The
Spirit God has given us is no cowardly spirit,
but rather one that makes us strong, loving and wise."
(2Tim
1:7 NAB)
What prompts the Institute?
Our
culture promises abundant life: moral license, bounteous
wealth, unrestrained freedom, perfect health, and pleasures
beyond our most extravagant desires. Yet, the promise
deceives. Beneath this bright illusion beats a heart
of darkness. Chaos in marriage and family life, vicious
and wanton violence, corruption in the sacred and the secular,
and an arrogant disdain for human life – all
testify that we are losing our spiritual and moral compass.
People
of faith must deal with legal and government funded abortions,
euthanasia, attempts to justify perversion and devalue
marriage, and other assaults on faith and the dignity of
mankind – often
promoted by the arts, media, and entertainment.
Life-giving
wisdom, based on two thousand years of Church teaching,
tradition, and the Bible – wisdom to guide
relationships, family life, business, sexuality, education,
government and authority – is belittled and
replaced by false teaching that partitions our existence
into separate sacred and secular lives, and holds up man
himself, as a god.
Increasingly, the Church herself is
attacked by ideologies that leave no tenet of faith unchallenged,
and by assaults on the authority of the Church to proclaim
the Gospel and teach solid Christian wisdom that kindles
faith and provides the vital, indispensable moral compass
to counteract society's moral decline.
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