A Pinch Of Incense

It has been interesting to read the various reactions to the recent declaration (decision seems too mild of a descriptor). Many have realized that this was never about legitimacy, or equality.

It was about absolution.

Those who act against the natural law cannot help but recognize, somewhere deep down inside, that their actions are disordered. As St. Paul explained in his letter to the Romans, the law is written on our hearts. They know, whether or not they will admit it to themselves (they certainly wouldn’t admit it to others), that they do wrong. Naturally enough this leads to guilt. As a general rule, we human beings don’t like guilt. Not in the slightest. And so we seek a way to remove it, however we can.

One particularly easy (although not ultimately successful) method  to deal with guilt is to have others approve the actions which lead to it. After all, if others say that we are in the right, how can we possibly be in the wrong? Of course, this won’t last. And the reason why this is only just the beginning.

They won’t stop here. Legitimacy can still be threatened by those who express disagreement. That is still possible- for the moment. Disagreement and dissent will be intolerable to them. After all, their goal is to have everyone affirm what they are doing. Conflicting viewpoints break up this harmony and threaten the comfort they are trying to build for themselves. What they want is to be told that they are right; what they fear is to be told that they are wrong.

What we see now is only the first step in a larger plan. It has three “phases,” if you will.

Phase 1 is to legitimize their actions in general society. This has been effectively accomplished.

Phase 2 will be to silence any who dissent, any who break from the “party line.” This is being worked towards even as you read this.

Phase 3 will involve forcing everyone to affirmatively voice their support for “the new normal.” We, all of us, will be required to say that nothing is wrong about what they do. That their actions and lifestyle are just as valid as any other. In short, we will be required to offer a pinch of incense before the idols of this present age.

Understand that silence is not enough for them. The Romans once said “Qui tacet consentit.” It can be translated as silence gives consent. That isn’t enough. You see, they will know that if you don’t speak up and voice your support, it means you disagree. That you dissent. [That massive display of support recently was based on this awareness- those who participated wanted to make it clear that they don’t dissent.]  Knowing that someone dissents will be enough to discomfort them, and that just won’t do. After all, much of the reason for what is going on is so they can be comfortable. Anything that can negatively affect that comfort will be seen as a threat. And threats must be crushed.

So they will require everyone to speak up and affirm them. No one will be exempt from this. The choice presented to us will be simple: say that we support them, their views and their choices, or else.

What is that else?

The priest at church this Sunday was particularly blunt. He warned us that persecution was coming. Few words were spared about it; little needed to be said because it was obvious to most, if not all, of us there.

It will start subtle at first, and build over time. I don’t think it will be prison, at least not in the beginning. My suspicion is that they will go for our soft spots, the places where we are truly vulnerable: our livelihoods to start off, I think. They will threaten us with losing our employment, our means of support. Going after our finances will be easy and relatively bloodless. Only those who are self-employed will be safe… at first. In the long run I fully expect them to find ways to go after even those who are their own boss. Discrimination laws, boycotts, and all manner of coercive acts in between will all find a use.

After that I expect that they will go after parents with children. It will only get worse from there.

Do not expect things to suddenly get better. Do not expect “the silent majority” to grow a spine and suddenly strike back against those who are “going overboard.” They lack the will and attention span to do anything more than delay what is coming. Nor should you expect the law or the Constitution to provide any defense. In the end those words on paper will mean whatever they want them to mean.

Let’s not lie to ourselves. They are going to do their damnedest to push us out of civil society.  We need to prepare ourselves. We need to organize. We need to form new communities, built to withstand the coming storm. It is unclear how much time we have. I figure that we have, at most, a generation or so before Phase 3 arrives in full force. So it behooves us to start immediately. Failure on our part will mean that we are pushed back to the catacombs. It may come to that anyways. But if we act now we have a chance of preserving that which matters.