What Tolkien taught me

Last updated on: February 22, 2015 at 6:30 am by Dave Griffey

What Tolkien taught me 2015-02-22T06:30:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

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I’ve learned that the wisdom of Tolkien might very well exceed his intelligence, and that’s saying something. As I watch the rot set in and the rolling victories of the post-Christian Left, I must say that the keen perception that Tolkien had for the reality of things far outpaced that of most authors of the 20th century, even those more often lauded for their insights.

So one of the many lessons I’ve learned from Tolkien’s works is that when there are failings or breakdowns in the Fellowship, you still don’t leap over and join with Sauron’s forces to hammer the culprit. You might chastise, but you do so ever mindful of the dark power that grows in the East. So when Boromir fails his test with Frodo and attempts to steal the ring, the appropriate response is not to join with the Orcs and pounce. It is to attempt to undo the damage, ever mindful of what the enemy really is.

I thought of that, as I read this post at CAEI. It’s not hard to find this headline across the blogosphere, with many being anti-Christian and anti-religious blogs joining in, declaring that homophobes have no business being doctors, and that this is why we need laws punishing anyone who doesn’t celebrate the gay juggernaut.

Personally, I think it was a bad decision by the doctor in question and poorly handled. But I also sympathize. We are seeing homosexuality being used as a wedge issue to ramrod a new morality into society, using every trick in the book and seeing as its end the ultimate reduction of rights, especially the right to not embrace the post-Christian secular Left.

Call it a culture war or not, but the results are the same. And especially Catholics, who puddled the floor over the HHS mandate of the healthcare law that the Bishops otherwise fully supported, even though the Catholic Church had already reached such compromises on the state level in many cases anyway, ought not be so dismissive of those who see other fronts in this ‘non-culture war’ battle zone.

Taking a stand, even badly done or in a wrong way, should not be cause for daggers in the back emblazoned with Christian symbols. At worst, it should be an admonition that the decision was wrong, but understandable given the climate in which we live, in which sane people can see that there is a concerted effort on the part of a growing swath of our society that wants to redefine what freedom and rights are, and is prepared to do so with the crushing, iron gauntlet of the law if at all possible.

Jumping on the side of the opposition (assuming it is still seen as the opposition), does little. It won’t stop those forces wishing to end liberty as previously understood, and it will silence those who may want to take a stand, for fear that the slightest deviation from perfection will be met with attacks, not from the forces arrayed against the Faith and its faithful, but from the very faithful we are supposed to be united with.

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