Jesus tells a parable aimed at the prevention of Puritanism in the Church:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Mt 13:24–30, 36–43)
The point, often forgotten by combox inquisitors (and other, more heavily armed Christians down through time) is that God prefers, on the whole, to let sinners get away than that the innocent should perish. Those bent on the eternal search for people to kick out of the Church should pay attention to that.
At the same time, there is a diabolical parody of this parable that seeks to find ways to tiptoe right up to rationalizing as much brutality as possible in the name of a false toleration.
We saw it during the Bush Administration as Catholic sophists for torture did their damnedest (literally) to defend torture with verbal games that rang the changes on “What even is torture anyway?” In all these games the goal was not to avoid the near occasion of torture, but to see just how much cruelty could be inflicted on a prisoner without it quite “crossing the line” into torture.
If that sounds exactly like the Reactionary douchebro at the gym with the huge, ostentatious brown scapular asking his douchebro buddies, “How close can I get to making it with my smoking hot secretary without it technically being adultery?” that’s because it is. Love does not ask such questions and the fact the question is being asked at all is certain proof that the douchebro, like the torture defender, has already embraced corruption.
Likewise, when a “prolife” Catholic jurist is complaining that prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment in the Constitution hinders him from going to war with Magisterium so that he can kill four wrongly convicted innocents in order to butcher 96 people on death row who do not need to be killed, he is likewise already reasoning in bad faith.
Jesus is willing to let the weeds grow to save the wheat. Alito seeks to kill the wheat in order to destroy the weeds. Such human sacrifices to vengeance are the opposite of the gospel, but the heart and soul of MAGA antichrist religion.
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4 Responses
He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative.
Given that Satan is the eternal rebel, this is not the flex you may think it is. Not that you’re wrong. The GOP is the closest political expression to Satanism the US has produced. Without ideas or virtue. Endlessly accusing its victims of what it does. Using the unborn as human shields for policies that harm and kill not only the unborn, but many others. Oppressing, binding and (in the case of the MAGA cult that utterly defines its existence by fealty to one false orange god) possessing its victims. Laboring to destroy creation and the least of these. Teaching people to worship money, power and violence and covering it all in a thick gooey layer of cheesy Christian aesthetics. Having a form of godliness but denying it’s power. And filled through and through with lies, lies, lies.
Not really a flex. Just a quote.
Conservatism used to be the ideology that seeks to look at the past and preserve the things that are worthy of preserving. From another perspective: The past customs have their worth in that they were tried and tested and we know if they worked. And if they did work, they’re worthy of preserving.
Current conservatives say: We oppose change because it challenges the status quo in which we are the ones who are privileged and established in power. We oppose change for its own sake. This is reactionaryism disguised as conservatism.