in the face of evil

Seldom I believe have I written quite so prophetically as I did last week, most assuredly without any such intention on my part. A young man of relatively close acquaintance took exception to comments I made elsewhere supporting the opinions expressed by the Reverend Franklin Graham concerning the current administration’s order for all schools across the country to allow students to choose the restrooms and locker rooms according to “their internal sense of gender.”

Drowning in Silence

Drowning in Silence

What profoundly saddened was how my remarks so easily offended, not for the opinion expressed or the logic of the argument but for the mere suggestion that those so deluded were suffering from a form of insanity. Here is some of what I wrote:

“What is truly sad is how far we have sunk into such depravity and bought into the creed of subjective relativism. Objective truth is no longer considered valid or important. If I believe I’m a kangaroo despite the objective fact that I am a human male then my delusion must take precedence. There is a word for such delusional belief and it is called insanity. While you are welcome to your delusions that does not alter the objective truth nor should it allow your delusions to negate or override the reality in which the remainder of us reside.

Instead of offering reasoned argument to refute either Franklin Graham’s or my stated opinions, what he provided was a near perfect example of what I mentioned last week, an eristic argument. So much more so as my respondent stated multiple times “I’m not arguing the issue,” rather he took every occasion to denigrate and insult both our character and our beliefs. He mischaracterized what each of us had written and completely ignored debating the issue. He objected to analogies made and turned them into baseless and fallacious statements of fact.

Perhaps most disturbing beyond his mere name calling and insults was his statement “You have no empathy for sinners and you think you are a saint that can condescendingly look down on everyone that disagrees with you.” I simply cannot fathom where that statement was born for I have never claimed sainthood and as a sinner I could never condescend on anyone, even he with whom may rest some disagreement.

As Peter Kreeft writes:

Logic is deeply related to moral and ethical changes in both thought and practice. All previous societies had a strong, nearly universal, and rarely questioned consensus about at least some basic aspects of a ‘natural moral law,’ about what was ‘natural’ and what was unnatural.’ There may not have been a greater obedience to this law, but there was a much greater knowledge of it, or agreement about it. Today, especially in the realm of sex (by far the most radically changed area of human life in both belief and practice), our more ‘advanced’ minds find the old language about ‘unnatural acts’ not only ‘politically incorrect’ but literally incomprehensible, because they no longer accept the legitimacy of the very question of the ‘nature’ of a thing. Issues like homosexuality, contraception, masturbation, pedophilia, incest, divorce, adultery, abortion, and even bestiality are increasingly debated in other terms than the ‘nature’ of sexuality or the ‘nature’ of femininity and masculinity.”1

Love doesn’t call for silent acquiescence in the face of evil; it demands courage to confront evil with your mind, your soul, your strength, and above all with your voice.

 


1 Peter Kreeft, Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristolelian Principles, Ed. 3.1, St. Augustine’s Press, 2014, p 22.

About the author: Deacon Chuck

Deacon Chuck was ordained into the permanent diaconate on September 17, 2011, in the ministry of service to the Diocese of Reno and assigned to St. Albert the Great Catholic Community. He currently serves as the parish bulletin editor and website administrator. Deacon Chuck continues to serve the parish of Saint Albert the Great Catholic Community of the Diocese of Reno, Nevada. He is the Director of Adult Faith Formation and Homebound Ministries for the parish, conducts frequent adult faith formation workshops, and is a regular homilist. He currently serves as the bulletin editor for the parish bulletin. He writes a weekly column intended to encompass a broad landscape of thoughts and ideas on matters of theology, faith, morals, teachings of the magisterium and the Catholic Church; they are meant to illuminate, illustrate, and catechize the readers and now number more than 230 articles. His latest endeavor is "Colloqui: A journal for restless minds", a weekly journal of about 8 pages similar in content to bulletin reflections. All his reflections, homilies, commentaries, and Colloqui are posted and can be found on his website: http://deaconscorner.org. Comments are always welcome and appreciated. He is the author of two books: "The Voices of God: hearing God in the silence" which offers the reader insights into how to hear God’s voice through all of the noise that surrounds us; and "Echoes of Love: Effervescent Memories" which through a combination of prose and verse provides the reader with a wonderful journey on the way to discovering forever love. He regularly speaks to groups of all ages and size and would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group.

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