A prophet makes a vow of love, not of alienation. Daniel Berrigan wrote those words – and they need to be highlighted today, when a lot of sincere, committed, religious people self-define as cultural warriors, as prophets at war with secular culture.
This is the stance of many seminarians, clergy, bishops and whole denominations of Christians today. It is a virtual mantra within the Religious Right and in many Catholic seminaries. In this outlook, secular culture is seen as a negative force that is threatening our faith, morals, religious liberties and churches. Secular culture is viewed as, for the main part, being anti-Christian, anti-ecclesial and anticlerical, and its political correctness is seen to protect everyone except Christians. More worrisome for these cultural warriors is what they regard as the “slippery slope”, wherein they see our culture as sliding ever further from our Judeo-Christian roots. In the face of this, they believe, the churches must be highly vigilant, defensive and in a warrior stance.
