Beacon of Truth

 Today we had a sort of mini-retreat day at school for our faculty, and there is nothing at all wrong with that concept - sometimes we have to mentally and spiritually recharge our batteries, and things like that help do that.  The theme of the retreat was centered around a couple of questions which were good:

1. What areas of my life and work fill me with the most gratitude?

2. What are obstacles that I experience that lead me away from gratitude? 

To be honest, a little of both showed up in this mini-retreat time in our small group.  Now, I work with a wonderful group of colleagues overall, and I have really come to like many of them personally.  However, many of them also have radically different ideological views from me as well, and the way I handle that is to try to find common ground with them.  One young man in particular who teaches History is generally a quiet person, and he generally is easygoing with everyone.  However, today one idea comes up that sort of threw me a curve ball - he was blaming the lack of gratitude in Western society on capitalism and an over-emphasis on individualism.  In reality, on some level he was not wrong - there are some issues with those things for sure.  However the place he was coming from was in reality a sort of product of that itself, and that is what I wanted to focus on. 

Capitalism, as a system, is not truly evil - it is an economic system primarily, and it promotes things like free enterprise and being able to be successful.  However, there is a toxic variant of capitalism called corporatism, or by its more popular moniker "crony capitalism."  I have talked about this before, and it entails greedy corporations swallowing up the small businesses that often form the pillars of communities, and the replacement is far inferior to the original.  The end result is an "oligarchy of monopolies," and they have the resources to rig political systems to make it harder for small businesses to function because they hate competition.  In reality, often the product which is churned out and marketed by the big corporations tends to be inferior, and even harmful in some cases - take the whole issue of GMOs in the food industry, as well as some of the stuff the pharmaceutical industry is pushing out.  That form of "capitalism" is at its roots totalitarian, and it doesn't represent true capitalism.  Oddly, for those the rail against capitalism (and I am not accusing my young colleague of this by any measure) are the same ones who think large corporations are good things - many of the most radical among them are even bankrolled by the same large corporations they are supposed to be against.  Do you see the inconsistency there?  That is why when the word "capitalism" is bandied about as a bogeyman by some who have certain political leanings, maybe it is a good idea to really probe what they mean by "capitalism."  If they mean commercialization and corporatism, I would probably agree with them, as there is way too much of that.  I get so sick, for instance, of trying to watch a YouTube video only to have it interrupted by a blast of 10 commercials/ads - one day in frustration with the Liberty Mutual commercials that air over and over, I said that they should stick that emu up their butts.  So yes, less of that junk would be better - I know advertising is integral to a company, but in all honesty when all that is advertising is multi-billion-dollar corporations, it gets old fast.  I feel a similar disdain for the MLM schemes that are often pushed even by church groups as "healthy alternatives" - they are corporate cults too, and they don't do anyone any service as they mix aggressive marketing with cultic philosophies that come more from Mary Baker Eddy or Ernest Holmes (the father of the New Thought movement) than they do the Bible. Any unrealistic "get rich quick" schemes are anathema to me personally, and I don't want to hear about them, so keep that junk to yourself if that is your thing.  MLMs and mega-corporations represent a skewered form of capitalism, built upon the theories of homosexual economist John Maynard Keynes, and we all see where his views have taken us - the whole Equifax credit score system is based on Keynesian principles that capital is relational to debt, and that theory is also disastrous.  So, now that we explained what capitalism is not, let's more properly explain it.

The true form of capitalism is based on a meritocratic premise that anyone who invests the effort can be successful, and although we don't have the right to wealth or success, we do have the right to aspire to success.  Private property and hard work are both Biblical principles that are the true legacy of Western civilization, and if someone wants to own their own house and have a way of generating income for themselves, then by all means they should go for that.  There is nothing wrong with striving for success, provided the success doesn't become an idol to the person.  And, success is different for each individual - what may be successful for one person may not be for someone else.  An Amish farmer, for instance, will have a success that looks relatively minor to a savvy investor, but both can still be successful.  Neither may become a billionaire, and I don't think that is the objective of either anyway.  But, if they reach their own benchmarks, then that is success.  The problem with Western society today is that many try to define success - we look at football players, actors, and politicians as icons of success, but are they really?  In his book Return to Order (York, PA: York Press, 2013) author John Horvat introduces a term to us called frenetic intemperance.  On page 355 of the book, Horvat defines this as "a restless, explosive, and relentless drive inside modern man that manifests itself in economy by 1) seeking to throw off legitimate restraints, and 2) gratifying disordered passions."  It puts me in mind of what Josef Pieper talks about in Leisure, the Basis of Culture when he talks about another term, acedia - a sadness in view of the divine good in man.  Essentially, the pursuit of that thing which becomes an idol produces a sort of spiritual sloth in man, and we lose the impetus of what true leisure is.  It is from acedia that frenetic intemperance emerges, and again goes back to what Fr. Alexander Schmemann defined secularism as "the absence of man as a worshipping being."  As I noted before though, it is not the idea of man not worshipping, but rather what man worships - is he worshipping God, or an inferior substitute such as corporate success?  Therefore, it is not actual capitalism - the pursuit of one's success - which is the actual issue, but rather a bastardization of capitalism in its more onerous form, corporatism.  Corporatism is a sin in that it is a sort of idolatry, but it also is an addiction - an addiction to power, and the need to control financial resources to obtain that power.  Mega-corporations are thus almost like a religious tradition now in themselves, a "tradition of man," and thus it is this which is antithetical to Church teaching, and not the mere pursuit of personal success through hard work.  And, that leads to another point. 

In time, overreaching corporatism leads to totalitarianism, in that mega-corporations can wield influence in the political realm.  Every totalitarian dictatorship of the last 100 years was put into power with powerful corporate backing in many cases - it is true of the Bolsheviks, the Italian Fascists, the Nazis, and even secularist Ba'athist regimes in the Middle East.  And it is true of many "progressives" in the US as well - think of how many millionaire celebrities and corporate bigwigs are promoting socialism - that seems weird, right?  I mean, why would a huge Hollywood celebrity campaign for a socialist like Bernie Sanders??  Yet, you see that all the time.  But, when you look at the fine print, the millionaire influencers and socialist radicals want the same thing - a society made over in their own image, thus a micromanaging totalitarianism that tells people what they can eat, where they can work, etc.  And, the war chest they have to fund that agenda is seemingly bottomless.  On the other hand, ask the average blue-collar worker what they want, and you hear this - less taxes, freedom to live their lives as they want, and in many cases they are also largely people of faith and moral standards too.  A whole other discussion alone could be initiated just on this, but you see where it is going - those who reject God and follow their own disordered passions will end up in the same place.  

Another thing of note was our group facilitator, who also happens to be the campus minister at our school.  He has a perspective that is colored by his experiences in El Salvador, and to be honest I do feel for the man on that, but at the same time he has resorted to defending Marxists there as well as dangerous gangs like MS-13 and he blames the US for violence against citizens there.  He is always using the word "justice" like a mantra, but today I took my parish priest's mandate to be a beacon of truth to heart and quickly made the following point:

1.  Faith without justice is legalism

2. Justice without faith is tyranny.

Again, it was the misguided pursuit of justice that led to perhaps some of the most murderous regimes of the last century - Lenin chanted the word in the Kremlin when he overthrew the Czar, Hitler was utilizing it during his 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, and Castro used it to overthrow Batista in Cuba in 1959.  And, also Mao - he did the same thing in 1948, and all of these individuals together are responsible for millions of innocent deaths, all committed in the name of "justice."  This is why "liberation theology" is a heresy, as it does two things. First, it tries to make faith a political statement.  Secondly, it ultimately diminishes faith in favor of something antithetical to the Gospel, and often what it supports is more oppressive than what it was against.  Justice that leads to tyranny is not true justice at all, as a just God is the author of true justice, and once he is removed from the equation, problems happen.   This is why, when examining this for myself, I noted some things that true justice stands for:

1. The dignity of every person as created in God's image.

2. A fair and ordered implementation that does not steal justice away from others to give it to "favored" groups (yes, this is what some radically militant "liberation theologies" do too).   Therefore, an ideology like socialism is legislated theft in that it steals from others in the name of "equality and inclusion." 

3. True justice will always be founded upon authentic faith - if it contradicts it or tries to reinterpret faith in any way, then it is a false man-centered justice. 

4.  True justice upholds law - so, in the case of illegal immigration, it is not true justice to harbor people who enter a nation illegally.  True justice provides a way for those truly seeking a better life to get it through legal means, and there are provisions for that. 

5. True justice has a moral basis - the whole LGBT platform is basically immoral, and true justice does not seek to legalize immorality.   Rather, we have a level of compassion for those struggling with that (and with anything else) by recognizing them as fellow human beings, but we never affirm their behavior or views, especially if they are in conflict with Church teaching or Scripture. 

Looking at it from that perspective, our campus minister is a sincere (and he is actually a nice guy with a sincere heart, and I personally like him) but seriously misguided soul when it comes to justice.  My own solidly Catholic convictions scream disagreement with some things I hear, and I am reminded of something that came to me today, and it is another reason why I take being a "beacon of truth" seriously.

In Mark 16:18, there is a somewhat controversial passage that some Biblical scholars have been debating over for decades.  The reason is that there are some people - in particular some Pentecostal congregations in my native Appalachia - that take these passages literally to the point they risk death by doing some extreme things.  Some of the things mentioned in this verse include a couple of things which are the focus of some of these groups - handling serpents and drinking "deadly things."  The little churches in the mountains in question take up rattlesnakes and drink things like battery acid and strychnine to demonstrate that they are "confirming the Word," and they really take that seriously!  However, let's also remember what the Church teaches us about hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation), and it is called the Four-Fold Hermeneutic of Scripture, which I teach my kids with the acronym LAMA:

Literal - deals with the plain text

Allegorical - deals with a belief about the text

Moral - deals with what a text challenges us to do

Anagogical - tells us where believing will take us.

While some Biblical passages can be one or more of these at once, this particular passage in Mark's Gospel is I believe something allegorical - the "drinking deadly things" is what I want to focus on here. 

Often, due to our work or other circumstances, we are compelled to work in environments where we have people with opposing views, some radically different than ours.  We are not there by choice, and some of the ideas these people have can be toxic.  So, when I read this verse in Mark's Gospel, I read it in that context - these opposing ideologies are the "deadly thing," and when you work in certain places, you are exposed to them on a daily basis.  It means you have to keep your faith alive, and rely on God's protection, and if we do so, he will help us to not be poisoned by toxic ideologies.  However, this requires something else - we have to have a constant renewal of our minds and spirits, and that is why we must participate in the sacramental life of the Church as well as engaging in a personal prayer regimen, and we also need the prayers of others as well.  The key piece of this is supernatural grace, which has the task of healing, elevating, and perfecting us on a daily basis.  Letting that grace inoculate us against toxic ideology is key, and it is a medicine to our weary souls.  The more of this grace we allow in us, the more resilient we will be.  To be a beacon of truth, we also need that extra strength, because we face a fallen world out there that can be hostile to us.  Any rate, that is the theological lesson in this.

In summary, Catholics require a more discerning spirit when it comes to the practical application of our faith, and I think we could benefit from a more orthodox understanding of it free of non-Christian religious influences and radical politics.  My role as a beacon of truth is to shine a light on this, as well as being a light to others.  May God give me the strength to help me to do that.

Thanks again for allowing me to share, and will see you next time.