Warp speed

Henry of Navarre (1553-1610) was Protestant, then became a Catholic, then a Protestant again, then a Catholic again, then a Protestant once more, finally settling on Catholicism and becoming King Henry IV of France. Either his moral conscience worked at warp speed, or there were other less seemly reasons behind the multiple conversions. We have his famous purported statement as our answer: “Paris vault bien une messe.” (Paris is well worth a Mass).

Five centuries later, “plus ça change,” as they say. In July the Episcopalians’ House of Bishops in Salt Lake City voted 129-26 to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples, the Very Reverend Brian Baker explaining that the “change was the result of a nearly four-decade-long conversation that has been difficult and painful for many … we prayed and … came up with compromises that we believe make room and leave no one behind.”

Four decades of prayer, and wouldn’t you know, the answer from heaven came five days after the Supreme Court’s announcement on gay marriage. There wasn’t even a fight. I want to ask the prelates: Why did it take so long? If the decision was so proudly overwhelming, why didn’t it happen five years ago? Or three? Or one? In other words, if something is right, why isn’t it right before it’s au courant and de rigueur (to stick with the Bourbon king’s vernacular)?

The national upending of attitudes on same-sex marriage and voluntary surgical gender mutilation is not nearly as fascinating as the breathtaking quickness with which it is occurring. Editorials on current events didn’t used to be out of date before you got them in to your editor. Forget about wanting to be “on the right side of history”; people are wanting to be on the right side of the moment.

Forget about wanting to be ‘on the right side of history’; people are wanting to be on the right side of the moment.

American culture now resembles a luxury liner taking on water fast and the huddled masses aboard it running from one end of the ship to the other like a terrified centipede, frantically seeking survival. Remember the old TV ads that said, “During the time it took you to watch this commercial, 10 people switched to Biz laundry soap”? That’s how fast anti-gay-marriage sentiment changed to pro-gay sentiment.

Politicians and church denominations are trying to “save their life” by agreeing with the new zeitgeist, but Jesus says that is the way to “lose it” (Luke 9:24). Renouncing old policy is not happening by reasoned argument anymore, but in the manner of people running from a theater at the cry of “Fire!” There is fear not only of personally having the wrong view, but of being seen in a photo with someone having the wrong view. Loyalty is gone, for your friend may be politically contagious, or may become so any moment with a thoughtless word that deviates one millimeter from accepted Truth of the hour. We are living in fearful times described by Edgar Allan Poe in The Masque of the Red Death:

“The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.” Remember Todd Akin?

The prophet Micah gives a sensible word in times like these:

“Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house” (Micah 7:5-6).

The psalmist does even better. When told to “flee like a bird to your mountain” because “the foundations are destroyed,” he replies to the fearful heart that “the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven … the upright shall behold his face” (Psalm 11). It is enough.

Email aseupeterson@wng.org