{"id":37471,"date":"2024-04-14T01:34:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37471"},"modified":"2024-04-14T01:34:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:34:54","slug":"responding-to-the-political-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/responding-to-the-political-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to the Political Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

We live in a hyper-politicized society where one can readily see the world\u2019s brokenness on multiple levels. This has often birthed arguments fueled by anger and grief, causing many to lash out at\/demonize one another or avoid engaging in the sociopolitical arena altogether. However, rather than start a yelling match or excuse ourselves from the table, Matthew R. Petusek invites Christians to see engaging our political culture as an opportunity for evangelism instead of an obstacle to it.\u00a0 In \u201cEvangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture,\u201d Petrusek aims to help us \u201cunderstand and respond\u201d by using the principles of Catholic social thought as an alternative to our current forms of ideological thinking, which he feels are predominantly immoral and lacking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To make his case, Petrusek chooses to focus on four of the most common secular ideologies prominent in American political culture \u2013 utilitarianism, classical liberalism\/ libertarianism, progressivism\/wokeism, and non-theistic conservatism [1]\u00a0 He explains that <\/span>\u00a0\u201cwhat defines an ideology as an idealogy is that it provides a totalizing view of reality, including political reality, without reference to the transcendent\u201d [2]. By removing God from how we measure judgments and make decisions, societies \u201carrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny\u201d[3]. As such, he says that \u201cideologies aim for descriptive and normative totality \u2013 they not only tell you what the world and everything in it is but want to make sure you understand how it all should be as well\u2026ideologies establish their totalizing worldview in one of two ways: they either deny the existence of God altogether or erase the ontological distinction between God and existence by affirming that God\u2019s presence is or can be fully manifest in a particular moral and political regime.\u201d[4]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The book outlines the errors and deficiencies of these core secular ideologies and explains how Catholic social thought is the best ( most moral and rational) way to fix them. To make his case, <\/span>Petrusek pulls up three additional characteristics all secular ideologies have in common, which are that they are forms of idolatry, they impose false mutual exclusivities, and they either aren\u2019t able to grasp the full depth of human sin or the possibility of renewal and redemption in authentic moral progress [5]. Reading this, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if Catholic social thought is as ideal a solution forward as he makes it out to be and where Petrusek\u2019s argument and way forward might also fall prey to the same \u201cdeficiencies\u201d he\u2019s named present in secular ideologies. For example, to help us see idolatry within each ideology, Petrusek highlights how we worship everything but God and broadly defines worship as something we <\/span>\u201clive for, give our whole life to, or love above all else\u201d ( pg. 142). I like to think of idolatry as anything you value\/ love more than your obedience to God. I didn\u2019t have an issue following <\/span>Petrusek <\/span>as he outlined the various idolatry he saw. That said, using his logic, couldn\u2019t we also argue Catholic social thought is capable of being made into an idol as well?\u00a0 Vehemently pushing his solution as <\/span>the way<\/span><\/i> felt like it too was being made an idol, to be worshiped above God ( the ultimate <\/span>way<\/span><\/i>). For me, we need more people speaking to how we live our faith in action rather than how we argue our points in a way that can \u201cdebunk\u201d or convince others to Christ by positioning ourselves in a logically and morally \u201cright\u201d way.\u00a0 It seems that\u2019s only doing the same thing that Petrusek claims these other ideologies do.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there are lots I may be missing here. Still, as I read, much was being stirred up around the distinction of relationship versus religion, and the challenge I see within Christianity for many to share their faith in a way that doesn\u2019t steer people away from God but draws them deeper by exemplifying more of his nature and character.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Overall, I found this book challenging to engage on multiple levels and started to shut down at varying points.\u00a0 The main hurdles were my assumptions, reactions, and critique of the author, his argument, framing, language, and examples.\u00a0 That said, doing my best to name what was coming up and put it aside, I continued exploring this book\u2019s thoughts and found it a fascinating experience in and of itself. I\u2019m still learning how best to express myself in written form ( as it\u2019s easier to make meaning and share verbally); however, while reading this, I noticed how much less I engage in polarizing political debates than I used to ( as well as the difference in how I used to engage versus how I engage when I do now). In fact, since starting this doctoral program, I feel I\u2019ve had to wake back up to a part of life (hyper-politized issues within American culture\/ society) that I\u2019d forgotten were such big issues ( or hadn’t felt so tangibly in me being for some time).\u00a0 Part of this is due to living outside of the US and having most of my daily engagement with non-Americans for the last decade, so my typical lived context has felt different. Another part is an active choice to disconnect by intentionally building relationships with people more aligned with my core beliefs and values while strategically holding boundaries that put distance between those who aren\u2019t. I\u2019ve thought about these two things quite a bit lately and have mixed feelings that I wish I could share more about but don\u2019t yet have the words to express concisely, so for now, I\u2019ll leave things here\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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[1]Matthew Petrusek, <\/span>Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture<\/span><\/i> (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Institute, 2023), 139.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid., 140.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Ibid., 141.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Ibid.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid., 142<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We live in a hyper-politicized society where one can readily see the world\u2019s brokenness on multiple levels. This has often birthed arguments fueled by anger and grief, causing many to lash out at\/demonize one another or avoid engaging in the sociopolitical arena altogether. However, rather than start a yelling match or excuse ourselves from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3181],"class_list":["post-37471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-petrusek-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37472,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37471\/revisions\/37472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}