1. Of those who cannot remember the past
2. Personally, morally, really
I noticed recently that people, including Church-going people, get indignant with Jehovah’s Witnesses, but for all the wrong reasons:
- They don’t salute the flag
- They don’t say the pledge of allegiance
- They don’t take blood transfusions
- They don’t celebrate birthdays, Christmas or any other “special” days
Oh ish! How weird!
Nobody notices that they’re incorrigible adherents of the ancient heresy of Arianism. Most people don’t know what Arianism is, or think it has something to do with Hitler.
People who are too lazy to learn the history of their faith will be easily led astray by any tired old heresy gussied up anew – provided it’s not counter-cultural or unpatriotic.
I’m especially appalled by Christians who can, say, recite the designated hitter rule, Casey at the Bat, or the Gettysburg Address but don’t know the Nicene Creed, and who complain that basic Christian doctrine is “just too complicated.”
I’ve tried and failed to make sense of it another way, but I’m unable to escape the idea that a lot of “separation of Church and State” talk, when used to justify inaction against evil, is rooted in a distinction between “personally opposed” and “really opposed,” between “morally wrong” and “really wrong.”
In other words, it’s based on a a tacit belief that morality is merely an individual choice, or at least that the morality their Church teaches, insofar as it differs from the current social consensus, is mere personal choice and quite optional.
My quick antidote is to note that there is no position of moral neutrality on most of the great issues of the day, and that you have as much right to vote based your understanding of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as the elites who would muzzle you have the right to vote based on Marx, Darwin, Dewey and Freud.
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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 