What is the image of the counter-culture to you? It’s not a marijuana joint in the mouth of a raging hippie anymore. It’s a pacifier in the mouth of a screaming baby.
Counter-cultural is no longer the Harley roaring down on an open stretch of highway at 90 mph. It’s the van parked in a church parking lot. Now, that’s counter-cultural.
As evidence I’ll bet you see a lot more hippies on television than you will families with 5,6,or 7 children. Let’s face it, Catholicism is the true counter to the pervading culture of death.
But one motto of the hippie counterculture still rings true. When Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young implored people to “teach your children well,” the counterculture of the 60’s and 70’s took it to heart. Not so much with us. And that’s a problem.
One of the thoughts that gives comfort to pro-lifers is that we’ll simply have more babies than pro-choicers. And those little babies will grow up into adult voters. Demographically, pro-lifers will continue to become a larger percentage of the population and eventually win the battle against legalized abortion. This is sometimes called the “Roe Effect.” In short, pro-choicers are colluders in a slow motion suicide pact.
And you want to know the sad part? We’re not winning. I know what you’re wondering, how do you not win if your opponent is in a suicide pact?
Here’s how. While there is much data to corroborate the assumption that children will often mirror their parent’s political and religious affiliations I worry that many of us continue handing our children over to be educated by the secularist progressives that dominate public schools and most colleges and universities.
I bring this up because a woman with five children said to me just yesterday that her oldest son just came out as agnostic. Now, mind you, this is a good Catholic woman who I see at Church all the time. I asked her where her son goes to college and she told me an Ivy League university. She said she wished she’d pushed him towards a Catholic university.
Now, this young man may very well return to the faith after a brief flirtation with his professor’s favorite philosopher but he may not. But the thing that got me was this woman said she figured she had to send him to the best school he got into to ensure his future. Best? It seems to me that “best” needs to be defined by matching it with a goal. And if the goal is to make a lot of money in the future I’m sure the young man’s college choice is a good one. But is that the goal? Should our view of your “future” be so limited to our time here?
It seems to me that the counter-cultural act of having children must be the first of a lifetime of counter-cultural acts that includes passing on the faith to our children in a way that the faith isn’t something they do on Sundays but it informs every decision they make - even their political ones and yes, even their college choice.
We must make available to our children 2,000 years of the best thinking supplied to us by the Church. Without a strong bedrock logic of their faith our children may be unable to counter the arguments of secular-leaning peers, never mind tenured professors intent on indoctrination. Yet so many of us keep sending our children to them, no questions asked. It’s good for our children’s future we tell ourselves. But what of their eternal future?
We must teach our children well so they can counter the culture of death. They are our only hope to ensure that the culture of life becomes mainstream.
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“pushed him towards a Catholic university”
- a lot of ‘Catholic’ universities are no better. What was it the Arc Bp Sheen said? Something about ‘if you want your child to lose their faith, send them to a Catholic school’?
Thomas Aquinas College, Christendom College, University of Dallas, Franciscan University Steubenville. Send your kids there, don’t accept any substitutes!
Send your kid to college, any college, and they will lose their faith. We do our best to teach them the CATHOLIC FAITH and with grace from God, they will come out ok—but the temptations abound.
Do not send your kids to Notre Dame. It’s no longer Catholic, except in name only.
Do not send your children to Notre Dame. It’s Catholic in name only.
“Secularisation” hit the church hard back in the 70’s and, in the name of accommodation, diversity, tolerance, and dialogue, the bedrock of faith and ethics that defined Catholicism has eroded under its impact. The drift of democracy in the direction of indulging the individual invaded popular church thinking with the triumph of subjectivity. The idea that we each have a conscience through which the voice of God works to summon us to the highest good, even against our desire for self-indulgence, has been set aside. Everyone is let to think he or she should guide themselves by what their own personal nature craves. Convenience and self-interest are the signposts of the current ethos. Profit, at any cost to your soul, but try and profit, is the mantra. Get as much money and sex and material abundance as you can in this life and let the devil take the hindmost. I’m not saying everyone in American culture is like this, but look at the models for this behavior: Madoff, Woods, John Edwards. How can we educate our children to a Christian standard and pull against this ethos? We have to model Christian valies in our marriages, find a parish where they are preached, choose a school where they are embodied. And early on we need to talk with our children about the temptations that are right there beckoning to undermine their faith and morals. We need to form their consciences so that they learn to try to hear God speak to them. John Henry Newman is an excellent guide for how to do this. Ignatius of Loyola taught discernment of spirits so as to know how to choose the good, the true, the beautiful. We have the way, the truth, and the life in Christ himself and the Gospels. We have the sacraments and the guidance of Benedict XVI. We have the resources. There is no reason to think we are lost and without recourse. But we have to avail ourselves and teach our children to do the same. We have to stand up and be proud as Catholics, not bargain away our souls to get the cheaper satisfactions offered by a culture that treats the world like a baby’s pacifier.
The Cardinal Newman Society lists “authentic” Catholic colleges in America.
“teach your children in the way they should go and when they grow old, they will not depart from it”
No guarantees but gird their loins with the faith and practice your faith in all that you do.
Hem your days in prayer in they are less likely to unravel.
You don’t have to wait for a secular university education to make atheists of your children: just send them to public high school and then let them watch whatever they want to on t.v. That will achieve a similar result.
Parents dont don’t a chance and the church even less with what is going on in society today.
Our oldest son graduated from Sait Paul Seminary with degrees in Thology and Divinity. He no longer goes to church.
Our youngest son went to the Univ of Mn and became part of some atheistic cult while in his Freshman year.
We have been and continue to be active in the church and led with example.
It’s probably best to just keep them barefoot and on the farm.
Several people have already alluded to this, but studies show that sending your children to Catholic colleges and universities will in no way guarantee their adherence to the faith. The reach and effect of the culture of death is just too pervasive. Personally, I think some very orthodox Catholic institutions can provide an appropriate campus culture and that students attending these colleges have a better chance of falling in with the right kinds of people, but again, nothing is for sure. It probably needs to begin earlier, maybe much earlier (grade school, instead of high school?) and needs to be nurtured by loving parents concerned day-in, day-out for their children’s formation and welfare. Its a toughie!
My children went to Catholic school through 8th grade, but their Catholic faith and teachings came from my schooling them at home. I had them go to public high school,and everyone told me I was crazy,why would I send children to a public high school. I trusted they were ready to go out and stand strong and firm and evangelize. And they did, they had teachers as well as students constantly asking about the Catholic faith. Many came to embrace the Catholic faith because the had a good example in front of them daily. Unfortunately, too many of the students that went to their Catholic schools k-12 are the ones out there partying, sleeping around, and not attending Mass. My children choose to attend a Catholic university where they evangelize daily and more are embracing the faith.
I believe Dr. Kreeft has pointed out that a state university can be a good choice if it has a strong Catholic culture on campus: a good Newman society or a strong local parish for instance. Most importantly, there needs to be have been a vibrant Catholic home and family that the child grew up in. It helps to have that solid foundation and a well-tested faith before the student leaves home. That family life should continue even when the child is away. And Prayer, lots of Prayer.
Archbishop Sheen said in the 70s to send your kids to a Catholic school where they could loose their faith- send them to a public school where they can defend their faith.
I teach my kids their catechism at home, but they go to a public school. They stand up for the truth when conversations arise. Some have been interesting, especially with the election and Obama’s pro-abortion stance.
I’m blessed that each of my kids have in their classes children with like-minded mothers who are concerened about our children’s faith. Although some of the other “Catholic” children their are not distinguishable from those who are “unchurched.”
I do plan on sending them to University of Dallas, or Texas A & M, which has a great number of priestly vocations coming from it because of it’s strong Catholic center.
Great column!
Does the Wheat not grow among the weeds? PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! The Eucharist and the Rosary are your strongest tools!! Don’t fall into the temptation of believing that “they” are winning! “They” are not our “OPPONENTS” ... The DEVIL is! We are all children of GOD. “THEY” are our “Brothers and Sisters” loved by God.
We are all sent to evangelize and help our “Brothers”. Did Jesus not come for those of us who were lost and felt abandoned? Our ministry is just much greater now-a-days. If all GOOD Catholics were to move away an live a perfect world away from temptations… it would be called HEAVEN!!
The evil one does not SLEEP, EAT, REST. You can run to the DESERT and he will find you.
Don’t be AFRAID! Jesus Loves You! Jesus Saves! Jesus with the Immaculate Heart of Mary will TRIUMPH!!!
http://thenewmanguide.com/TableofContents/tabid/506/Default.aspx
So true, Matt! I often remark to my husband, the reason that we homeschool is not necessarily to give our children the greatest education possible, rather the goal is to get them to heaven. Of course they have free will, but the groundwork and the prayers now, will only help them in the future.
I’m already worried about my 9 year old daughter’s Catholic future. I have two nephews (sons of scientists—mom, a practicing Catholic; dad, a smug atheist) who grew up Catholic (both altar boys), and starting in their high school years (public schools in a very progressive city), their faith gradually faded. After a science education in college they are now both, at the very least, dismissive of the Catholic Church and their faith is non-existent. I would give anything to guarantee that my daughter stays strongly Catholic throughout her life.
Catholics have been ‘counter-cultural’ for 2000 years. I never understood why ‘rebelling’, in practice, meant following exactly what everyone else did to fit into pop-culture. As James Thurber said, “why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?” Wanna be counter-cultural in an overwhelmingly secular culture? Be an educated Catholic who can defend the Church. I pray that if my daughter ‘rebels’, she does so in a way that brings her closer to the truth, beauty, goodness and wisdom of the Catholic Church. Watching your kids grow up is wonderful, but it can also be a little terrifying.
Mark, I hear you. From my own point of view, what goes on in the home matters so much. Yes, our children have free will and will do as they wish.
But when we as parents love our faith, know it, and defend it from those outside the home (maybe inside too), our children see this and absorb it, IMHO.
I have a very “scientifically” minded 12 yr. old who has asked me some challenging, curious answers. Never malisciously, just curiously. Because of the Register, EWTN, New Advent.com, This Rock Magazine, reading scriptures, etc. I’m able to answer his queries most of the time, or direct him to where he can find an answer.
I also have the full support of a faithful Catholic husband. Have to say, having a scoffing spouse would be tough.
You and all Catholic families are in my prayers.
Bishop Sheen was speaking primarily about elementary education and maybe high school. At the college level, if the school is really catholic, your child has a good chance of meeting a significant other, that still has a living soul. Imagine a partner in life that helps you get to heaven instead of pulling you backward.
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