You Can’t Make Me Be Good!

Last updated on: April 9, 2015 at 8:13 am by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

You Can’t Make Me Be Good! 2015-04-09T08:13:52-05:00 Fr. Dwight Longenecker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Reading Mark Steyn here on the corruption in American society it reminded me of something my brother Daryl once said years ago.

Some cop had been arrested for taking bribes and Daryl said, “When a whole society is corrupt how would you expect to have honest policemen?”

In other words, when there is moral failure in society the evidence is seen in individuals: it’s not just the criminal classes who are violent, lying, cheating and robbing. It is everyone. It is lying, cheating corrupt politicians, lazy, ineffectual and corrupt judges. Lawyers and teachers who are only in it for the money. Clergy and ministers corrupted by sex, money and power. When a society is corrupt the rot spreads into every corner.

The rot spreads like an insidious cancer, and when this begins to happen the officials get worried and react the only way they can react: with force.

That’s why corruption and decadence in society leads to a police state. The people in power, seeing how rotten everything is, resort to force.

“If we can’t make you be good, at least we will make sure you’re not bad, and if you are bad we’ll punish you and lock you up.”

Why is the American prison population so astronomically high?

And a vastly greater number of Americans — 1 in 31 according to 2009 Pew figures — are under U.S. corrections custody either through parole, probation, or incarceration. One in three Americans have a criminal record, according to recent FBI estimates. Go here to learn more

We send more people to jail because of errm, the high crime rate.

The answer is not more police, more prisons and more punishment.

G.K.Chesterton said “Every argument is a theological argument.”

The reason America is corrupt and decadent is because people have forsaken the concept of personal virtue.

Each individual is responsible for himself and his behaviors and no one can make you be good.

Instead, individuals must get a glimpse of real goodness and why it is attractive and worth pursuing.

They used to get this glimpse from within their family, their extended family, the community and their school.

Increasingly all they receive from these sources are examples of selfishness, pride, aggression and shallow materialism.

From the religious they too often receive only the examples of self righteousness, joyless duty, paranoid anger and fear.

We are in desperate need of a renewed Christian joyfulness–a cheerful abandonment to the Holy Spirit and a carefree exultation in the abundant life of Christ.

From that true virtue and love are made manifest, and it is by witnessing to this example that others will see our faith, hope and charity and wish to become that way too.

Then, and only then, will personal virtue flourish and only then will we see a genuinely human and humane society.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 8, 2015

How Kansas' New Anti Abortion Legislation Turns the Story

Next Post

April 9, 2015 I Scream Therefore I Am

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Matters Apologetics Architecture Blobble Study Book Reviews Brideshead Caitlin O'Rourke Catholic Art Catholic Culture Church Politics Chust for Nice Contemporary Culture Duane Mandible Ed Blanch Film Reviews Fr Harvey Nicolaitan Frank Viola Mantilla the Hon More Christianity Mrs Brady Catholic Old Lady Mystery of the Magi Norman Anderson Queen Hillary Saints and Supernatural Spirituality The Inklings The Vicar Theology Todd Unctuous Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz