Yesterday, we heard from the Ghost who had lost his love of light (and eventually his soul) and wound up abandoning Heaven so he could continue his quarrel with some triviality call “Neo-Regionalism”. I always think of that image when I run across things like this:
Another Lewisian character, Uncle Screwtape, described this sort of thing, long ago:
Uncle Screwtape describes this idolatry long ago:
About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything — even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist’s shop. Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner. Only today I have found a passage in a Christian writer where he recommends his own version of Christianity on the ground that “only such a faith can outlast the death of old cultures and the birth of new civilisations”. You see the little rift? “Believe this, not because it is true, but for some other reason.” That’s the game.
The perennial temptation most humans face is to do evil that good may come of it. This guy is still at that stage of corruption, which is something. He has a bogeyman he fears (“leftism”, whatever that means) and he wants to save people from it. But to achieve that end he has already turned away from the only Savior there is–Jesus–to the notion that the Church (a mere moon to the Sun who is God) is the Savior and now he is consciously bracketing even the Church in order to focus on his a new idol: MAGA power.
But the MAGA cult of spite and cruelty is already rapidly evolving toward the far deeper sort of corruption which says “Let us do evil that evil may come of it.” Having no ideas and no virtues besides spite, vengeance, and retribution for those it hates, the Cult is moving quickly toward that kind of perversion which no longer cares even about the pretense of having a good aim and simply enjoys the outraged decency of their victims. We got a glimpse of that the other day when Elon Musk, cocooned from consequences by money, posed as a paragon of courage for the praise of the Cult as he pretended his antisemitism (and by extension, the Cult’s) is an act of bravery against a civilization too cowardly to embrace it (and his spiteful celebration of the 11th anniversary of the slaughter at Sandy Hook by re-platforming Alex Jones, the monster who spent years making life a living hell for the parents of these murdered children by charging them with being part of a Deep State Conspiracy to take everybody’s guns). We are seeing it constantly in Trump’s open and naked promises to the Cult that his second (and permanent) administration will be devoted to meting out “retribution” to his enemies.
James tells us “The anger of man does not bring about the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). In antiquity, the first great struggle of the Church was against the notion that in order to get to Jesus, Gentiles had first to become Jews, circumcised and subject to the entire ceremonial law of Moses. Under the guidance of the Spirit, the Church came to realize that the law’s function was to show that the law could not be kept and to lead us to Christ. It is like an x-ray: vital to the healing process in that it shows us where the cancer is, but useless at curing the cancer. For that, the sick need the Physician who is Christ.
But here’s the thing: at least the hardline Traditionalists demanding Gentiles be circumcised and keep kosher could rightly point to the fact that the law was from God.
The bizarre thing is that the entire crazy shibboleth of saying, “In order to get people to Jesus, we must first get them to sign on to the proposition that all that MAGA ideology believes, teaches, and proclaims is revealed by God” is absolutely insane and blasphemous. So yeah: A lot of Catholics won’t like this–because they are Catholics and not idolators. You are not bravely bringing cowards to do the right thing. You are tying up a heavy burden for people’s backs that God wants nothing to do with and trying to force innocent people to violate their consciences in your lust for earthly power. Jesus saves, not ideology.
Grave evil always poses as courage. Commit long enough to doing grave evil for a good end and the odds are extremely high that you will commit to seeking evil ends out of spite. That is the opposite of being a “devout Catholic” and the dead opposite of everything Advent is about.
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5 Responses
Well put, Mr. Shea, as usual!
But the main reason I’m posting this comment is to notify you that when I read this post it included an advertisement for Bp. Strickland’s book, “Take Heart.” I found it ironic that such an ad popped up, given the content of this post. I honestly don’t know how these advertisements are generated, and how much control you have other them, but I thought you might like to know about this.
Thanks for the heads up!
Catholic bloggers need some sort of app for sifting the Rightly Guided Catholics Bishops from the ones who, although sitting in Moses’ seat, are plainly to be condemned.
I think Francis is a pretty good app.
My bad, Francis did remove Strickland. I was thinking of the other one.