A "cradle catholic- long alienated" and a "Deist"? That is how Libby Purvis describes herself in an absurd article in today's edition of "The Times". It is precisely how someone who discovered the allure of contraceptive fornication in the 1960's might justify themselves. The point about Deism is that it posits a God who is totally transcendent but couldn't give a monkey's about his creation- including humanity. While one "fool says in his heart there is no God" another, like the Deist, says "he hides his face, he does not see". In other words, they would rather he did not see.
I am frequently struck by the words of the Good Friday Prayer for those who do not believe in God. We pray that "in spite of the hurtful things that stand in their way" they may recognise the tokens of God's love and mercy in the lives of Christians. I think that there are two kinds of "hurtful thing" here. The one is when we Christians give scandal. The other kind is the pain of a conscience abused. The people who are so full of hatred for the holy father seem to be smarting under the lash of their own perversions. Here one might also consider the way that the publication of the visible evil of abortion is, almost uniquely, resisted in the media.
Time and again we see the old newsreels of the Nazi death camps upon our television screens and are not squeamish about seeing what was done there. Almost every other kind of medical operation has been shown on television at some time and even people with "embarassing bodies"now queue up to exhibit them on Channel 4. We can face anything but ourselves.
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