Christian Faith a Pharmakos?

Drug and Poison?
In an article entitled, "Christian Background To Political Correctness?" in the online journal Global Politician, Fjordman makes a disturbing yet largely accurate observation:

Christian ethics have proved more durable than Christian beliefs.

Furthermore, he notes that while he is not a Christian, he has deep appreciation for the contributions made by the Christian faith. However, the question that distresses him in the present cultural crisis facing the West is, "precisely because Christianity has so profoundly shaped our culture, isn’t it plausible that it may also, at least indirectly, have contributed to some of the flaws that currently ail us as well?"

This nearly borders on a hat-in-hand Nietzschean position, but one can understand Fjordman's observation. The Church contains and guards the deposit of faith in Sacred Scripture and Tradition via the Magisterium. Yet the plethora of expressions of Christianity in greater or lesser degrees represents and misrepresents Catholic truth in word and action.

Fjordman notes that Christian ethics sans Christian beliefs can be deadly to a culture, as we see in the West:

One major component of Western self-loathing is the idea that we should we be punished for crimes, perceived or real, committed by our ancestors before we were even born. It could be argued that this idea has its roots in Christian thinking, in the concept of original sin, committed by Adam and Eve, but where all their descendants are subject to its effects. Christian ethics have proved more durable than Christian beliefs. Even when we have supposedly left the religion behind, we still believe we have to make atonement for the sins of our forefathers, but since we no longer believe that Christ has made that sacrifice for us and washed away our sins, we end up sacrificing ourselves instead...

Perhaps Christianity, despite its many great qualities, needs to be balanced out by other more worldly elements, such as attachment to nation states.

So, for those who still maintain the theological virtue of hope, it is not time to compromise with the state, as Fjordman suggests. It is time to evangelize the truth claims of the Gospel and the deposit of faith -- the beliefs -- vouchsafed by the Magisterium. For truly, Christian ethics, which a secular West won't even give credit to -- can, as Fjordman says, be deadly with Christian belief.