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Is This “Culture War” Catholicism—or Evangelization?

Is This “Culture War” Catholicism—or Evangelization?

Last updated on: September 22, 2026 at 7:10 am by Dennis Knapp

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Is This “Culture War” Catholicism—or Evangelization? 2026-09-22T07:10:08-06:00 Dennis Knapp

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Recently, I purchased a book by a popular Catholic author—a cleric not known for engaging in the so-called “culture wars.” Yet this author makes several observations that many on the Catholic Left might consider “culture war” talking points that distract from the truly pastoral approach they believe modern Catholicism requires.

The author observes that mass media:

Shapes our religious and ethical imagination.
Fosters sympathy for abortion, homosexual relationships, euthanasia, and alternative understandings of the family.
Portrays Christian opposition to these positions as ideological, severe, and uncaring.

In the author’s own words:

Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel (e.g., abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia). Religion is at best tolerated by mass media as ‘tame’ and ‘quaint’ when it does not actively oppose positions on ethical issues that the media have embraced as their own. However, when religious voices are raised in opposition to these positions, mass media can target religion, labeling it as ideological and insensitive in regard to the so-called vital needs of people in the contemporary world.

The author then moves from the influence of mass media on our ethical and religious imagination to the need for evangelization in light of that influence, particularly in reference to the post-conciliar document Aetatis novae (1992).

The author continues:

This document observed that modern media not only distorts reality by telling us what to think, it tells us what to think about. The inclusion and exclusion of topics considered worthy of coverage by mass media is one of the most subtle devices employed for forming people’s ethical imaginations and determining public opinion.

If a Catholic like me wrote these words—and I have expressed many of the same ideas—would we call him a “culture warrior”? If so, perhaps some Catholics have confused avoiding the “culture wars” with evangelization.

But the alternative to partisan culture warfare is not withdrawal from cultural conflict. It is evangelization that understands how culture forms people, challenges what contradicts the Gospel, and proposes Christ without coercion or hostility.

The Culture Is Already Evangelizing

Anyone who possesses a television or smartphone understands the central insight shared by the author quoted above. Mass media does not merely entertain; it forms the imagination. Media influences not only what people think but what they think about. Stories establish emotional intuitions about freedom, empathy, sexuality, marriage, family, suffering, life, and death.

This imaginative framework provides the context in which Christians must proclaim the Gospel, and it is not neutral territory. Those whom priests, catechists, parents, and apologists seek to evangelize have already received extensive formation from secular culture, especially since the advent of the smartphone. Therefore, effective evangelization requires that we recognize and understand this influence.

Why Christian Teaching Can Sound Cruel

Returning to the author’s claims, consider the perceived cruelty of Christian teaching, particularly Catholic moral teaching. Within the modern imagination, Catholic teachings on abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, and alternative families can appear closed-minded and cruel. The author’s argument, however, does not primarily concern legislation. It concerns the cultural imagination that precedes political questions.

Furthermore, sympathetic portrayals establish the emotional framework through which people interpret Christian teaching. Think, for example, of ABC’s Modern Family. Within such a framework, pastors and catechists can appear “severe and uncaring” even before anyone considers their actual reasoning.

In this sense, Christians do not necessarily introduce the cultural conflict when they speak. They often respond to moral conclusions that the surrounding culture has already established.

Is responding to that formation “culture war”—or is it an unavoidable component of evangelization?

Learn How People Hear Before You Speak

According to the author, pastors, preachers, teachers, and catechists must understand the cultural environment in which evangelization occurs. Appealing to the Early Church Fathers, who “were masters of the art of rhetoric,” the author argues that they succeeded in part because “they understood the foundations of social communication appropriate to the world in which they lived.”

These Christians evangelized effectively because they knew their audience, understood its assumptions, and recognized the stories that shaped it. They could therefore communicate the Christian vision in a manner capable of reaching the imagination as well as the intellect.

Moreover, their approach included cultural criticism. The Fathers did not believe that proclaiming Christ required cultural neutrality. They understood the surrounding culture well enough not only to speak to it, but also to challenge it.

This approach demands more than either shouting at the culture or retreating from it. It requires understanding the culture well enough to evangelize it.

Culture War or Evangelization?

Now, some legitimate criticism exists concerning so-called “culture war Catholicism.” Christianity cannot become an appendage of a political party, either Right or Left. Furthermore, winning elections does not equal evangelization. In short, political victory cannot substitute for conversion.

However, we must distinguish this criticism from the claim that Catholics should avoid controversial cultural questions. Abortion, marriage, sexuality, family, euthanasia, and human dignity are not merely partisan subjects. They concern Christian beliefs about the human person and therefore inevitably intersect—and sometimes conflict—with the surrounding culture.

In fact, the author’s approach goes much deeper than conventional politics. Rather than merely fighting over laws, Christians must understand the moral imagination that eventually produces those laws.

A Church so afraid of the label “culture warrior” that it withdraws from these questions risks surrendering the field of cultural formation without realizing it.

Who is This Supposed “Culture Warrior”?

Before revealing the identity of the author in question, let’s recap the argument. First, mass media normalizes abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and alternative families. This normalization, in turn, shapes the religious and moral imagination of the culture that God calls Christians to evangelize. Finally, with that religious and moral imagination firmly in its sway, secular culture can portray Christianity—and Christians who resist this formation—as cruel.

Secularism thus functions as an anti-Christian force, and Catholics must deliberately counter this cultural formation through evangelization.

The author in question was Robert Francis Prevost—the future Pope Leo XIV.

Prevost made these observations in 2012 in reflections associated with the Synod on the New Evangelization. I encountered them in the recently released Freedom Under Grace: Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition That Formed Me, a collection of reflections and previously unpublished writings by the future pope.

So, if you instinctively labeled the preceding argument “culture war Catholicism,” does knowing the identity of the author cause you to reconsider how useful that label really is?

Final Thoughts… A Better Definition of “Culture War”

We conclude where we started—with a question. Are the words of then-Fr. Prevost “culture war” Catholicism or evangelization? Certainly, an unhealthy version of culture-war Christianity exists. However, cultural confrontation becomes unavoidable when Christianity makes claims about human nature, marriage, sexuality, life, death, justice, and human flourishing. Fr. Prevost’s argument suggests that evangelization requires understanding—and sometimes directly opposing—the cultural forces forming people’s moral imaginations.

I hope we take his words to heart and move beyond dismissive accusations of “culture war Catholicism,” especially when directed at Catholics who recognize these cultural forces and take a stand. The question isn’t whether Catholics participate in the struggle over the moral imagination. The culture is already engaged in that struggle. The question is whether Catholics will recognize it—and evangelize accordingly.

Thank you!

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