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The Inadvisable in a Graceless Society
The Daily Wire Backstage: Spring Break Special this week is not to be missed. Many topics germane to the state of life in America are discussed by Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan, Michael Knowles, The Daily Wire’s god-king Jeremy Boreing, and Matt Walsh. But when they use the term “graceless society,” it makes me take pause. Apparently, they’ve discussed the gracelessness of American society as the cause of Trump’s election before and I’ve missed it. These are my initial thoughts on the subject.
First, we’d best establish what is meant by “graceless” in our culture. I take it to mean “unforgiving” or even “intolerant” in the authentic sense — an unwillingness to put up with the expression of some opinion, or behavior, or person you find objectionable. The DW guys get into a great discussion of western civilization and its roots, too, in which Michael Knowles says: they “want the culture without the cult” (this is in reference to the alt-Right). As a coreligionist of Michael’s (Catholic), I knew instantly what he meant. Our society is limping along gracelessly while in denial (or support) of the religious foundations that made us great. Without Judaism, there’s no Catholicism. Without Catholicism, there’s no Protestantism. Without the ethic of grace (forgiveness) promoted by these “cults,” there’s no western civilization. Without a people who practice these ethics, it all breaks down.
So, what are those things which become inadvisable in the absence of grace?
Apologies: Don’t do it. President Trump knows this as well as anyone. You sleep with a porn star and pay her off to keep your wife from finding out? For heaven’s sake, don’t apologize for your boorish, sinful behavior! Whatever Joe Biden has done, it’s (probably) not comparable to that, but he’s about to be #metooed out of his candidacy before he’s even announced he’s running. He hasn’t apologized for being handsy per se, but for being white and male, which gets him the same treatment from the #metoo crowd. I think he’s finished. Enjoy your retirement, Joe!
Speak uncomfortable truths: Now, Jordan Peterson is making a heckuva career (and a lot of money) out of bucking the trend, but he’s not invulnerable. And the chances you can do the same while still making a living and keeping your friendships are pretty slim. Political correctness isn’t about “correct” anything! It’s the opposite of correct thinking and correct speaking — it’s literally lying about something or someone so as not to make him/her/zir/zed uncomfortable. We’re becoming a nation of liars.
Admit guilt: Jussie Smollett and the Clintons. ‘Nuff said?
Expose what you believe by supporting “unapproved” causes: I still can’t get over what happened to Brendan Eich over his support for retaining the definition of (male/female) marriage. He was fired from the company he founded! For making a donation! People, this is sick. Something similar is happening to normal people who support President Trump. We benefit from anonymity for the most part, but we tend to keep our opinions quiet IRL. Pray God we are the silent majority in 2020.
Yesterday was Laetare Sunday in the Western Christian liturgical tradition. It’s a mid-Lent respite from penance and a celebration of God’s mercy in anticipation of Easter. We read the parable of the Prodigal Son at mass that morning. It’s always been a bit of a misnomer to call it the prodigal son, as “prodigal” has the same root as “prodigious” and the parable is really about the prodigious love and mercy of the father (Father). The grace offered to the son is the grace we are offered by God, and we, in turn, are called to offer it to each other. It is echoed by the cycle of fallenness and grace God offered to the Hebrews throughout salvation history. It is the cornerstone of western civilization, and without it, we see the lies, injustices, unrepentant sin, and uncivilized behavior toward each other we’re seeing now.
There is no western culture without the cult. Have mercy on us, for we are sinners.
Published in General
Truly. The generations of atheists have been eating the ethical seed corn of the religious generations before them. There will come a time (are we there now?) when that corn is gone and all we’ll have is one generation left standing. And then it’s gone. Scary.
All true.And the Brendan Eich thing. I still can’t wrap my head around it.
A moving and troubling analysis of why we are where we are. This: Out’a the ballpark!
“Political correctness isn’t about “correct” anything! It’s the opposite of correct thinking and correct speaking — it’s literally lying about something or someone so as not to make him/her/zir/zed uncomfortable. We’re becoming a nation of liars.”
@concretevol was pretty much Never Trump at work, but I think even he’s coming around.
Father Sirico (founder of the Acton Institute) tells a parable of his own about a tree in his front yard “living off last year’s sap.” I truly believe we’re as dead as that tree without a religious revival.
Never Trump to me was purely applicable to the last election and mostly the primary. I don’t see the point of it now and if I had been the deciding vote I would have voted for him 10 times out of 10. I just didn’t since he was going to win TN by a huge margin so my voted didn’t make a difference one way or another. :)
Yes, we don’t seem capable of showing respect for people with opinions we disagree with. It seems easier not to listen to each other. One of the many reason Ricochet is a treasure.
As an atheist, I have heard some interesting responses from some Christians when I have criticized the actions of God as depicted in the Hebrew Bible.
When I have criticized the God of the Hebrew Bible for commanding that someone be put to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath, arguing that the punishment does not fit the crime, I have been told, “Who are you to question God?”
When I have criticized the God of the Hebrew Bible for commanding the extermination of entire populations, I have been told, “God might have had good reasons for commanding this, reasons that you don’t understand.”
Now, I realize that not all Christians and Jews are committed to Biblical inerrancy nor are they believers in Divine Command Theory, the idea that if God decided that the mass slaughter of human beings is good then that makes the mass slaughter of human beings is good.
Still, I think one should criticize some of God’s actions as depicted in the Bible. To just nod ones head as the God of the Hebrew Bible goes about commanding the killing of whole populations seems to be an example of moral bankruptcy.
To be fair, I don’t think most Christians or Jews do this. I think most Christians and Jews have their own sense of morality, apart from what they read in the Bible.
I don’t really want to get on your hobbyhorse in this thread, Heavy. But I will ask, was anyone ever executed for gathering wood on the Sabbath? Can you prove it?
Have you ever considered that, when the Hebrews intermarried with pagans, their whole society was corrupted and they entered a lamentable state (exile, for example) from which God eventually redeemed them? That maybe God told them to put the ban on the baby killers to signify the seriousness of allowing evil to inhabit their lands… and then their hearts? No, I doubt it. Because, as an atheist, you have no interpretive tradition for reading the Bible in a coherent fashion. You’re floating in space. An atomized individual.
You may be a perfectly decent fellow, but your kind will never hold our society together.
In many cases the Bible doesn’t represent actual historical fact but instead merely represents what someone who lived in the distant past wrote.
So, I don’t know if anyone was actually executed for gathering wood on the Sabbath.
That’s an interesting explanation. It’s just not one that I think would be persuasive to even most Christians.
Whenever I attend church, the Bible quotations that are read in church tend to be those that are uplifting, not those of verses where God commands that someone be put to death for some minor infraction.
In reality, I think most Christians, most Jews and most non-religious people have moved away from the morality of the Hebrew Bible. And that’s a good thing, in my opinion.
By the way, I don’t think of myself as the glue that holds society together. I am a decent guy. But it’s like that Joe Walsh song, Ordinary Average Guy.
But take a look at some societies where religious belief is lower than in the United States like Japan and Denmark. They have lower murder rates than the US. Now, that doesn’t mean that I am going to go full bore Bernie Sanders and endorse socialism. In reality, those nations are market economies.
However, if people in the United States start viewing the Bible as the writings of people who lived in the distant past as . . . . . . writings of people who lived in the distant past, that’s a good development, in my opinion.
If there’s a bad idea somewhere in the pages of the Bible or even within a religious groups’ theology, it’s good if people will say, “Hold on. I’m not sure I believe that.”