Culture War Discussion is Crucial

The issue of culture wars has been on my mind since I had breakfast with the editor from the Observer and posted on it on April 23. The reason that it bothers me so much is that the issues of human life and marriage have divided the country so deeply. If the division is not resolved through the political process, the price could be very high. Recall the words from Lincoln’s second inaugural address:

…“Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

(The first quote is from Matt 18:7. (KJV). I prefer the Jerusalem bible translation “Alas for the world that there should be such causes of falling! Indeed there must be, but alas for anyone who provides them!” The second is from Psalm 19.)

For other views on the dangers of culture war see Huntington’s Warning by Rich Lowry and Red, Blue and … so 17th Century by Joel Kotkin

While I don’t have a solution, I would ask that culture warriors - liberal and conservative, pro life and pro choice - meditate on Lincoln’s phrase “with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,…” There is humility packed into this phrase. Lincoln recognized that someone else might have been given a different view or that his might be skewed. He simply played his part, trusting that “the Almighty has His own purposes.” If we all did likewise it might remove some of the bitterness from the culture wars.

Comments

[Dave McDonald]

Thank you for this thoughtful reflection.

You have almost singlehandedly renewed my enthusiasm for reading Catholic blogs. Because of the widespread and high-pitched level of ire, bile and self-righteous sanctimony I was very near to writing them off entirely.

You've demonstrated to me that, while I will likely always have to sort through a lot of bad fruit, I should stay motivated by the hope of coming across something helpful.