{"id":13669,"date":"2024-11-06T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legionariosdecristo.org\/?p=13669"},"modified":"2025-08-12T19:50:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:50:42","slug":"we-must-let-the-gospel-permeate-political-preferences-fr-george-elsbett-l-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/subdir.legionariosdecristo.org\/en\/blog\/2024\/11\/we-must-let-the-gospel-permeate-political-preferences-fr-george-elsbett-l-c\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abWe must let the Gospel permeate political preferences\u00bb: P. George Elsbett, L.C."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

P. George Elsbett, L.C., director of the John Paul II Center in Vienna (Austria), recalls and explains the Christian principles in the face of the tension that arises between religion and politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the state parliaments of Germany were elected in Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg, and Austria will elect its National Council this year. The debates, sometimes very emotional, and the opposing viewpoints are an opportunity for P. George Elsbett, L.C., director of the John Paul II Center in Vienna (Austria), to recall and explain the Christian principles amid the tension that arises between religion and politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, elections are around the corner in Austria. But let\u2019s start from the beginning. Karl Marx believed that religion was the opium of the people; that it lulled us to sleep, made us accept power and oppression structures; that it blinded us and made us weak in our true mission and destiny to break with these structures or destroy them. A typically neo-Gnostic phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dominant religion that has replaced Christianity in the Western world is neo-Gnostic in its basic orientation. This is the theme of the series of lectures \u201cNew gods, old questions\u201d at the John Paul II Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gnosis of our days is not a firmly forged belief, but rather a collection of different schools of thought, which share a basic narrative that is of a religious nature, dogmatically defended and unquestioned, even if presented as scientific and critical. And since what is denied is precisely the basic dogmatic religious structure, there is no critical self-examination to protect against certain fanaticism or ideological severity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00abGnosis can very well undermine the Christian faith, even camouflage itself in Christian vocabulary and external manifestations. We are all shaped by the world we live in, which no longer thinks Christianly, but Gnostically\u00bb.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ancient Gnosis, for example, the more than 20 Gnostic sects cataloged by St. Irenaeus of Lyon in his books \u201cAgainst Heresies\u201d in the 2nd century, saw the material world as the cause of all evil. We must get out of there, from the motto: body bad, mind good. The neo-Gnostic of our time does not see the material world as the fundamental problem, but rather the nature of the world and the different structures of power\u2014whether sociological, political, economic, or psychological\u2014must be destroyed. Thus, the imbalance of the world definitely has nothing to do with me, with my participation in worldly affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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P. George Elsbett, L.C., director of the John Paul II Center in Vienna (Austria).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gnosis of then and now is, in essence, a denial of sin and guilt<\/span> for the offense committed<\/span>. It sees no intrinsic limit in people that would stand in the way of constant progress. It assumes that progress<\/span> we see in technology, of course, will also occur in morality, politics, sociology, etc. Gnosis is also atheistic in essence<\/span> because it is a religion of <\/span>self-redemption<\/span> and, disguised as Christian, does not always deny heaven, but directs all its power toward this world. <\/span>With it, we<\/span> solve<\/span> ALL<\/span> the problems of humanity and even, as in some forms of transhumanism, the <\/span>\u201c<\/span>problem<\/span>\u201d<\/span> of mortality. That is why it also has strong utopian tendencies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gnosis can very well undermine the Christian faith, even camouflage itself in Christian vocabulary and external manifestations. We are all shaped by the world we live in, which no longer thinks Christianly, but Gnostically.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, we can simply assume that we should always improve. And we feel shocked, discouraged, and frustrated when that doesn\u2019t happen. We can have utopian expectations about ourselves, our children, or our family, and be completely anguished because we did the same thing again five minutes after our last confession.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in the field of politics, the Christian <\/span>affected by Gnosis can see it as the panacea. As explained by Mons. James P. <\/span>Shea<\/span> in\u202f\u202f <\/span><\/span>\u201cThe religion of the day\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u202f\u202f, <\/span>this is a necessary consequence of Gnosis, since according to it salvation consists precisely in the transformation of external power structures.\u202fPolitics then<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe must let the Gospel permeate<\/span> the political preferences instead of the political preferences permeating the Gospel\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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The Christian, on the other hand, is very committed to the social improvement of our world and to political causes. The Christian will fight for a society where justice and love prevail. But what Christians will not do, or should not do, as Monsignor <\/span>Shea<\/span> reminds us, is <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span>to place their hope in repairing the world solely through human means<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em>\u202for in changing the world as it is through a <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span>better replacement of a working model<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/em>.<\/span><\/span>\u202fThe Christian <\/span>must <\/span>be very careful with this. He must know that moral progress can also very quickly turn into regression (for example, last century).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Christian knows that politics cannot reach the root of human evil, that the sources of salvation from these evils must be sought in completely different spheres, and that ultimately, politics will neither bring us decadence nor salvation. He is aware that \u201cthe final destiny of the visible world depends on much higher invisible realities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When religion is fermented by politics, it becomes toxic. \u201cMarx said that religion is the opium of the people, I say that politics is heroin for religion\u201d (Mons. Fulton Sheen). An example is the United States. The early Church, for example, had great clarity on four issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n