{"id":41126,"date":"2013-01-09T11:14:46","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T18:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=41126"},"modified":"2014-12-30T02:48:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T09:48:58","slug":"caelum-et-terra-has-a-fine-little-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2013\/01\/caelum-et-terra-has-a-fine-little-essay.html","title":{"rendered":"Caelum et Terra Has a Fine Little Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2026on transcending tribalism<\/a>.\u00a0 When you read the story about the Planned Parenthood nurses helping the abortion protester who was hit by the car, it might be a useful diagnostic to ask yourself if your first thought was \u201cThank God!\u00a0 Even they aren\u2019t all bad.\u201d or is is a sort of disappointment, a fear that people will not think the worst of them, and the dogged will to remind yourself that they (not, you know, principalities and powers) are The Enemy?<\/p>\n

A reading from the Prophet C.S. Lewis:<\/p>\n

Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one\u2019s first feeling, \u2018Thank God, even they aren\u2019t quite so bad as that,\u2019 or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally, we shall insist on seeing everything\u2014God and our friends and ourselves included\u2014as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026on transcending tribalism.\u00a0 When you read the story about the Planned Parenthood nurses helping the abortion protester who was hit by the car, it might be a useful diagnostic to ask yourself if your first thought was \u201cThank God!\u00a0 Even they aren\u2019t all bad.\u201d or is is a sort of disappointment, a fear that people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[336],"class_list":["post-41126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charity-is-a-virtue"],"yoast_head":"\nCaelum et Terra Has a Fine Little Essay<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"...on transcending tribalism.\u00a0 When you read the story about the Planned Parenthood nurses helping the abortion protester who was hit by the car, it might\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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