Controversy

In case my readers have never noticed, we Americans thrive on controversy. You always can tell a free culture by that culture's media. In a world where the media is commercial and driven by economics, ratings, and sweeps, we can count on the media always to be seeking the attention of the public. I think what I notice most in the media is controversy.

It's everywhere. You can flip through all the news networks and you will immediately see controversy. If not, just watch the news ticker for a while. It's not just that, either. We can see controversy on the pseudo-news...you know what I mean...the "news" that's really not necessary for us to know...gossip, entertainment news, etc. You can see it on "informational" television. When was the last time a week went by on the History Channel or TLC or Discovery without some program on the DaVinci Code, Exorcisms, the secrets of the Vatican, the "bad popes," the malicious plans of some presidential administrations, etc.?

Okay, okay, it's fairly evident, I'm sure you'll agree. What, precisely, is my point?

Controversy has infiltrated the lifeblood of America. Case in point: in my several years' work on a popular Catholic youth forum, www.phatmass.com, which appears as one of the links on my blog, there has been an increasing number of members who think with a controversial mindset. We see the world through lenses, lenses which are imposed upon us and lenses which we choose and reaffirm for ourselves. Some people have put on lenses for controversy. They see in everything an ulterior motive. It is impossible in their mind that anything good could be honest. It is impossible that the Church's generosity in social welfare could be anything other than the "New World Order" extending it's great tentacled arms into the world to bring others toward it. It is impossible that the Church's insistence on a male priesthood could be anything other than a continuance of the oppression of women once carried on by the masculine hierarchy of a patriarchal society. It is impossible that Vatican II, the ecumenical movement, and all the popes since Blessed John XXIII could be involved in anything other than a unitarian plot for world domination or, alternatively, a complete lack of interest in control, domination, or certitude. The controversial lens thus becomes in its full form a sort of conspiratorial lens which becomes visible in the fact that the same set of circumstances and premises can lead to two completely contrary conclusions when two different people are opining. It seems to me that such inconsistency can only indicate that there is a bias, since if the premises and circumstances involved truly led to the conclusion arrived at, they would lead to the same conclusion regardless of the person observing, or, at the very least, the conclusions would be similar.

Okay...so what? Well, it's quite simple. Common sense. In then Chronicles of Narnia, the old professor likes to question why schools no longer seem to teach logic. Indeed, he has a point, and it has become increasingly worse since those days. Logic, in the professor's opinion, is simply common sense. I happen to agree. Maybe if we could all just let down our lenses, we'd be able to see the world as it truly is. Maybe if we did that, there'd be a lot less controversy and we'd all be a lot happier.

As for my own lenses, I have them, though they don't tend to have a prescription for controversy. Maybe if you read my blog a bit more, they'll become apparent. Let's hope that God will cure my sight.

Let the scales fall, Lord Jesus.

God bless,

Micah