Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 447

Teach and urge these things.
Whoever teaches something different
and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing,
and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes.

In his First Letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul doesn't allow much room for honest disagreement. He considers his opponents "conceited, understanding nothing." In fact, he says, they have a "morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes."

I am, by the grace of God, not a theologian but from my position out here in the hinterland of theological disputation, I have sometimes heard, like distant thunder, an argument for the "right to disagree." "Honest people," it is said, "may have differing points of view."

I can understand that. Two people standing side by side and witnessing the same auto accident can offer quite different narratives of what happened. One may be a carpenter, the other a mother of toddlers. They have different skills for seeing what appears before their eyes. But if a traffic cop happens to see the incident, that interpretation will probably weigh the most in court.
Opinions, including theological and philosophical distinctions, do make a difference. Saint Paul brought his Pharisaic training to his ministry. Grounded in Jewish history and thought, familiar with the best writing of his time, working closely with forming Christian communities, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, he did not hesitate to use his authority to encourage and discourage.

He could see when people were being difficult for the sake of being difficult. These individuals permit their egos to get in the way of their own best interests and those of the community. It's not hard to detect ego; it smells and pollutes conversation. It is a tree that bears bad fruit. Pressed by conflict and defensive, it may appeal to a fictional "right to disagree."

The United States Constitution has been described as "godless." The authors and signers intentionally avoided the word God. And they granted enormous room for religious disagreement among citizens so long as they observe the law of the land. Given the broad agreement among Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, that law is a good thing; they did not foresee a religious challenge to the law. Even Christian pacifists could find a place to serve within a warlike society.

The Catholic Church has supported that document precisely because it permits Catholics to practice our faith without harassment from authorities, and because it permits us to compare and contrast various theological opinions. We can still condemn outright religious opinions that are contrary to our religious tradition.

Some Christian churches support the legal right of abortion; we don't buy it. Not only do we suspect the idea, we suspect the individualist impulses that demand it. They are hostile to our sacred institutions of marriage and family. We cannot support any fictional "right" to abortion. It flies in the face of God's mercy, with which we are intimately familiar.

Many Christian churches readily recognize divorce. It seems to them a compassionate response to the violence women endure within their own homes. Again, we smell a rat. If the vows of marriage mean nothing then Truth itself is threatened. A child of divorced parents must suspect everything they tell him. For that matter, divorce has not protected women from being sorely abused by their "lovers." They suffer more violence today than before divorce was introduced as a solution.

We wonder if the 19th century legislators who introduced divorce to the American way of life were not "conceited, understanding nothing." Perhaps, their motives were not compassion but being rid of troublesome wives.

The tent of "compassion" has become rather tattered as it shelters divorce, abortion and gay marriage. Ministering as I do in health care, I wonder if it's not a short cut to drug abuse as doctors use pharmacology to deal with troublesome patients.

Bad ideas are bad ideas, they corrupt even the mind of a good person. Saint Paul urged his disciples to avoid those who are conceited, understanding nothing, and have a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes.

He urged them to trust his wisdom, experience and authority, even as they asked the Holy Spirit to enlighten their understanding. That Spirit which is confident, courageous, humble, generous and hospitable opens ways to communion that are closed to the opinionated.