My two cents worth. Joy is not to be equated with affective experience, though they can and ought to sometimes correspond. One can experience joy in the midst of turmoil because it is more than a pleasurable affect.

That said, it is easy to allow the fallness of the world to color the way one sees everything and so create a sort of dark pall over one’s outlook. But you say what is the purpose of faith if one is always angry and bitter. The purpose of faith is not first, a remedy to worldly negative affects. It is the profession and living of the truth. As one becomes more and more spiritually advanced, he experiences less and less affective joy for the sake of being able to give himself to God for His sake and not for the sake of the good feelings he might get for so doing. Living the faith has value and importance well beyond the emotional support that does in fact come with it.

The tension between fighting the good fight of faith and living a joyful life in which one is not always angry and bitter, though one cannot avoid the suffering attendant with seeing the ill fruits of the world’s fallenness, is to recall Jesus’ words to His disciples when He said in this world you will experience travail but do not despair, I have conquered the world.

I think that the over emphasis on affect may also help to clarify what you mean by your inability to claim love for your faith. Love is not an emotion. Thus, one does not need to feel good feelings in order to love. Albeit, that the emotions were meant to accord with reason and if all things are working correctly, the feelings ought to correspond to the state of the intellect. Nevertheless, man has the faculties of intellect and will. He can choose to love, which in the end is an act of the intellect to know another, and the will to choose the good of another for his own sake–an act of total self gift, even if he does not get the corresponding affects that one would normally expect in such situations.

To over come the negative affects when one sees a culture and world that seems in so many ways, wedded to self-destructive behavior that is likewise, antithetical to the gospel, is to avoid the temptation to personify a culture or a political party or whatever. It is to look at the individuals who comprise the culture and to see them as God sees them. Even for those who lead the world astray, one must see them as persons for whom Christ died and as souls for whom heaven may one day rejoice in their conversion to the truth. We also must recognize our mission which is first to be faithful to God and to witness to His truth in our capacities that our vocations avail us. It is to recognize our own sinfulness and its contribution to this culture of death and to work all the more hard to continually convert ourselves, knowing our failure to do so may make us more morally culpable than those who commit objectively graver sins but who may be less culpable due to invincible ignorance.

For what it is worth…

My recent posts have been directed at those who see a moral equivalence between Republicans and Democrats. I am trying to show directly and strongly that this election season poses a stark option. I am doing this as someone who is not even inclined to favor Republican economic policies.

I do not think that I have been sarcastic about it. Frankly, I re-read the post above, and it seems rather matter-of-fact to me, though the facts themselves may strike one as apocalyptic (and also as angry or bitter). But a fact is a fact: in this case, that an ideological commitment to socialism will naturally lead one to want to put an end to prepolitical communities. That’s the whole basis of social engineering.

I am very metaphysically minded. I am strongly focused on the connection between ultimate, implicit philosophical commitments and practical action. Pointing out these connections to people can be very unsettling business.

Also, even if you did not have the faith, the current situation would be an unpleasant prospect. Our present national movement toward socialism is not only at odds with one’s faith, but with one’s very humanity.

One does not have to be religious or Christian to dread the prospect of a Barack Obama presidency and so to fight against it: read Andrew McCarthy’s article, to which I linked (I don’t even think that McCarthy is a Christian).

The problem is that the mainstream media has been negligent in their duty to portray honestly the true character of Barack Obama. And John McCain has not taken an honest measure of his opponent, which is why he’s currently getting destroyed in the polls. I feel almost duty bound to bring out the ideological points that McCain does not even know how to touch.

I’m sorry if I’ve made this blog too political. But I think that the choice we face in the current election cycle is of great importance.

And, frankly, I don’t post very often anyway. If something strikes me once every week or two that I think needs to be said, I say it. David would blog more, but he’s teaching a full course load at present.

You can always visit other weblogs that avoid these sorts of political and cultural battles, and whose primary purpose is spiritual edification. Catholic World News would not be a very good alternative for such a purpose. But Amy Welborn may be.

So…How do you fight modern secularism and maintain your joyful hope? What is the point of faith if you are always angry and bitter. It makes the faith look like a horrible burden best discarded for one’s own sanity. ***Though, thanks for fighting for the weaklings like me that can’t.***(Most of my youth I spent against you secretly rooting for you).

So again, are you EVER joyful, and how do you keep focus in the midst of a war?

It used to amuse us slightly, as we’d raise an eyebrow at the notion. As I get older, though, and things get worse out there… my eyebrow doesn’t raise quite as high as it used to.

By the way, feel free to add me to your blogroll, if it would be possible.