Our Secular Future | America Magazine

The conservative religious magazine First Things - founded by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus - is a prime venue for conservative Catholics.  They are certain that the Church's most conservative stands (e.g..the ban on artificial contraception, adherence to heterosexual-only marriage) are at the center of Christian belief.  I find that proposition baseless.  But here is an offering from that quarter.  Personally I think it is...well, just read it. - gwc
Our Secular Future | America Magazine:
by R.B. Reno  - Editor, First Things

The Heart of the Conflict

To be blunt: Religious people who hold traditional values are in the way of what many powerful people want. We are in the way of widespread acceptance of abortion, unrestricted embryonic stem cell research and experimentation with fetal tissue. We are in the way of doctor-assisted suicide, euthanasia and the mercy-killing of genetically defective infants. We are in the way of new reproductive technologies, which will become more important as our society makes sex more sterile. We are in the way of gay rights and the redefinition of marriage. We are in the way of the nones and the engaged progressives and their larger goal of deconstructing traditional moral limits so that they can be reconstructed in accord with their vision of the future.
Traditional religious people are in the way, and many of our fellow Americans are doing their best to push us out of the way. The outspoken among us have been largely expelled from higher education and other institutions of cultural authority. This exclusion should not surprise us. Traditional Christianity and churchgoing no longer define the social consensus in the United States. The Protestant era is over, and in its demise we have not seen the Catholic moment that the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, founder of First Things, hoped for. Instead, we seem to be heading into the secular moment, which is almost certain to find ways to redefine religious liberty, or at least try.

'via Blog this'