The Evil Side of Grace

How can Divine Grace be a bad thing?

Well, we should begin to suspect it immediately when we find it is an integral part of Paulist Christian Doctrine. But first, let’s see an explanation. You see, for these Paulist Christians Grace is the mechanism which brings them Righteousness. When a Paulist says he or she is ‘born again’, well, it is Grace that had been doing the rebirthing. So far it sounds fine, doesn’t it, but the problem occurs when we discover that Grace must be entirely relied upon at the exclusion of Will.

You see, the Paulists insisted that no one could be saved by Works, that is, simply being good, or acting good, and doing good things, being moral – all that had no religious significance at all. In fact Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans quite denigrates Good Works as ‘cheap rags and boasts’ before God. I’ve often seen enough in Christian Propaganda that the other Religions of the World are damned simply because they believe in Salvation by Works, which apparently then are not a very good thing to Christians. Christian Doctrine was very precise in requiring that one be saved, and then transformed and purified only by Grace.

The problem I see with that is that so very few Paulists ever really get around to being purified by Grace – at their first confession of Faith, subsequently, or at any time in their lives. But they are ‘saved’. You see, for them, ‘Forgiveness’ of sins is quite enough to allow them into Heaven. That Grace never laid its transforming touch upon them is of little ultimate import to them.

If you think I exaggerate, well, I refer you to the Case of the Bishop Pelagius who in the early centuries, early enough for Saint Augustine to make his career in condemning him, had issued the Teaching that men should endeavor to do good and refrain from sin, and that each man could summon his will power to resist Evil. Now, that was exactly the Teaching the Catholic Church needed, then and now, especially if it wished to honestly address its problem with pedophilia and corruption. But that’s not how it went down. Pelagius was accused and then tried for heresy, lost his case and was forced to recant (oh, his Recantation was clever enough – he said that by recanting he was committing Evil and by committing Evil he was now well in line with the other Bishops and Augustine). He placed Works above Grace, and one can simply not do that in the Paulist Church.

I have a feeling that the True Intent of that Doctrine of Grace is a bit sinister, that the Ruling Paulists, the True Leaders and not the often well-meaning but idiot and ignorant followers, that they explicitly are avoiding any injunction to Moral Responsibility, or any Order that they use their Will Powers to be Righteous Men. You see, while they are simply Saved and can wait at God’s leisure for some Magical Transformation to Goodness by Grace, then they can do just as Augustine had done, and spend their entire lives rolling in the mud and slops of, well, fully deliberate sin. I guess they simply assume that if God wants to change their Sinful Nature, then He could do that whenever He pleased, and until then they could simply and guiltlessly let Nature run its course where All is Forgiven anyway. And this gives us a World of surprisingly Self Righteous Slave Traders and War Mongers, on the Protestant Side, and Fat Cat Corrupt pedophile Bishops on the other.

Now, MOST Catholics didn’t use to believe such, well, Evil. Remember that Catholicism had comprised a Working Civilization, it had been the Thousand Year Reign of Christ on Earth prophesized by Scripture, and Civilizations simply can’t work if Evil is too openly condoned. The Marian Religious Orders that had been the backbone of Catholic Civilization before the Reformation insisted upon the actual practice of Conversion – people were expected to repent of sin, atone for sin, and then convert to Righteousness. All of these things were a matter of act and especially Will. Indeed, that is why the Protestants, particularly Luther and Calvin had such a hard-on against the Catholics – for ignoring the explicit Teachings of Paul on Grace and Salvation by Faith Alone. The Catholics were accused then, and even now to some extant, for believing in Salvation by Works.

I would wish that Modern Catholicism was as morally centered as the Old Brand, but with what we see of all the Pedophilia, we know that isn’t true. But still, it is JUST the Bishops. The Religious Orders still mostly have it right. Yet it is that when you talk about Catholicism, people think you mean exclusively the Teachings of the Bishops – the Bishops being the first to agree on that point. The problem there is that the Bishops effectively surrendered to the Protestants during the Wars of the Reformation (oh the Protestants speak of Catholic lack of tolerance, but Protestants won those wars simply by going way beyond the appetite of any Catholic for murder and rapine). At the Council of Trent, soon after the Catholic Surrender the Catholic Bishops underscored their acquiescence to the Doctrine of Grace. They promised heartily that never again would any Catholic ever intentionally do Good. Well, as they still insisted upon behaving better than any Protestant, the Protestants never believed them. Oh, yes, the Protestants have their Pedophiles aplenty too, but suing a bunch of Scout Masters is like squeezing blood from stone. The Lawyers go after the Catholics because they have all those Hospitals and Schools to sell. Notice that nobody ever takes the Pedophiles to Criminal Court. It is always just about the Money.

Now, back to the point of Grace against Works, as I insist, it is ONLY the Bishops who PRETEND to speak for the entire Church, but it is obvious that the Monks and the Nuns believe no such thing, as they completely fill their lives with Intentional Good Works. It is only the Bishops and the Secular Clergy (the Priests who have no affiliation in any Religious Order) who have been involved in these horrid Sexual and Corruption Scandals. Or, wait, no, I do remember some old problems within the Religious Orders, but at least the Order Superiors had their hands free to exert Discipline and demand Moral Retribution. The Religious Orders never stood by doing nothing, waiting for Grace.

The Bishops, and especially the Paulist Protestants, if they would take seriously their Nominal Beliefs (so few people care to bother to know what they are actually supposed to Believe) really are backed into a corner when Caught in Scandal. As the Bishops had said repeatedly, they are supposed to Forgive. They are supposed to depend upon the Grace of God and not take Judgment (where they mean discipline and correction) into their own hands.

You see, where Protestants are mostly ignorant, the Bishops – even if they are Evil, well, at least they are Educated, and they KNOW about the history of the Bishop Pelagius and the Doctrines sourcing from Paul through Augustine which insist upon Grace over Will. Christian Doctrine being what it is, morally their hands are tied.

But Christ reminded us that we would know a Tree by its Fruit. Where ‘Grace’ is a pretty enough name for a Tree, we find that its fruit makes the Tree in every sense a tentacle sprouting up from the bowels of Hell to strangle any reasonable Hope for Righteousness in the World.

So, on the whole, Grace is not really a very good thing, is it?