Forgiving your enemies. Avoiding rash judgment. Being charitable. These things are difficult when you are angry or when you have been attacked. When St. Gregory’s Church is desecrated by unknown vandals shortly after the recent pressure in school, it is easy for people to assume that the two are linked. Will Iimi and her friends succumb to this rash judgment? Or will they look and see if the assumption is true before condemning?
What is true power? Iimi and her friends must ask and answer that question when faced with anti-Christian sentiment from a faction of teachers. Iimi points out that for power to be true, it must be just and in line with God’s commandments and will. But her friends are dubious.
Meanwhile, Thea has to deal with the skepticism of parents who want to emulate the tactics of activists in dealing with their own school board by pointing out the need to act justly, focus on the concerns at hand, and not merely jump on the bandwagon for causes that activists are championing.
The attacks against Christianity are always debunked because the person either believes a false story or misunderstands the difference between Church teaching and the sinful behavior of someone in the Church. Some of these claims are quite risible and debunked before the toner is dry. Unfortunately, there’s always someone who rediscovers it and thinks it is the deathblow to the Christian faith.
One of these cases is the bizarre book of John Boswell (popularized by the Doonesbury comic in the 1990s) that claimed Catholics had sanctioned “gay marriage” until the 14th century despite the fact of continued teaching to the contrary. Indeed, the ceremony, called Adelphopoiesis, was simply a ceremony of spiritual adoption that existed in the Eastern Orthodox churches until the 20th century and had nothing to do with sexual relations.
As Paula puts it, It Would Almost Be Comic If The Consequences Weren’t So Tragic.
