By: Rosemary Dewar
The trend of making everything a dichotomy is causing the meaning of fundamental maxims to lose relevance. Culture wants to separate church from state and morality from fact in order to accommodate the few that aim to control the many. Of course, people in leadership want to feel as though they are doing “good”; however, the refusal to acknowledge the need to fuse truth with information is to usher in chaos with a red carpet.
Continuing the efforts to widen the chasm between church and state shows a lack of understanding of the need for both of them to keep each other in social check. Neither entity can invade each other’s liberty. The Church cannot demand that individuals to follow doctrine against their will, and the state cannot mentally enslave individuals who have a belief that they are already free. The state cannot misuse the Church, and the Church cannot misuse the state. They ought to be forever bound to count on each another to hold a people together for the sake of those people alone. They are not ‘separate but equal,’ they are intertwined and fated to fall should their union ever break.
A few months ago, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated, “There’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.” On the campaign trail, former Vice President Joe Biden mirrored those remarks by saying, “We choose truth over facts!” In all matters of integrity, it is fundamentally impossible and naïve to separate truth from fact and morality from precision.
Morality devoid of empirical fact and coherent truth is a formula for vengeance, hedonism, and corruption. One would gather just enough information to make a personal narrative whose “plausibility” justifies acting in a defensive and self-preserving manner. Even if the action is found to either be utterly wrong or too harsh, the justification to ignore imperative facts is indulgently embraced.
The Judeo-Christian worldview depicts “righteousness and justice are the foundation of the throne” on which God demonstrates His rule. Even for God, it is impossible for Him to enact His judgement without righteousness and justice. Justice without morality cannot stand, and righteousness without judgement of violation cannot stand. There is not a man on Earth that would demand justice without a founded morality of some nature.
It is a pure vanity that asks an individual what they think they deserve without any regard for what the cost may be for the opposing party. To say there are zero consequences for resisting fundamental principles would be equally untrue and unfair. For example, consider the seven (originally eight) deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, (and vanity). They can start as self-inflicted, but if left unchecked, they will demand an external victim. Each one slowly diminishes your decency.
Pope Gregory I stated that, “Pride is the queen of sins (vices).”
C.S. Lewis asserted, “[T]he essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.”
In 1997’s The Devil’s Advocate, the devil pronounces, “Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.
The dare to tear down the very foundation that holds you up is a fool’s errand. To ask for justice apart from truth is to ask for imprudent judgement for yourself.
By: Rosemary Dewar
