Glamorizing Suicide and its “Seductive Appeal”

Living in a culture of death with all its ugly trappings can tempt us to sink into what John Bunyon, in his allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, called the “slough of despond” or what others describe as the swamp of sadness and despair. Abortion, euthanasia, suicide (including assisted suicide), and all the other depressing moral evils of our day dance around humanity pounding us with the message that life is meaningless and not worth living. It is, of course, a lie, but one that seduces many souls already fighting mental illness, guilt, depression, or hopelessness.

One sad sign of the state of the culture, is the increasing number of suicides, particularly among the young. A leading cause of death in those 15 to 29 is suicide. Young women attempt it more often, but young men more often succeed as did my precious 18-year-old grandson who killed himself on May 2nd. 

Thought for the Day: The Scourge of Our Time is Nihilism

From Merriam-Webster

The answer to nihilism: faith, hope, & the example of the saints

Nihilism:

1.  a : a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless

Nihilism is a condition in which all ultimate values lose their value.
—Ronald H. Nash
     

 b : a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths

2.  a: a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility
     

b: capitalized : the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination

On Nihilism, the Press, and President Trump

The very hirelings of the press, whose trade it is to buoy up the spirits of the people. have uttered falsehoods so long, they have played off so many tricks, that their budget seems, at last, to be quite empty.  
                                                                                                    William Cobbett, 
                                                            English Journalist and Member of Parliament 1763-1835

The white horse is a prehistoric creation in Uffington.

At the last Chesterton book club meeting we were discussing The Ballad of the White Horse, G.K.'s epic poem about King Alfred the Great, a champion of Christendom who fought bravely to establish Christianity in England and built a bulwark against the nihilistic paganism of the Danish invaders.

After an interesting digression on nihilism and other Catholic writers who address it, like Flannery O'Connor, I came home with a bee in my bonnet to learn a little more about nihilism. There is no doubt in my mind that it is very much alive and apparently growing in the U.S. today, especially among the young, which is sad.

Sunday Meditation: The Call to Be Missionaries to a Neo-Pagan Culture

One of my readers posted a comment on my last article linking to a wonderful blog with an amazing homily by the pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, SC, Fr. Jay Scott Newman. (Thanks, Alan!) Father makes the point that, rather than bewailing the collapse of the culture, we should welcome it as an opportunity. An honest view of the culture makes it clear that it is more neo-pagan with a Christian veneer. But the "victory" of the sexual revolution exhibited by the recent enshrinement of same-sex "marriage" by the Supreme Court offers tremendous evangelical possibilities. Here are a few of the points Father makes:

[T]he legal dispute over same sex marriage in the United States has now been decided, and in that contest the traditional Christian understanding of marriage lost. What you may be surprised to learn is that I welcome this defeat, and I want to explain why...