THE SANE CENTER

It occurred to me the other day that the "left" and the "right" in our political world and in our church world are both right and both wrong. The solution to these stand-offs is not compromise, watering down one's truth where each side "goes along to get along," but realizing that both sides stand for "a" truth, but neither side has the "only" truth -  that both positions have value and each represents one of two truths.

Political conservatives seem to be the champions of individualism, while political liberals seem to be the champions of communalism. (The commandment of Jesus was to "love your neighbor as yourself." It was not to love "one or the other," but "both together!") The good of individuals and the good of the community both have validity. 

Religious conservatives seem to be the champions of God's activity in the past, while religious liberals seem to be the champions of God's activity in the present. Both positions have value and represent one of two truths. God has been active in the past and is active in the present. Both are true! 

I have always heard that heresy is simply the truth exaggerated to the point of distortion. I tried to find out where I saw that, so I started a search.  I came across this quote from Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society, so it's probably a paraphrase of an insight from the great Catholic Englishman, G. K. Chesterton. Mr. Ahlquist says this, "A heresy is a small truth isolated from the whole truth and then exaggerated to the point that it overshadows the whole truth and even turns against it. A heresy is a truth gone mad. The madman goes mad not from being wrong, but from being right about one thing to the exclusion of all others."

The solution to most of our political fighting is not a war where one side or the other wins, but the bipartisanship that was manifested in the passage of the new infrastructure bill, one that respects both the good of individuals, as well as the good of the community. The solution to most of our ecclesial fighting is not a war where one side or the other wins, but the synodality that Pope Francis is proposing that respects both church leaders listening to the people of the church, as well as the people of the church listening to its leaders. We need the balance that the inclusion of both brings to the table.  

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, thank God, have been pulled back from another cliff, by not being persuaded by their radical right flank to turn the Eucharist into a political weapon. For now, they have found the "sane center" of Pope Francis on this issue. As the German-American theologian, Paul Tillich, said, "History has shown that the most terrible crimes against love have been committed in the name of fanatically defended doctrines." As the French theologian, Blaise Paschal, said, "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." As Bart Ehrman, American New Testament scholar, said, "There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty." 

Let us pray! 

Dear God, help us find the "sane" center before our need to be "right" and our need to "win" leads to the heresy of  killing of each other in the name of truth!