The crisis afflicting the West is not primarily one of unsustainable debt and spending. These are mere symptoms of a deeper identity crisis.

via Merry War on Christmas! – Mark Steyn – National Review Online.

Steyn is spot on that we face a much larger problem in America than who gets elected, what laws they pass and what judges rule on those laws.  The foundations of our culture are being undermined by those very folks who, in previous eras, would have been guarding the gates.

I wonder if the Church doesn’t have some blame in all of this.  Steyn points out the ‘faintheartedness’ of the American Church in confronting those forces that would destroy celebrations like Christmas.  True, we are often faint of heart.  Yet, the Church has poured countless sums into political action committees, candidates and other such endeavors.  We’ve sought to overturn Supreme Court decisions, repeal laws, enact new laws and get ‘our’ guys to a place where they control the levers.

But that isn’t the Church’s mission.  Western Civilization is, in large part, the result of more than 1,000 years of making disciples.  The cultures of the West developed because we proclaimed the Gospel to hostile people.

Thus, our current cultural devolution is not a call to greater political action.  It is a call for the Church to reinvest in our core mission:  making disciples of Jesus Christ.