Theodore Herzl – A Secular Leftist
I think that our culture has become intellectually lazy. It’s easy to listen to Mark Steyn, Douglas Murray, or Lauren Southern and conclude that Muslims are invading our precious Western culture and it will be destroyed if this problem is not dealt with. Of course, a minority believe that the cause of our woes is secular leftism(or just leftism as the secular is redundant). As a Christian, I don’t have much interest in preserving the modern Western world. I am only concerned with the spreading of the Christian faith; the one true religion, outside of which there is no salvation.
Islam or leftism? Which is the bigger threat to the Christian faith? Without a doubt, it is leftism. It’s not even close. Between 633 AD and 1789 AD, it is true that Islam could be classified as the bigger enemy. In 2017 if you think Islam is a bigger threat than leftism, you obviously cannot engage in critical thinking. Since 1789, leftism has done far more damage to the Church than Islam did in over a millennium. Yes, they took Christian lands away like Syria, the Holy Land, North Africa and other areas, but leftism has affected the Church itself.
Today, many who claim to be Christian think democracy, freedom of religion, abortion, divorce, and other abominations are okay. Many clergy don’t oppose this because they know they’ll be expressing unpopular opinions. Is this because of Islam? No, its because of leftism. The reason that Christianity is plagued with modernism is because of leftism, not Islam.
One time I was with a family member and we saw a young girl in a hijab. She looked to be in her teens. My family member said something negative about her wearing the hijab. I responded by saying: “Would you rather she lived typical Western life, dressed in revealing clothing and lost her purity by age 14?” My family member said no. I think everyone reading this blog would say no as well.
In 1904, the Zionist Theodore Herzl came to meet with Pope Pius X and asked him for his support in establishing a Jewish State in the holy land. Although Herzl was Jewish, he was an atheist who didn’t practice Judaism. He was a secular leftist like many Jews in Europe at the time. Pope Pius X said the following to Herzl:
Yes, but we, and I as the head of the Church, cannot do this. There are two possibilities. Either the Jews will cling to their faith and continue to await the Messiah who, for us, has already appeared. In that case they will be denying the divinity of Jesus and we cannot help them. Or else they will go there without any religion, and then we can be even less favorable to them.
Pope Pius X knew that even a religious Jew is less of a danger to Catholicism than a secular Jew. He’s not saying that the religious Jew doesn’t pose a threat, but he’s recognizing that secular leftism is far worse for the Church.
The same is true with Islam. Islam poses a threat but the threat is primarily only in numbers. They’re a billion strong. The intellectual threat isn’t there. To further prove my point, most Islamic apologists against Christianity today get their apologetics from secular leftism. They’re quoting Bart Ehrman, the Jesus Seminar, and other people whose scholarship doesn’t come from a God believing position but a secularist position.
It’s time the Christian world wake up and realize the true enemy of God. Islam is one of those enemies but it comes as a far distant second to secular leftism.
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