Gabriel Rochelle, Path of the Spirit Published 1:51 a.m. MT Aug. 16, 2020

Fr. Gabe Rochelle(Photo: Courtesy photo)

It has long been the case that organized religion is on the wane in the United States. I have days of thinking thats good, days of thinking thats bad, but never mind. What I see happening, however, is that the gap left by the increasing lack of religion is being rapidly filled in by an alternative: social justice religion. Let me rephrase that: The gap left by the absence of puritanical, judgmental, finger-waving, name-calling forms of religion is being replaced by movements which mimic all the bad tendencies that people have always complained about in some manifestations of religion.

The social awareness scene is truly scary these days. I was never a fan of movements like the moral majority in the past. Those warriors did not speak to my soul and they didnt represent my understanding of Christian values or faith. I can go farther back: I was never a fan of Billy Graham and was chastised and rebuked for refusing to be involved in one of his major campaigns back in the 70s. I never went along with the crazy late great planet earth fanatics, either, but thats a tale to be told some other time. Ive lived through a lot of finger-pointing, accusations of being a communist, and assorted weirdness like being spat on in civil rights marches. Most of this stuff I could laugh off or disregard because it had no real cash value in the marketplace of ideas.

But that scariness pales in comparison to the rigid, puritanical political correctness that seems to be sweeping the nation these days. This year, the Left has gone nuts. There is still a liberal Left, in shreds, but there is also an authoritarian Left and theyre the ones in public view. Whenever I hear the word woke (which wasnt in anybodys vocabulary two years ago) I think I have to run the other direction. I will have offended someone; I will have become the scapegoat for someones standard of behavior. We are experiencing the authoritarian Left in full bloom. If you are not in line with the latest politically correct behavior you will be called out and shamed. If possible, the totalitarian Left will call for your firing from any responsible position. Friends, this is happening at our universities. Look at the recent flap over Professor Jonathan Katz at Princeton. Or more personally, note the interesting statistic that 61percent of Americans are afraid to speak their mind publicly because of fear of censure from either extreme. This is the society of freedom?

From my perch, heres the problem: if God is no longer in charge ultimately, or to put it another way if there is no overarching social contract in place whereby people live in accordance with an agreed set of values, then we are reduced to our little, small selves to rely on what we feel (not think!) offends us and our sensibilities. Because we are also in the age of entitlement, we then raise hell because we have been personally offended. Those who shout loudest win. Aesthetics replace ethics: What we feel is beautiful or true is good, whats not is bad.

No matter what you may personally believe or not believe, western society in particular has been in search of a soul since Nietzsche declared that God was dead near the end of the 19th century. Since that turning point, we raised up the great therapeutic society, and now we are reaping the burnt-out tailings of that movement in the exaltation of personal feeling as the be-all and end-all of societal striving. And it isnt pretty, folks.

Fr. Gabriel Rochelle is pastor of St Anthony of the Desert Orthodox Mission, Las Cruces. The church web site is http://www.stanthonylc.org. We welcome folks in ordinary times. Send an email if youd like to learn more.

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We are back in the culture wars, reversed - Las Cruces Sun-News