The Rejection Of History Will Lead To The End Of Our Society

Today we are discussing a problem facing all of us.  This problem has gotten larger and the problem is that no one is recognizing it as a problem.  Well, no one save Bishop Fulton Sheen, when he told America almost 90 years ago that:

America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance - it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.

Clearly, in the times we live in today, we need to be open-minded to all things correct?  Well, it appears that our open-mindedness to all has shut a large door to the values that we have held so dear to in the past.  What made America great was not being broad-minded but steadfast in our beliefs.  We were great because of our faith in God and our faith in each other.  Once we lost one we have apparently lost the other.  

The Pew Research Center found just 27 percent of millennials say they attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared to 38 percent of baby boomers. And only about half of millennials--adults born between 1981 and 1996--say they believe in God with absolute certainty, and only about 1 in 10 millennials say religion is very important in their lives.  There is a new term now- Culturally Christian. These are people who grew up in the Church or maybe their parents or grandparents grew up in the Church, but they no longer believe.  Today, remarkably, the majority of the people in the US would be Culturally Christian, Atheist,  Agnostic, or a combination of the three.  This would be a great difference from 1956 when almost 80% of Catholics attended Mass at least once a week. 

What does a Culturally Christian America mean to the future of the Catholic Church?  Many people may not think about this but here are three things to ponder right now.

First, who will be our priests in the future?  What will happen to vocations when currently such a small percentage of the current youth are in Religious education programs?

Second, what will happen to the families of the future when so many of the people who will marry will no longer be going to church?  What will happen to their families, who will teach their children Catholic principles in their home?

Third, what will happen to the Church itself when more and more people fall away after baptism and never get another Sacrament in the Church?

Remember George Santayana's quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  Maybe this is why there has been such a strong effort to make the young in our country forget so much about our history.  

Bishop Fulton Sheen explained it this way, “The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”

In an opinion piece, Opinion: Americans’ Ignorance of History Is A National Scandal, in the Washington Post, dated Feb. 20, 2019, Max Boot wrote the following”

Is the study of history becoming, well, history?

According to Benjamin Schmidt of Northeastern University, the number of bachelor’s degrees granted in history declined from 34,642 in 2008 to 24,266 in 2017 even as other majors, such as computer science and engineering, have seen rising enrollments. Today, fewer than 2 percent of male undergraduates and fewer than 1 percent of females major in history, compared with more than 6 percent and nearly 5 percent, respectively, in the late 1960s. History departments are cutting courses and curtailing hires because of falling enrollments. The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point may even abolish its entire history department. History education in schools is so poor that students often enter college ignorant of the past — and leave just as unenlightened.

A survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that “more Americans could identify Michael Jackson as the composer of ‘Beat It’ and ‘Billie Jean’ than could identify the Bill of Rights as a body of amendments to the U.S. Constitution,” “more than a third did not know the century in which the American Revolution took place,” and “half of the respondents believed the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation or the War of 1812 were before the American Revolution.” Oh, and “more than 50 percent of respondents attributed the quote, ‘From each according to his ability to each according to his needs’ to either Thomas Paine, George Washington or Barack Obama.” It used to go without saying that this was one of Bernie Sanders’s most famous lines

 In the Nov. 3, 2017, Daily SIgnal article entitled, “Millennials Are Clueless About Communism. Here’s Why That’s a Problem,”  written by Jared Stepman he explained the following:

The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union ended the Cold War, but it didn’t end the ongoing battle of ideas between liberty and collectivism. A recently released survey by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation revealed some disturbing facts about what millennials think of communism and socialism. Some of the results are a little disturbing and could have big implications for the future of our country. For instance, the poll found that about half of millennials said they would rather live under socialism or communism than capitalism. The poll also found that nearly 1 in 5 millennials think Joseph Stalin was a “hero.” Millennials now make up the largest generation in America, and we’re seeing some deeply worrisome trends,” said Marion Smith, executive director for the Victims of Communism, according to MarketWatch. “Millennials are increasingly turning away from capitalism and toward socialism and even communism as a viable alternative.”

The findings of this study should be a wake-up call to those who think that communism is no longer a threat to the United States and the West. Young people, who had little personal experience with the half-century battle between Soviet tyranny and American freedom. It is a sad indictment on a generation that grew up with more prosperity than any in human history would turn on the system that brought them there. Alas, socialism appears to be the opiate of prosperous utopians.

Shawn Langlois, Nov. 2, 2017, wrote the following in a Market Watch article entitled, “Millennials: Communism Sounds Pretty Chill”

“Millennials now make up the largest generation in America, and we’re seeing some deeply worrisome trends,” said Marion Smith, executive director of the organization. “Millennials are increasingly turning away from capitalism and toward socialism and even communism as a viable alternative.”

What will happen if America does not wake up?  Brothers and Sisters, I will tell you this- the truth is the truth and it always has been.  Remember these words of Bishop Sheen, “ Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.”

We must stay the course with Christ and follow his commandments, we do not change to fit our society, we should lead our society to change towards Christ.