Dirty Deadly Dancing
To what, then, can I compare the men of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ - Jesus Christ, Luke 7:31-32
But we men of this current generation gladly dance to the tune our own pipers play. After all, they play the tunes we want them to.
Just over three years ago, a pandemic began that has since killed over a million Americans. At the time, naive as I was, I was convinced that my Ostentatiously Christian friends would see how we needed to band together for the common good, making the personal sacrifices needed in order to protect the most vulnerable among us and safeguard our overwhemlmed healthcare workers.
I was an idiot.
Because right away, the pipers began to play this lively little two-step fox trot Macarena called: “This is an Affront to our Freedom!” And my Christian friends danced with delight to that little ditty.
Early in the pandemic, one of my Super Catholic friends said to me both of the following …
There is no COVID virus. It’s liberal hype to make Trump look bad.
The COVID virus is hitting New York as hard as it is because people are crammed together on the subways and it will kill almost all of them if they don’t change their lifestyle.
… heedless of her self-contradiction.
This fits into my latest insight about The Great Unmasking: it’s not just about ideology and stupidity. As I wrote, there are vested interests involved in this. There are pipers playing tunes. And we are dancing to the tunes they play.
Remember that lively upbeat number from spring of 2020, “They’re Banning Our Masses Because the Government Wants to Destroy the Catholic Church”? Great disco beat! My Super Catholic friends danced their butts off to that one!
As if the Catholic Church is any sort of threat to the government. As if banning Masses was done by the government and not the by the bishops. As if God is unable to deliver grace outside of the Sacraments.
None of that made sense then, and it doesn’t now, but we live in an age that exhibits contempt of reason.
Russell Moore is getting a lot of play for the following …
Moore told NPR in an interview released Tuesday that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the part that says to “turn the other cheek,” when preaching. Someone would come up after the service and ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”
“What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak,’” Moore said.
… but “turn the other cheek” is hardly the only teaching of Jesus that our Super Christian neighbors disdain.
The one they really hate is this:
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. - Jesus Christ, John 8:32
Truth is old fashioned these days - especially for people who want to believe that, for instance, Trump won the election. Truth is not the tune we want to march to. It’s not in the Top 40. Not in the Hit Parade.
We have chosen our Unreality; we sing forth our Lie; we beat the drum of Make-believe. And we will make the whole society dance to it, by God.
And if you don’t, we will complain, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’