Yesterday we discussed the drive of post-Christian conservative MAGA pagans to make the world safe for rapists. I noted that I would not be surprised if the day came when the Church was condemned by the Cult, not for protecting pedophiles, but for “persecuting” them.
Some may well argue that it is hypocritical for a Catholic to talk this way, given the Church’s grotesque record. I think this signally fails to grasp my point, which is that Trumpian paganism aims to make the very concept of hypocrisy impossible.
It is an interesting and notable fact that Jesus only levels the charge of hypocrisy at his fellow Jews and never at pagans. That is not, however, a compliment to pagans. To get the real hang of the thing, we need to understand this exchange:
“Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will put on his apron and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have been awake and would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more. (Lk 12:35–48)
Jesus’ point is this: You are responsible for what you know. Pagans (by which he means pre-Christian pagans), being almost wholly ignorant of what God demands of us, will be given a “light beating” when they do not do what the master wants because they know no better. But Jews, the servants who know the Master’s will, have a much greater responsibility.
As Jesus puts it elsewhere:
Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. (Jn 9:39–41)
Which means (which is the real kicker) Jesus’ own disciples therefore bear the greatest responsibility of all. So to answer Peter’s question, Jesus is telling the parable to all but especially to Christians and most especially to the apostles.
The ignorance of pre-Christian pagans is why Jesus never charges them with hypocrisy, for hypocrisy requires us to betray what we know perfectly well to be true. Jews, and even more, Christians, are the recipients of real revelation. Refusal to obey that revelation while putting on a mask like an actor on the Greek stage is to be a “hupocritos”–an actor–and feign holiness so as to please the mob and not the God of Israel who is the only audience who matters.
The problem for the MAGA Cult is that they are post-Christians pagans. That is, they are wilful liars trying to return to pre-Christian pagan ignorance by willing away reality. You can see the same thing at work in Trump’s choice to do things like stop testing for COVID, or this imbecility:
This is the dead opposite of non-culpable ignorance–and so is the drive to will away the rights of women and other prey of the MAGA predator. The attempt to create a world in which hypocrisy is again impossible due to ignorance is as impossible as unfrying an egg. Trump’s goal of erasure of law so as to erase consciousness of guilt and sin is dead on arrival. The bell of revelation cannot be unrung. The rights of his prey, made in the image and likeness of God, are now so deeply kneaded into our culture, try as Trump and his Cult may, they will never fool the millions of Normals into buying the lie that law exists to protect that Cult and bind its victims, but never to bind the Cult and protect its victims.
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One Response
Defund the monsters.
Say no to Talmudic rape, torture, land theft and genocide.
Our tax dollars are supporting disgusting crimes against humanity.
We are merging our military and intelligence with monsters. Speak out before it is too late. Pope Leo is asking us to call our representatives.
A sitting United States president threatened, on Easter morning, to destroy an entire civilization on behalf of his blackmailers. Enough is enough.
Our country is building massive detention centers and creating an all encompassing surveillance system. Gaza and Lebanon are just the testing grounds for what they will do to us.
Rape is pretty ho-hum at this point.
Ah …the elephant in the room.