The Gospel for Idiots: Morally, We have Lulled Ourselves to Sleep

6/20/2012

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underlying natural moral law and eternal law that govern them--is what is reality, not the constructs in our mind.)

Morally, we have lulled ourselves to sleep. We are sort of like zombies, and less like humans. This is what happens when we reject a common world for a private world, a koinos kosmos for a bunch of kosmoi idioi. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is supposed to have said that the "waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own." (Diels-Kranz, B89)

In Shakespearean terms, life becomes nothing but a tale "told by an idiot, fully of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

In his excellent book The Unintended Reformation--which I recommend to anyone interested in knowing how we got to our current state--Professor Brad Gregory calls this phenomenon the "Kingdom of Whatever." It's a clever moniker for our condition since it encapsulates the "anything goes" attitude as well as the "who cares" attitude. And if "anything goes," then "who cares"?

While I suppose a "Kingdom of Whatever" allows us to do anything we want, it leads to what Professor Gregory calls "agonistic hyperpluralism," a condition where we no longer share anything in common, and so it becomes exceedingly difficult to have a civil society and a political society.
We have no common language, no common basis by which we can cooperate.

When the fetus can be denied the status of a human being and personhood, there is no such thing as a person. When marriage can be defined as a relationship between two men or two women, there is no such thing as marriage. So it's fruitless to talk of persons or marriage when we can define them as "whatever."

Without anything in common, we do nothing but battle each other sort of like the seagulls in Finding Nemo, yelling nothing but "mine, mine, mine." We have no notion of the good life, so we dull ourselves with what Professor Gregory calls the "goods life." We talk "of many things: of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--of cabbages--and kings," but cannot talk about the one thing necessary. (Luke 10:42) So we have not only hyperpluralism, but also hypermaterialism.

What is the cure for this state we are in?

Well, there are no easy answers. But it seems that one solution is the perennial solution. It's to follow the divine commission: "Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." (Matt 28:18-20)

This is what Pope Benedict XVI suggests we do in what is called the "New Evangelization." It is not a new Gospel, it is the same Gospel preached to old ears and dull hearts. We have the Bible for Dummies and Catholicism for Dummies. Perhaps what we need is a new genre: the Gospel for Idiots. We have to preach the Gospel to people who believe "whatever."

Now Benedict XVI does not advocate we preach the Gospel to idiots. He has far too much romanit� and diplomacy for that. We have to re-propose the Gospel, he tells us, "to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization." But it's the same thing.

To the "Kingdom of Whatever" we have to announce the "Kingdom of God." To those who are caught up in the goods life, we have to announce the good life. We have to call the idioi into communion, into the koinonia, of the Catholic Church where we may once again share a common world.

What a challenge. It's time seriously for all of us Catholics to become fishermen, and to start fishing for men.

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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is married with three children. He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum. You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: social teaching, culture, Andrew Greenwell, apologetics,

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1 - 10 of 20 Comments

Mike
10 months ago
Thank you sir; your words need saying and if only more of those in the cloth would stand up and be outraged too. What use is it to be a priest or minister if you DON'T stand up and be counted when our country is falling down around us? They remind me of the Apostles who ran when Jesus was captured, and then Peter who denied him three times. We need people of conscience to put truth to words and call abortion what it is: murder. We need politicians who ignore popularity and stand on morals and issues that are clearly right and wrong. Obama would sell his soul to the devil--if he hasn't already--in order to be reelected. Nothing else matters to him--win at all costs and continue pandering to the left wing zealots until America has sunk into history as a great nation felled by pride and arrogance. Our Roman Nero period has been upon us for sometime now; hopefully we can still pray and work for a better ending than the burning and destruction of our nation and souls.
Theresa H.
10 months ago
What an excellent Article! (thanks, Andrew); it certainly expresses well the "idiocy" of our "times"--of what happens when, as Pope Benedict put it, "we act as if God does not exist!" Unfortunately, we fool only ourselves as we march en-masse down the road to self-destruction! I think of Abraham walking along with God and talking about Niniveh....Hopefully, there are more than a few good men around and, if we join our prayers together with them, God will convert hearts such that the hedonistic/secular culture in which we are immersed will be dispersed!
JoAnn
10 months ago
Steve: If I understood you right, you think that if there was no religion, society would be much better. You may be getting your wish. People have been turning away from God for far too long and the result is: class warfare, power struggles, the races are enemies again, life has no value, respect for each other is non-existant, promiscuity and filth is rampant, children are non-persons, babies in the womb are just tissue and an inconvenience, therefore are murdered, old folks are being euthanized, charity is a thing of the past, and on and on. You tell me how not believing in God would be so much better. Come on, enlighten me. "Enquiring minds would like to know." God bless.
Steve
10 months ago
All of you here who wear clothing of two different types of material. All of you who eat shellfish. You are an abomination. It's all well and good moaning and griping about one OT passage, but you look silly when ignoring the one right next to it. It is not like this god is going to change its mind on the matter any time soon. What the author fails to notice is that when religious nonsense is removed, we do NOT see what he thinks is the outcome. We do NOT see it becoming more difficult to have a civil society but instead we see a better society, a healthier society. This is the fact he needs to concern himself with.
Don
10 months ago
William,

"Couples who live in loving and committed homosexual relationships", as you say, are not persecuted. They are rightly called out that their lives are sinful. If that is what you say is persecution, so be it, but sinful it still is. These people are forgiven by the Grace of God, but to be forgiven, they must go to confession, be sorry for their sins and promise to better from now on...not If these "couples" live their lives with True Charity for their neighbors. Also, to obtain their salvation, they need to obey ALL of the commandments, not just the first two. Telling them to "dwell in the house of the Lord" will not bring them salvation if they continue in their sin. Terrible it is that people slander them. The Church does love them but must be truthful. How can you truly love someone and yet stay out of their personal lives and watch them continue to sin? It's just as hard to watch our so-called Catholic politicians want their pro-abortion political activism to stay out of their own personal lives.

Thank God you found your way back to the Church. You probably can help those who were like you, but you need to be truthful and loving, like we all should be toward them.
JoAnn
10 months ago
William Clements: The Church is not persecuting homosexuals. Just like God, the Church loves all people, but hates the sin. The Church would be remiss if she did not try to save these souls. And, so would we be remiss if we didn't try to guide our friends back to God. Homosexuality is an abomination. St. Paul preached that adamantly. Plus, homosexuality, in itself, is not a sin. It is the ACT that is the sin. They have excommunicated themselves from the Church by their lifestyle. The Church would love nothing more than for them to repent and return to Jesus' Church. These people need our prayers, not persecution and the Church is well aware of that. God bless.
JoAnn
10 months ago
I may be mistaken about this but I don't believe Marian is a Catholic. She sounds more like a Jehovah Witness. They don't believe in Jesus. At least not that He is God. They believe Jesus was Michael the Archangel incarnate. Plus she sounds like a nature worshipper which would make her an idolatrous. A true Catholic would never say or believe what she is talking about. God bless.
Diane
10 months ago
Good article. I've noticed this phenomenon among people who say they are for right to life for all and for the age old definition of marriage between 1 man and 1 woman, but then turn around and vote for proabort and pro"same-sex' marriage politicians, who then make strong proabort laws and marriage destroying laws of same sex marriage. They don't seem to understand how the rules of civics work. They are civic idiots. There has been a terrible vacuum of responsible people in this country. They do not respond to the common good. Nature will not tolerate a vacuum. Fascism/Communism is poised to rush in , even violently, to fill that vacuum. If you are prolife, pro true marriage, then put you action(voting) where your mouth is, even your mouth of prayer. That is how you create a just and orderly world. The word sin means disorder, don't vote it in by way of immoral anti life, anti marriage politicians. Some TV preachers are now declaring homosexuality a only a spiritual problem. They are idiots. It is surely a spiritual problem that some politicians have made a social/political problem. Well, lets also deal with those politicians politically. Lets vote them out! Lets bring our laws into conformity with the true natural law and 10 Commandments. If not we fall into chaos, then the brutality of Fascism/Communism as people try to right the chaotic social order.
Martha
10 months ago
Marian,

Jesus ate meat.
William Clements
10 months ago
As an American who recently was brought out of an immoral life of fornication with men and women by the Grace of God, I still struggle daily with my fleshly desires. But, I did meet many loving homosexuals. And still am friends with many loving homosexuals. But I know God's law is Eternal. And marriage was defined by, is defined by, and will always be defined by God.

But do the couples in loving, committed homosexual relationships deserve persecution by the Church? I don't think so. I think God still has love for them and mercy for them. Their acts may by sinful in God's eyes, but every human is sinful in God's eyes and We all owe recourse to the Mother Mary conceived without sin.

By the Grace of God, homosexuals are forgiven. Marriage is not granted, but God will forgive those loving homosexuals who live their lives with True Charity for their neighbors. Telling a homosexual they are an abomination to God will never bring them to the Truth of God's Love and Mercy. Telling them to instead dwell in the House of the Lord and Give the Lord all of your Love, to Truly obey the First Two Commandments will achieve their salvation.

And then We as the Church should stay out of their personal lives and let God be the Judge of their personal lives. Amen.

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