Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Thursday, May 09, 2002 .A Hard Taskmaster Emily Stimpson at Fool's Folly takes me to task (lightly) by mentioning that, "The whole history of humanity is 'a seamless and unbroken line of the most egregious corruption and evil.' " She's right, of course, and we may simply be ignorant of similar histories in Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism; yet, I think we all (and past peoples) expected better from the Church. Why? Because great claims demand great proofs. Also, we have a higher standard imposed on us. If we have the absolute Truth as we claim, then we are obligated to a higher level of behavior. Why? Because great gifts impose greater responsibilities; and what greater gift is there than Truth itself in its fullness? To whom much is given, much is expected (as someone we love once said). Even our enemies expect us to be better than themselves because we insist that the Truth makes us free, "saved", healed "by his blood", reborn and holy saints. Plus, blaming it all on the Devil becomes a rather weak admittance of our fragility - that is, that our faith is so tenuous and limpid that the Evil One makes quick work of our slight resolves and wishful beliefs. I don't think the "but we're only human and fallible" argument flies very far with God or Jesus. Forgiveable, we are, of course, but not as a rationalizers. Paul wrote that if Jesus didn't rise, then our morals and ethics or good intentions are meaningless because what we essentially believe is a fraud. The obverse of it is that if we do essentially believe in the risen Jesus, then our morals, ethics and good intentions should have real force. Otherwise, the Church simply becomes another stream in the "broad highway that leads to destruction." At the same time, we should recall that excellence does not demand perfection (Henry James), and that faith is a process in which we make improvements as we go. We don't expect babies to fly. Nor should the Church be one vast nursery and day care center either. We expect some level of competence, maturity, honesty, and integrity. Also, as much as I love and admire our human ability to make metaphors, analogies, and symbols, I find myself becoming more skeptical with each passing year over litanies like Emily records of the Church and its priests representing either this or that aspect of reality, God and our relationships. It may be useful and beautiful to analogize our relationship with each other as a Body, and that Body with God as a Bride and so on, but at the end of the day we live with ordinary facts of being and not heightened or exalted feelings of reverence and awe. Special or gracious feelings about our faith, God, communion, and love are very well and good, but they are not permanent and are only important in passing; in helping us move on to newer or more comprehensive insights. Over time, gilding the lily gets to be a bit over much. Eventually, our experience of Truth ceases to be emotional, and becomes natural (or rather the supernatural becomes an ordinary awareness in us). Anyway, I guess the question of when is the Church too evil to do people enough good can only be settled by individuals deciding for themselves. I pray that those people choose wisely and temperately, and not by looking for an "out" from religion and our obligations to God and each other. posted by Mark Butterworth | 2:11 PM | |
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