When we begin to place our opinions above the teachings of Scripture and the Church, the movement is necessarily away from the true Christ and one God. It is in this sense that modern idolatry is less an alternative theism as it is part of the modern movement toward atheism. If God’s revelation and divine positive law no longer matters, it is only because so few believe. A practical atheism becomes formalized. We have seen this movement in liberal Protestantism— first, rejection of Christ’s priesthood and Eucharist, next, a subjective interpretation of Scripture over the ancient fathers and magisterium, and finally a watered-down religion that turns to an absentee deity not worth worshipping or obeying. God’s word becomes merely literary metaphors without real substance. This allows dissenters to make of Christ anything they like. His identity becomes infinitely pliable and fictional. Lacking the sacraments, he becomes a character sandwiched between the pages of an ancient book that is dismissed by many and worshipped by a superstitious few. The Marxist views Christ within the model of a revolutionary who distrusts the rich and wants to institute an egalitarian society. The radical feminist would negate his incarnational gender and interpret the cross as the empowerment of women in shaking off the yoke of sexist men. It can be very moving, at least until we remember that it is all exaggerated or made up. The Christian kerygma is wrongly reduced to a means toward an ends. However, it should be the other way around. Our objective is to restore all things in Christ. He must become all in all. He is the ends. Our approach to God and finding salvation in his kingdom is the goal of life.
Many would say that the problem is simply our placing human opinions over the dictates of revealed moral law, both divine positive and natural. But the difficulty is far more complex. We are facing not just closed minds but hardened hearts. The Church may complain about the current state of affairs but the stewards of faith and other believers have often been complacent or derelict in passing on our values to the next generation. Why would we expect proper moral behavior or an appreciation for the good, the true and the beautiful, from those ill-formed by ignorance and influences hostile to reality and virtue? Modern art often looks like something that did not survive a car accident. Might this be a tell-tale sign of the ugly semblance we find in souls? A corrupted spirit no longer knows what constitutes beauty. A mind poisoned by lies has lost the ability to discern the truth. Shepherds of faith compromised by the scandal of sexual abuse, have forfeited their moral authority as teachers. Why listen to them? Many people, not just youth, can no longer even say what is good. Criminals rationalize their crimes, and if there is any reservation, it is not in doing wrong but rather an upset that they got caught.
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