FAST FOOD (AD 2019): Fifth Helping
Leo Tolstoy writes, “Most men cannot accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”
A “simple and most obvious truth” is that the Jesus of the Gospels, the only Jesus there is, was or ever will be, is Nonviolent and teaches by word and deed to His disciples a Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies under all circumstances without exception. To accept this truth of the Gospels would oblige bishops, priests, ministers and pastors of the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Evangelical Churches to admit the falsity of their conclusion that a Christian can faithfully follow Jesus and kill other infinitely loved son and daughters of the “Father of all” in war time or at any other time. This of course, is a falsity which they have delighted in explaining to others, which they have proudly taught to others and which they have woven into the fabric of their own lives.
It has been said, “It is impossible to get a person to understand the obvious if his or her livelihood depends on not understanding the obvious.” But, it is not only the loss of a person’s livelihood that can make him or her impervious to unpalatable facts. Potential loss of anything in which one has made a significant investment of his or her life’s time, mind, talent and/or treasure can blind a person to plain-to-see, incontrovertible truth. I can’t see because I can’t afford to see. I rather teach and live a falsity than pay the price or incur the loss of teaching and living the truth. This is called protecting the investment by committed obliviousness to glaring truth.
-Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
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