“We call the elevation of the individual and selfish will to this paramount status “democracy,” but more and more it will come to resemble a berserk state, a self-deification through the collapse of concern for anything other than the self…Today our common political and social program is the self–a paradox that either will open a window to the Church or will be seen as the suicide pact of the human race. I mean, the fact that it is necessarily a common project can lead us to see that we exist in and through each other, in communion, or we can choose merely to make a temporary alliance with others in order to expedite each soul’s flight into gnostic aloneness and thus the abyss.” (Timothy G. Patitsas)
I am realizing what stirs anxiety in my stomach and creates a war in my heart. It’s the way opinions drive bad behavior. And not just others’, mine is first to be flamed.
I see redefinitions of the Fruit of the Spirit in justifying an allegiance to whatever seems most important to an individual (ah, the worship of individual is the greatest idolatry of our time). The edge of my faith is softening, becoming pliable, less reliable to stop me from slipping and falling into despair.
My bent toward justice is causing me to keel over at the witnessing of opinions motivating bad behavior…with the sickness of my own heart exposing my own decay.
How post-modern of our culture to elevate opinion to the very top of the moral framework, allowing what we think to manipulate what is acceptable, justifiable, and true.
But if the teaching of Christ is true, then we have lost our way. Thinking is nothing but vapor. Ideas are play toys of demons.
The edge of faith has caved in on itself and I wonder, is any true faith left?
angie dicken 