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Saturday, August 1, 2015

The Thinking Housewife: T.F. Bertonneau Says Every Evil Regime Has Declared Itself Scientific

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In a July 30th post entitled "Catholicism and Paganism, cont.", Thinking Housewife contributor, Thomas F. Bertonneau, petitions God to "deliver us from scientific regimes," claiming that "every evil regime, from the Revolutionary Directorate in France" onward has declared itself scientific. 


Surely Mr. Bertonneau is aware that America's Founding Fathers were disproportionately Deist and that a decisive majority, spearheaded by Franklin and Jefferson, were passionate about science and determined to incorporate scientific knowledge into the everyday workings of American life. 


As a result, the United States of America is the world's "scientific regime" par excellence providing seamless scientific benefits for Mr. Bertonneau's continual enjoyment. For proof, he only need contemplate his computer screen, cellphone or refrigerator contents.


A revealing particular...

This week's announcement of an Ebola vaccine that is "100% effective" against a major strain of this deadly pathogen -- a contagion which American conservatives represented recently represented as if it were an "end time" event -- reminds us that many more medical miracles are worked daily in the most ramshackle Congo clinic than Jesus performed in his entire 3 year ministry.

Such medical miracles are fundamental to our modern, scientific world, regardless ersatz arguments set forth by anti-vaxxers, global warming deniers and traditional Christians who pretend to prefer "surrender to Providence" over the vast scope of scientific accomplishment as it continues to make our world a place of actual, palpable hope rather than lottery-style pie-in-the-sky promise.

"Trials Show New Ebola Vaccine Is Highly Effective"

"Ebola Represents A Trivial Threat To Americans' Health"
I do not say these things to find fault with Jesus of Nazareth but to spotlight his teaching (very near the end of John's gospel) that those who believe in God-Love are destined to "do even greater things" than Jesus himself and, furthermore, they are destined to do "greater things" even if they do not believe in the complex inter-relationships of Trinitarian theology. 
“Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. 
If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. 
The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things."
Yeshua of Nazareth
John 14:12

In the end, the revelation of "God among us" is in the work we do  whereas dogma, doctrine and papal pronouncement can be successfully bypassed by anyone who incarnates the work of love, which -- in the teaching of Yeshua -- means service to the least among us and even (if not particularly) to our enemies. 

"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42
"Do You Know What You're Doing To Me?"
Jesus of Nazareth
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-you-know-what-youre-doing-to-me.html

Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"

"Twelve Steps For The Recovering Pharisee (Like Me)" By John Fischer
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/12-steps-for-recovering-pharisee-like.html

"Pope Francis Links"

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http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-thinking-housewife-what-happened-to.html

 Just as "a full belly does not believe in hunger," it is remarkable how easily post-moderns overlook the bedrock importance of "the scientific regime" in which we live and without which we would soon be both miserable and destined for early death.

Herman Melville Comments On Italian Proverb: "A Full Belly Does Not Believe In Hunger"

 As C.S. Lewis and other Christian apologists have rightly pointed out, the intractable reality of pain reveals an essential component of our human reality, and by extension, the often salvific role played by science. 

"Puddleglum Declares My Favorite Declaration Of Faith"

 Consider...

Until 1750, half of humankind died by age 8.

Mr. Bertonneau and other subscribers to The Thinking Housewife might wisely look at their own children as well as those who live in their neighborhood - and imagine half of them dead.

It is the accomplishment of widely-diffused Science that is responsible for the survival of half your children.

 Consider...

 Until 1850, a typical human being lived half his life with toothache.
Colonial Dentistry And George Washington's Teeth
Thinking Housewife readers might wisely contemplate having spent half of their lives with toothache, and, in future, 12 of every 24 hours in oral agony before shuffling off this mortal coil.

I encourage those who still balk at lauding science to come down off your throne and acknowledge the transcendental and indispensable importance of The Modern World's "Scientific Regime" while renouncing the demonically misleading statement that "every scientific regime since The French Revolution has been evil."

Are "you" really prepared to denigrate the ubiquitous role played by science in modern life? Are you really prepared to sacrifice your children to the resurrection of Moloch and the deadly dictate of Deuteronomy 21:18-21?

And if The French Revolution -- despite its hideous violence -- was as bad as Mr. Bertonneau preaches, why do Chesterton and Belloc -- two devout Catholics and accomplished scholars -- revere that The French Revolution as a political equivalent of "The Second Coming?" 

The French Revolution And The Irish


In a parallel domain, Mr. Bertonneau argues that by "rejecting the elements of religion that Medieval Christianity had inherited from the ancient Pagan civilization, Protestantism, in effect, rejected civilization.  Protestant iconoclasm, which depressingly resembles Islamic iconoclasm, expressed a startling hostility to art and beauty, which Medieval Christianity was delighted to incorporate.  Moreover, iconoclasm was violent – and that in the name of the Prince of Peace!  It was not merely the iconoclasm, but the persecution, including the physical abuse and murder of priests, monks, and nuns, which was violent.  The Thirty Years War looks like a type of domestic Jihad in Northern Europe.  Before the War there were twelve million inhabitants in the Germanic North; at its end there were four – or in some estimates as little as three – million." (Alan: "as few as three.")


Alan: As a trained Latin Americanist with educational travel businesses in Oaxaca and the Yucatan - http://yucatan.homestead.com/ - it is clear that Mr. Bertonneau has been twisted by the pretzel logic of Eurocentric triumphalism, persisting in blithe unawareness of the egregious treatment meted out by Catholic administrators during the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of Latin America, a time when the population of (what we now call) Mexico, is estimated to have declined from 25,000.000 to 1,000,000. 


The Pope Finally Does His Job. "Christian" Conservatives Aghast
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pope-finally-does-his-job.html

Mr. Bertonneau, on the other hand, would have us dwell on the devastation of The Thirty Years War -- a war conducted entirely by "Christians," completely within Christendom -- as if this "Christian" slaughter somehow proves the superiority of Christianity or at least the inquistorial branch thereof.

The Inquisition Executed Its Last Victim In 1826, A Spaniard Who Taught Deism


"I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. "Well, there's so much to live for!" "Like what?" "Well... are you religious?" He said yes. I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" "Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant ? "Protestant." "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist" "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God!" "Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off.  
Emo Philips

"The Essence Of Religious Fanaticism: Christian And Islamic"

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"The Politics Of Horror In Conservative Evangelicalism," '09 Outstanding Academic Title"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-politics-of-horror-in-conservative.html


Although I do not expect devotees of The Thinking Housewife to agree with the following observation, it is at least important to plant a "second seed."

The Civil War: White Christians Slaughtering One Another On A Scale ISIS Can Only Dream Of

Alan: Finally, consider this featured quotation from "The Thinking Housewife's" homepage:

 “We must remember that if all the manifestly good men were on one side and all the manifestly bad men on the other, there would be no danger of anyone, least of all the elect, being deceived by lying wonders. It is the good men, good once, we must hope good still, who are to do the work of Anti-Christ and so sadly to crucify the Lord afresh…. Bear in mind this feature of the last days, that this deceitfulness arises from good men being on the wrong side.” Fr. Frederick Faber, 1861
"Fr. Wilfrid Faber: The Author Whom Pope John XXIII Read At Bedtime"
The priest who penned the article above -- Fr. Julian Large, Provost of The London Oratory --coined the felicitous phrase, "the lurking trolls of Puritanism."

 Alan: I would venture that Fr. Faber -- a convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism -- was writing about his "schismatic" fellows when he referred to "the manifestly good men" who "do the work of the anti-Christ." 

 At minimum, it seems fitting that The Thinking Housewife should consider the schism in which she eagerly participates and ask whether Fr. Faber would approve Traditionalist Catholicism any more than he approved The High Church of England.

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My Perennial Postscript

Will The Thinking Housewife allow her readers to consider these views, or will her totalitarian absolutism -- ever "the shadow side" of Catholic Triumphalism -- oblige her to "protect" The Chosen (which is to say "the manifestly good men and women") from such "be-deviling" doubts?
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