Beyond Mediocrity Blog

In the past decade, I have been forced onto a journey of considering my Protestant faith against the Christian traditions of my family. For starters, I have a sister who converted to Roman Catholicism about twelve years ago, and recently her entire family joined the very conservative Latin Mass tradition. When I was confronted with this new tradition, I dove in. I listened. I bought books. I read books. I ordered the over 1,000 page Catechism of the Catholic Church . I listened to the arguments of Scott Hahn and others like him. We attended Mass. At one point my wife asked me, “Are we converting to Catholicism?” Then, about four years ago, my in-laws converted to Greek Orthodoxy. How did I respond? In the same way, I dove in. I bought books. I read the early church fathers, digging and searching for anything that I may have missed about the “true church.” We attended Greek Orthodox services. I asked questions. And, again, because I pursued this knowledge with such zeal, at one poin...

Recently, I was reading a constitution for a local, volunteer fire department. In the document, several times the decorum of the membership is mentioned. One paragraph stood out to me above the others: Any member who misbehaves themselves during the meeting of the Department or disturbs the harmony thereof, either by disorderly conduct, abusive or profane language, or shall refuse to obey the presiding officer, shall be admonished by the chair for the offense, and if they offend again they shall be excluded from the meeting for the evening, and after removal dealt with as the members shall decide. I’ve been to some of these meetings, and they are anything but filled with decorum. Although written in the founding documents, the laws mean nothing unless they are enforced. The question is: who is going to enforce them? Face-to-face to these men, would you?

Over thirteen years ago, I penned an article called " The Art of Self-Loathing " where I fleshed out what I thought was wisdom. Today, however, I have learned that self-loathing (that is, self-hate  or self-pity ) is actually a socially acceptable and therapeutic way of describing what biblical wisdom rightfully refers to as the sin of pride. Let's face it: all of us think about ourselves too much. We are naturally selfish people - or, as the apostle Paul puts it, full of "all kinds of covetousness" (Romans 7:8). This is what selfishness really is: a covetous, self-indulgent passion, and this sort of living is contrary to the way Christ calls his followers to live.