WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

I believe it's always been here, further under the surface than it is now, this cult of the individual. We are called to be responsible, rightly, in our actions as individuals. But what about our responsibilities as members of a community or nation to oppose tyrannical policies or actions? Or worse stand by and not only do nothing but worse make excuses or hide behind civic religion when confronted by actions that were or are not only an affront to the social community but are, dare I say it, sins against the community of faith. And not only the Christian faith but all who call for the care of the least and weakest among us?

Read the comments on social media. Before the thread is barely started somebody will bring up abortion. Well, what about it? That is a whole other subject that will probably never be solved to anyone's satisfaction.

I've started reading Thomas Merton again. Always a dangerous occupation. Especially for a former Methodist, who be Quaker who has been tap dancing on the line between in and out for years but keeps coming back on the in side of the line. I suspect we will be hearing more about the not always comfortable in HIS religious skin for awhile.

Merton died in 1968 and I have no idea where he would have come in on the so called pro life debate. I suspect that he would not have approved of abortion. But, big but here. He was also a strong voice for nonviolence, for the dignity of all men and women and vocal opposition to the Viet Nam war and nuclear weapons. When his order forbade him to publish, he obeyed, sometimes reluctantly. So he wrote letters, lots of letters. Articles appeared in magazines like the Daily Worker. He was suspected by some of having pro communist sympathies.

And strangely enough his teachings on Christian contemplation are considered to be heretical in some conservative circles. Protestant and Catholic. Fifty years after his death more than a few regard him as one of the strongest Christian voices in the last half century.

That is it for now. And as usual I ended up where I didn't plan to go. Shrug.