The conversation about liberal democracy and post-liberal integralism is often interesting. But both a vibrant public moral culture and a just confessional state depend upon a plurality of believers who "animate the temporal order with a Christian spirit.

(cont)

This is one of the reasons why John Paul II, Benedict, and Francis all have prioritized the re-evangelization of post-Christian people and cultures. If personal conversions, a huge number of them, don't come soon, democracy can't be just and post-liberalism will be brutal.

Drawing up elaborate plans for a new temporal order is only an exercise without the necessary raw material of that order: namely, a cadre of believers. And achieving justice in a liberal democracy presupposes a citizenry formed for a justice beyond temporality.

I bring this up because that is sometimes brushed past by the would-be architects of a Christian social future. Evangelization - the work of the apostles - seems sometimes treated as a kind of secondary consideration best left to other people.

The Great Commission is about the proclamation of the Gospel, and the early Church had an implicit understanding that believers will not find a temporal home that comfortably aligns with their eternal call.

Plus, and guys, this is serious: The Lord is coming. Nothing should convey the urgency of evangelization like that fact. The Lord is coming.

Thank you for coming to my rant.

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