Tea at Trianon: Outcasts in the House of God

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Outcasts in the House of God

For better is one day in thy courts above thousands. I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. Psalm 83: 11 (The Vulgate)

When we go to Church it has to be for God alone. It is nice when one makes friends but sometimes it does not work out that way. From The Christian Post:

Each of these examples are true examples from church members who have shared with me their stories. I may not have perfect recall from our conversations, but the essence of the story is true. The names are pseudonymous.

Divorcees. Mary was in an abusive marriage. She was beaten physically on more than one occasion. “I stayed with the marriage for our son,” she told me. Ultimately, her husband left her after he had numerous affairs. “When people heard I got a divorce, they began to treat me like a leper. My husband still had family in the church, so you can guess how a lot of church members felt about me. I couldn’t take it, so my son and I left the church.”

Special needs persons. They could be adults or children. For certain, a number of churches embrace special needs individuals. But too many churches simply don’t know how to respond. “We visited seven different churches before we could find a place for our son,” William told me. “In one of the churches, we were told straightforwardly that they could not care for our son. The burden was too great for them.”

Widows. No widow told me she felt like an outcast. But widows (or, in a few cases, widowers) did see social patterns change. “For most of the members in the church, our names were like one. We were ‘Barb and Charles.’ When Charles died, I stopped getting a lot of invitations. I was the fifth wheel. It may not have been intentional, but it was painful.”

(Read more.)