Essays in Idleness

There are times when one really must go to gaol, or at least risk it. And this, even though one is in a small minority, and will receive only contempt for being “difficult.” A few “Red State” Americans will understand what I mean. We don’t riot when we don’t get our way, like delinquent children. At our best we make the situation plain, and take the consequences.

We do believe in self-defence, however, for ourselves and our families, and I am heartened that in Florida, the State apparently intends to restore the citizen’s ancient right to shoot looters and other housebreakers.

But against outrageous Batflu regulations, this tactic won’t work. The State itself is the perpetrator, and it is much too strong to resist. Not being a Left-progressive, I do not advocate shooting at policemen. The question — What to do? — should be answered in another way.

Suppose, to obey the regulations, the Catholic Church of which I am a member is specifically ordered to desecrate her Mass. Visitors must wear muzzles, must approach the altar in strange batty ways, not sing, and receive Communion in the hand. Priests to wear plastic gloves, as if Christ himself were a vector of infection. In my parish, pews have been removed, and tape marks placed on the remaining, to show where the penitent may rest his behind. One needs a ticket just to get in.

There is no point in objecting: the majority of parishioners play along. They do whatever they’re told, and are still scared silly by (mostly false, or aggressively misleading) media reports. One may go in “between acts” (if one can, without a ticket), and say the Lord’s Prayer solemnly, and perhaps one Hail Mary before body and soul are repelled by the fatuous bat-masks. Even so, the pastor sends around frightened emails. He is worried that some congregant may rat him out for overlooking some petty regulation, and fears at every moment that the cops will close him down.

This was once only a problem in Red China.

What should Church and churches have done? They should have stood their ground. They should have forced the government to show its hand, and arrest all the Christians, or give up. They should not “demand” that they be given the same rights as Walmart customers, but take them.

(Nothing against Walmart customers, by the way; they should refuse to be dehumanized, too.)

As the Mussulmans have been teaching us, there is no advantage in being soft and wet. Make the authorities more afraid of Catholics than they are of suicide bombers; and yet without flourishes of terrorism. But who would join me, in these degenerate times?

In passing, I am disgusted that even one self-styled Catholic or general Christian voted for Biden, in the election next door, given his support not only for abortions but a round number of anti-Christian policies besides. He pretends to be a Catholic himself, but disproves this by everything that comes out of his mouth, including habitual lies. Trump is actually closer to a Papist. Biden casually compares his opponents to Nazis, thus skipping beyond the reach of civil discourse. But we have become accustomed to such garbage, and not having it collected any more.

Fake Catholics should be told that they are fake, and dismissed fairly sharply. They should not be welcomed into Roman churches, but sternly asked to behave, or leave.

The flip side of this is gaol preparations. For that, and worse, has often been the price of devotion — not to the pagan gods of the State, but to the Risen Lord.