From the evil to the wrong to the outrageous to the stupid the world seems full of…shall we say, the less than the ideal.  So often does news of the latest “you have got to be kidding me” hit me in the face that I am beginning to wonder if I have turned into that old man sitting on his porch yelling at the kids to get off his lawn.  And I struggle to explain it.  We looked this week at how education has failed kids.  But somehow it seem insufficient as an explanation.

Stupid is not violent and there is so much violence.  From the latest antisemitic threats, to use of the abortion pill to abuse women to beating a kid senseless over professional basketball there is more at play here than simply a lack of education.  Is there some sort of mass psychosis driven by ready access to mind altering drugs?  Maybe in some cases, but that is a subculture thing and whatever seems to be in the water these days seems more widespread than that.

I wish it were all just the uneducated or the kind of pipe-dreaming nonsense grass can produce, but its not.  Its not hard to explain stories like opposition to an incoming Buc-ee’s (once described to me as “the most magical gas station on earth”), or thinking you can mandate prosperity or thinking that policymakers need to do something to counter the effects of sibling birth order.  Such silliness could be explained by AI recursively dumbing itself down.  (I should insert and “I told you so” in here, but I’m already the porch sitting curmudgeon, not sure I want to add “know-it-all” to the list.)

I think we start to get a handle on the reasons for all that is around us that seems so wrong when we look at just what the church has allowed itself to become.  Faith in Christ and being a part of His church is not merely an app.  I honestly do not know how to react to this story –  conventional Christianity once drove the Mormons literally out the country because of polygamy, and now they are arguing for it?!?!?!  So much for eternal truth.

G.K. Chesterton’s book Orthodoxy is underappreciated.  It is a work of its time and as such its idiom and use of English is less accessible than it once was, but it is a Christian masterwork.  As Chesterton concludes he writes:

This, therefore, is, in conclusion, my reason for accepting the religion and not merely the scattered and secular truths out of the religion. I do it because the thing has not merely told this truth or that truth, but has revealed itself as a truth-telling thing. All other philosophies say the things that plainly seem to be true; only this philosophy has again and again said the thing that does not seem to be true, but is true. Alone of all creeds it is convincing where it is not attractive; it turns out to be right, like my father in the garden. Theosophists for instance will preach an obviously attractive idea like re-incarnation; but if we wait for its logical results, they are spiritual superciliousness and the cruelty of caste. For if a man is a beggar by his own pre-natal sins, people will tend to despise the beggar. But Christianity preaches an obviously unattractive idea, such as original sin; but when we wait for its results, they are pathos and brotherhood, and a thunder of laughter and pity; for only with original sin we can at once pity the beggar and distrust the king. Men of science offer us health, an obvious benefit; it is only afterwards that we discover that by health, they mean bodily slavery and spiritual tedium. Orthodoxy makes us jump by the sudden brink of hell; it is only afterwards that we realise that jumping was an athletic exercise highly beneficial to our health.  It is only afterwards that we realise that this danger is the root of all drama and romance.  The strongest argument for the divine grace is simply its ungraciousness. The unpopular parts of Christianity turn out when examined to be the very props of the people. The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom. But in the modern philosophy the case is opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within.

How did we get here?  I think unorthodox Christianity goes a long way towards explaining it.

That comes close to exhausting this week’s pile, consider the remainders:

Of course, orthodox Christianity is under direct fire.  Thankfully, someone is starting to shoot back.

Will California be the first state to secede since the Civil War and start the Second Civil War?

It is good to see someone else pushing back on China.