St. Patrick’s Day is not just an excuse to get drunk. March 17 is the anniversary of Patrick’s death in 460 AD and is today celebrated around the world. So what does his story have to do with politics? A lot, but first some background.
First, Patrick was not Irish by birth. His native language was Latin because he was the son of wealthy Christians living in Britain, which was then ruled by the Romans. He was kidnapped by Irish pirates as a teenager and sold into slavery in Ireland. During his six years as a slave he turned to his faith for comfort. Then one night he heard a voice he believed to be from God telling him to escape and that he would be reunited with his family. Usually runaway slaves were caught and killed, so this escape was a real act of faith but it worked. About the time he got home, he again heard the voice telling him to go back to Ireland as a missionary to bring the Gospel to the Irish people and to “baptize” their culture too. After being trained for ministry, that’s what he did for the rest of his life.
That’s where the politics comes in. Patrick didn’t confront the culture or the civil order. No “imposing his values.” No laws forcing people to be Christian. He made Ireland Christian by the power of his message and his incorporation of the familiar into Christianity. When teaching about the Trinity he used the local shamrock with its three leaves on one stem. Because the Irish used bonfires in their pagan worship he joined the Christian cross with a halo to represent a bonfire to become what we know as the Celtic Cross.
This was a common technique among early missionaries. The date for Christmas was set to cover the Roman Saturnalia. Easter was set to cover the feast of the pagan fertility goddess Ishtar (that’s why we have the Easter bunny, a leftover fertility symbol). Now, I realize that some of my Protestant brothers think that this “paganized” Catholic Christianity, but the guys back then sure didn’t think so. Even St. Paul ,when he cautioned against eating meat offered to idols, offered the reasoning that it was a bad practice because it might be misinterpreted by others even though Christians knew the idols were nothing (1 Cor.8:4-13). Likewise, he had no problem identifying the God of the Bible with the “unknown god” who had an altar in Athens (Acts 17:16-34).
Locally there is a storefront church where a bar used to be and another in a former supermarket where beer, wine and pornography were sold. Do the bricks and mortar pollute these churches? Of course not. Blessed John Paul the Great, after visiting America, wrote a letter to Catholics here calling for us to evangelize the culture itself, not just individuals. A great example of this type of evangelization is the new movie “Son of God” by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, or “Duck Dynasty” with its realistic portrayal of the Phil Robertson family and their survival after Phil’s politically incorrect analysis of homosexual conduct.
We can never win the culture war by argument. We should avoid becoming dependent on the government for support the way Catholic Charities did in Massachusetts. The agency had to close its adoption agency when the state pulled financing because of its policies on adoption by gay couples.
It will be a long struggle because we’re well on the way to becoming a post-Christian America, but with the right missionary focus it can be done. For the sake of all Americans, Christian or not, the culture war must be won. At least that’s what St. Patrick would say.
