Tea at Trianon: Reaching the “Post-Christian” Generation

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 31, 2022

Reaching the “Post-Christian” Generation

From Crisis:

There are two critical steps needed. We need to define God and we need to define truth. God is not simply another being “out there” that we can run into. He is the ground of being itself. God is not the strongest of beings—God is being itself. So, He can reveal Himself to His creatures, but we will never run into God like we will run into a lamp post. God is the being in which all other beings derive their source because all material things have a cause.

Once we come to grips with this fact, we must define truth. Truth is the correct correlation between one’s mind and reality. The principle of noncontradiction (two opposing claims cannot both be true at the same time) is the bedrock understanding for all truth. God cannot be real and not real at the same time. You cannot be Christian and not believe that Jesus is God and you cannot be Jewish and not believe in the Ten Commandments. These beliefs would violate the principle of noncontradiction.

Generation Z and many young people are lost when it comes to religion, culture, politics, and life because they have stripped these realities of their true meanings. If we want to help bring them out of their anxious and depressed slumber, we need to start with faith and show them the truth. (Read more.)