{"id":42230,"date":"2019-06-17T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=42230"},"modified":"2019-06-11T23:29:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T03:29:18","slug":"the-salt-of-the-earth-vs-the-sugar-of-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2019\/06\/the-salt-of-the-earth-vs-the-sugar-of-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Salt of the Earth” vs. “The Sugar of the Earth”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Catholic scholar Daniel J. Mahoney has written a book entitled The Idol of Our Age:\u00a0 How the Religion of Humanity Subverts Christianity<\/a>.\u00a0 It argues that the humanitarian notion of compassion has displaced the Christian understanding of compassion, grounded in Divine Mercy and Christian love.<\/p>\n

From Chandler Lasch\u2019s review, \u201cWhy \u2018The Idol of Our Age\u2019 Resonates with Readers<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

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The humanitarian version of compassion is, Mahoney said, motivated by a desire to be nice to other people and understand their perspectives. While these are admirable goals, this compassion is clearly different from the biblical concept of divine mercy. \u201cCompassion without a rooting in principle and a call to a change in behavior can lead to an abandonment of moral truth, and Christianity can become about \u2018cheap grace\u2019 way too easily,\u201d Mahoney explained. \u201cThe modern sensibility is to identify forgiving and forgetting without a need for repentance. This also has a political dimension, and identifies Christianity with a kind of softness and relativism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a review of the book,\u00a0R\u00e9mi Brague<\/a>, a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris and the University of Munich, addresses this substitution of humanitarian compassion for divine mercy in writing, \u201cChrist said: \u2018Ye are the salt of the earth, love your enemies.\u2019 The new humanitarian religion says: \u2018Ye should be the sugar of the Earth, you have no enemies\u2026\u2019 The new idol is all the more dangerous [in] that it apes Christian charity and tries to replace it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Mahoney\u2019s book singles out Pope Francis in particular as confusing humanitarianism with Christianity.\u00a0 \u201cI think that in decisive respects,\u201d he told an interviewer, \u201che is really guilty of confusing Christianity with the religion of social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his book,\u00a0Mahoney writes<\/a>\u00a0that Francis has left the Church \u201cdivided and vulnerable to an unthinking political correctness,\u201d and critiques his opposition to capital punishment. Though Francis opposes abortion, his understanding of mercy seems to prevent him from speaking out against it when it is difficult to do so, preferring to condemn what is considered evil in leftist circles. In fact, \u201cPope Francis has recently said that life imprisonment is just as immoral as capital punishment,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cI think that does not reflect Christian judgement. The Biblical tradition makes clear that it\u2019s possible for human beings to reject God\u2019s love and grace, and Hell is a real possibility, but the humanitarian logic would lead to absolute rejection of punishment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mahoney says that humanitarianism is \u201cthe secular religion of our day.\u201d\u00a0 And he shows, with scholarly thoroughness, that this religion is quite different from Christianity, even though many Christians have been unwittingly following it. He further argues that humanitarianism can have toxic social and political effects.<\/p>\n