Sunday, February 7, 2010

Truth, Tea Parties, and Peter's Barque

The ultimate cynicism: when all truth is relative, it is up for grabs to the highest bidder, to the I Wuns with the most political power and clout. Dr. Arnn of Hillsdale College, Michigan annihilates the relativism of our current president. Sadly, Dr. Arnn jumps the shark when he says tiny Hillsdale will "save America."

I'm afraid, being a former Prot, I've heard such provincial hokum before. Like the Tea Party movement itself, it expresses a noble concern for the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and a fiery spirit and willingness to fight those in present power who believe such things are "obsolete". But it lacks the long view and ontological density that will keep such noteworthy sentiments from eventually falling into the usual "human funny business" (Bailie) into which we inevitably embroil ourselves.

At best, our greatest hope is in prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. If I do become a fellow traveler with any Scott Browns, Sarah Palins, or Tea Parties, it will be with the realization that the time may come when I will have to depart in order to live the principles of Catholic truth as taught and protected by the Church's Magisterium.

As C. S. Lewis once observed, the best lie is the one closest to the truth. I have worked too hard to become a member of the last, best bastion of truth, goodness, and beauty - the Catholic Church - to settle for a mutable and merely human effort at such eternal concerns, gentle reader. If such is as out of date as, oh, say, chivalry, so be it.

1 comment:

Frank said...

Amen. I'm right there with you.