On Avoiding 'Moral Squint' or Tolerance

1/24/2013

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is quite contrary to the prophetic tradition which inspires Christianity. God tells the prophet Ezekiel: "If I say to the wicked man, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death." (Ez. 3:18) We are obliged to speak moral truths.

"The lamp of the body is the eye," our Lord reminds us. "If your eye is single," in other words if our moral eye is not squinted, "your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad," if our moral eye is squinted, "your whole body will be in darkness." (Matt. 6:22-23)

Another word for "moral squint" is tolerance. Tolerance, of course, is touted by the secular liberals as the preeminent virtue. Secular liberals who are moral relativists would have all of us adopt "moral squint." If we are to be called benevolent, they would have us be blind to moral reality. If we are to be considered loving, they would have us be deaf to moral truths.

"Moral squint" allows us to overlook those wasps nests that are the conventions of the day such immodesty, contraception, premarital sex, abortion, homosexual marriage and regard them as honeycombs. If, instead, we see things without "moral squint," but with clear eye, and ring the Ezechielian hue and cry against these sins, we will be branded moral troglodytes, misogynists, bigots, unloving, judgmental.

In the play about St. Thomas More entitled A Man for All Seasons, the playwright Robert Bolt has the "man of the world" Cardinal Woolsey-a man of Chesterfieldian morality if there ever was one, whose life was one of "moral squint"-actually accuse the principled Thomas More of "moral squint."

"You're a constant regret to me, Thomas," the compromised and Machiavellian Churchman says. "If you could just see facts flat on, without that moral squint; with just a little common sense, you could have been a statesman."

A statesman? Perhaps. But not a saint.

The irony in Cardinal Woolsey's advice is that Thomas was seeing the world with eyes full open. St. Thomas More saw the "facts," at least the moral facts, "flat on." It was Cardinal Woolsey who was squinting and overlooked or suppressed the moral facts. Sure, More's morality-the absence of his moral squint-came at a heavy price: the cost of his head. But the irony is that Woolsey did not fare better for all his worldly wisdom.

As it turned out, St. Thomas More was both a statesman and a saint.

How do we avoid the "moral squint"?

In avoiding "moral squint," Catholics have a great advantage. They have a wonderful resource given to them by Jesus: the teaching Church, the Ecclesia docens. In speaking to his apostles, Jesus said, "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me." That truth continues with the apostolic successors, our bishops in communion with the Pope. (Luke 10:16)

Catholics who follow the guidance of the Magisterium in its moral teachings and in its social doctrine, both of which are built upon the objective natural moral law, can avoid the "moral squint" which the secular liberals would have us all adopt.

To follow the Magisterium is to follow the advice of the letter to the Hebrews, which tells us to "fix our eyes on Jesus." Jesus, being both God and man, had no moral squint: he could neither deceive nor be deceived. His eyes were whole and entire. And the Church he founded, and which is guided by the Holy Spirit, is true to the Lord's moral vision.

To the advice of the secular liberal, the moral relativist-the Chesterfields and Punches of the day-who would tell us that tolerance of all manner of evils is the better, easier way, we might remember that the way to perdition is broad. It is the harder, narrow way that leads to moral rectitude and, at the end of this short life, heaven. (Matt. 7:13-14). To their advice we might also quote Shakespeare: "The eye that told you so look'd but a-squint." (King Lear, V.iii.)

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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is married with three children. He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum. You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: morality, magisterium, Church, relativism, moral squint

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

Martha
3 months ago
So true about our school systems and their desire for conformity. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were thought to be "addled" or in today's terms ADD/ADHD. Our real boys are frowned upon in school for their inquisitive minds and challenge of the norm. What even thirty years ago was "boys being boys" is now a sentence for Ritalin, Ridicule and Retention. "Where are our leaders....where are our priests?" It takes real men for these roles, but our society is crushing those very souls. I know because my little boy is one of them. .
Paul-Emile Leray
3 months ago
This piece is both comedic and tragic, depending on perspective. It is true. It is, as usual, excellent writing.

While some degree of air in the tires makes for a less bumpy ride, the fact is that the more honest, truthful, open, clear, sincere, a person is; the more likely he is to be ostracized or self-select towards the life of a quasi hermit in some cases. Why? Most of society is operating on illusions, ego, and numbness of heart.

A child who is inquisitive and questions authority, pursues a straight path, is likely at high risk of getting kicked out of school or spending lots of time in the principal's office. Most so called "education" is rather "instruction" towards a socialization process based on cult-ure and perceived future necessities to survive in that cult-ure. What if the cult-ure is nuts? Then, the A and B students are possibly those who will fit in best in the cult-ure of death, secularism, moral relativism, cultural relativism, subjective truths therefore not true truths since not objective and timeless.

Most world leaders have so called educations (instructions) from the best brand name schools on the planet. Yet, wars (using a broad definition of war) and chaos all over the place to varying degrees exist; evident, but not so evident to those sleeping.

Live and let live attitudes are very popular. The phone will practically be ringing off the hook. Trying to be at least half serious? Fewer invitations. Trying to be very serious? Get a shovel and start digging out a cave in the wilderness to live in isolation and as a hermit, because either people will be bored by you or you will be bored to tears by most. (this is an exaggeration, but there is some truth to this) It seems to lead to a sort of solitary existence that is actually very happy, filled with extreme highs and painfully isolating stretches as well; yet with moments of wild outbursts of laughter when realizing with high awareness how funny it is to be trapped inside this human body.

Impossible to escape from oneself. The limiting factor is the body. The heart, spirit, soul, mind, thoughts, words, (such as spoken and written) can travel around so to speak. The body? The body, even when moving, can not be escaped from. In other words, nature seems to be designed to challenge us to having those most important acorn seeds grow so that the tree eventually pierces through the 'cloud of unknowing' so to speak. And with some effort, grace comes. Or, perhaps more accurately, grace came first to then result in the effort?

More grace seems to come with more effort. Yet, human will power is limited. We can't will power ourselves into the cloud. Therefore, we need to submit our wills at the foot of The Cross so that in getting out of our own way the will of The One can work through us. Then? Then, fasten the seatbelt because things can really move fast when The One decides to take you for a ride. Easy to write. Somewhat difficult to understand. It is very difficult to do, consistently, to perpetually get out of our own way. Well, if practice leads to higher perfection (even though full perfection is impossible in this life) then the sooner one begins the better. Being one of the boys at different moments in life feels good, but the more one walks the narrow path the higher the risk of being thrown off a cliff by one of the boys! Haha! Why? Because the majority is nuts. The group is the tribe and the tribe is often lead off the cliff by some gang like mob leader. (who in some cases was elected, legally)

To be a statesman and a saint; what an achievement and example we have in St.Thomas More.

To think many people wish to be popular; that very wish and potential reality alone ought to raise the question as to why people are popular? What are the reasons, motives, roots, realities? Who is setting the standard? In a room filled with drunks, the guy buying the next round is the hero until everyone's glass is empty and it is time for the next round once again. Hey, this sounds like a democracy to me. Majority rules! (even when the cult-ure is DRUNK on secularism)

If it is the nature of truth that it often separates itself from the crowd, then how to possibly reconcile this in a democracy when majority opinion matters? If the majority is usually wrong, then a democracy serves to keep us all enslaved in a perpetual cult-ure of chaos on some levels?

I mean, look at the type of bone-heads and clowns throughout history who have run for public office. It's a complete farce, in many cases. It brings forth not reason, often, but rather celebrities. There's one guy in a certain Asian country, a few years ago, who was a pro wrestler and literally kept his mask on inside the government structures while serving as a politician. I didn't follow his policies and don't know his position on issues, but the point is that it seemed like mostly celebrity grand-standing.

To think I actually spent much of my youth looking up to politicians. Now? I view them as inferiors. I honestly, in open writing, do.

I also, openly, although it feels outrageous to write this and even believe this, do not believe in campaigning and do not believe in most democratic processes as they exist in this period of so called his-story.

A democracy? A mobocracy. The will of the MOB who have chosen a gang leader representative.

And as with a school-yard filled with boys on a sports-field, the one with the loudest mouth and biggest stick is usually the captain because the others are either petrified of him or are simply too tame to challenge him.

Paul-Emile Leray

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