag-jesus","tag-news-2","tag-spiritual-warfare","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124040,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/06\/a-response-to-what-sucks-about-the-catholic-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":7193,"position":0},"title":"A Response to “What Sucks about the Catholic Church”","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"June 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Every spring brings the Church a batch of shiny new Catholics, and every year I see the same list of complaints. No, not the ones about people \"taking your pew.\" The ones about the niggling weaknesses in the Church. Many adults who enter the Catholic Church, especially those who were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Response to \"What Sucks about the Catholic Church,\" at AustinCNM.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/acnmreponsetowhatsucks-550x394.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/acnmreponsetowhatsucks-550x394.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/acnmreponsetowhatsucks-550x394.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":325318,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/can-we-be-catholic-and-american-archbishop-chaput-tocqueville-notre-dame\/","url_meta":{"origin":7193,"position":1},"title":"Can We Be Catholic and American? (A Response to Archbishop Chaput’s Bishop’s Symposium Talk)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"November 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Author's note: As commenter DanC kindly pointed out, I had my Chaput speeches mixed up. The post below has been corrected from its originally published version to refer to the correct context and original text. I apologize for any confusion I caused. 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