Tea at Trianon: A Christian Response To The “Cancel Culture”

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

Monday, February 8, 2021

A Christian Response To The “Cancel Culture”

From Complete Christianity:

The above painting serves as a reminder to the Christian reader. As bad as things are, we’ve seen worse. There was once upon a time, near the founding of our great religion, that the world’s greatest superpower turned against us, persecuted us, captured us, and executed us for entertainment. The early Christians were mauled by large cats, forced to run the gauntlet where they were whipped and tortured to death, boiled in oil, and strapped to stakes were their smoldering bodies would serve as torches to illuminate the night. This lasted for nearly 250 years, with intermittent persecutions, on and off again, from AD 70 to 312. In that terrible time, the seeds of the early Church were planted in the deep and fertile soil of men and women willing to die for their faith in Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church.

Christians have seen many persecutions since this time. The two most comparable come from Islamists and Communists, wherein Christians were imprisoned and butchered in much larger numbers, minus the circus and freak show of the Roman Empire. Certainly, there are evil people in this world who would like to return to those days, salivating at the opportunity to watch us die at the claws of big cats, but not even the Islamists or Communists will go that far. Even they think that’s a little excessive, and a bit weird. They’re more content to behead us slowly, as is the case of the Islamists, or just work us to death in concentration camps, as in the case of the Communists.

I seriously doubt American Leftists will go this far, in spite of their Marxist influence. American Leftists (especially those in the Democratic Party) have to at least present the image that they’re more civilized than the Communists and Islamists, and certainly more civilized than ancient Pagans. So I don’t think we have to worry about being fed to lions, boiled in oil, or lit up like tiki-torches again. I doubt we’ll be beheaded or put into concentration camps either. No, American Leftists will have to be more clever than that. Their persecution of us will more likely take the shape of public ostracism, followed by social de-platforming, and financial disenfranchisement. In other words, we’re witnessing it happen right now. It’s called the “Cancel Culture.” (Read more.)

From One Peter Five:

But there is a major point with which I do not agree. You say: “It is right and just, it always will be right and just, for Catholics to pray and work for the restoration of our tradition, as we ourselves strive to be the saints God is calling us to be.” Can you really mean to say that it is always right and just to work for the restoration of the tradition? Is it right and just for an employee to use some of his work time to read online articles or start a blog for the restoration of tradition? Is it right and just for priests and laymen to teach—by their example and by their words—that they should disrespect their local priests and bishops? Is it right and just for parents to lose hope in their own salvation or that of their children—in other words, to commit the sin of despair or to approach the near occasion of committing it—because they are convinced that it is impossible without access to a more traditional form of worship? I know of people who have fallen for these traps. (Read more.)