For Demas hath left me. . .
2 TIMOTHY 4:9 DOUAY-RHEIMS
You can take it to the bank that if a high profile Catholic makes a high profile exit from the Roman Catholic Church, Rod Dreher will have a blog post about it. Dreher will deny it, but he can't hide it. He takes glee and satisfaction in these defections from the One True Faith. This is because these schisms mirror and bolster his own schism from the Barque of Peter. Rod Dreher is a schismatic.
I like Rod Dreher. I read his work on the regular. Many of his opinions on religious and political matters are identical to my own. I cite him frequently, and I link to his work. I have no personal dislike for the man. In fact, we could sit down, have a cup of coffee, and find that we have very much in common. But this does not change the fact that he is a schismatic. As such, he is a dangerous fellow because he encourages others by his example to follow him in rebellion.
Let me make one thing clear. If you schism from the Roman Catholic Church, you will go to Hell. This is not my opinion. This is the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church. To defy this teaching, one must deny the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in matters of faith and morals. Rod Dreher denies this authority. He knows better. So, why did Dreher leave Catholicism for Orthodoxy?
The answer to that is obvious. Rod Dreher explains it,
I had two little boys at the time. I was tortured — the word isn’t too strong — by the certainty that if a priest had raped one of my sons, my bishop likely would have treated my wife and me as the enemy, and might even have helped my child’s rapist escape abroad. I knew that most of them saw the scandal as a public relations problem, and that even the best of them were too timid to clean out the Augean stables. I came to believe that all of them lied as a matter of course. Remember, I knew the truth about Cardinal McCarrick in 2002, and I had to read and listen to him go on and on with his lies.
Conversion & Reconciling NarrativesBasically, Rod Dreher did not want to see his children molested and raped by Catholic priests and prelates. I totally understand this motivation. The simple fact is that the Roman Catholic Church has been overrun by decades by disgusting pedophiles and sodomites. These perverts need to be beaten, castrated, disemboweled, and burned alive for their crimes against God and humanity. I pray everyday that this happens to them. And if you think this is harsh, know that it is more merciful than the fires of Hell that will consume them for eternity. There aren't enough millstones for these bastards.
The problem with Rod Dreher is that it made him do what he should not have done. It made him schism. Here is what St. Jerome said about schism,
Between heresy and schism there is this difference, that heresy perverts dogma, while schism, by rebellion against the bishop, separates from the Church. Nevertheless there is no schism which does not trump up a heresy to justify its departure from the Church.This sounds like Rod Dreher who admits that he turned off his brain and followed his heart out of the Church of Rome and into the arms of Eastern Orthodoxy. Apparently, that Filioque Clause stuff was a small hurdle for him.
The true reason Dreher left Catholicism is that the Catholic brand has been tarnished beyond repair. This is not Dreher's fault but the fault of clerics in the Catholic Church. It is a humiliation to be a Catholic especially a Catholic convert in this day and time. No such humiliation exists in Orthodoxy.
Rod Dreher is like a man who left his first wife, married a second wife, and still talks about his first wife and drives by her house each night to see what she is up to. Dreher's blog has a post daily if not more about the scandals in the Roman Catholic Church. I am glad that he posts these things. I put a link to them every time over at IA. But this would be like me writing about Calvin or atheism daily. If you're Orthodox, you should just let the Catholic stuff go and move on with your faith journey. But Dreher just can't do this.
The Roman Catholic Church is the true church. Dreher knows this and feels it in his being. His motivation for the posts about the scandals is to bolster the decision he made to schism from the Catholic Church. And when someone else schisms, that merits the same attention as the scandals. I never see him mention anything regarding Methodism which was the faith he belonged to prior to becoming Catholic.
What should Dreher do? The answer is obvious. He should return to the fold. He needs to get back in communion with Rome. He knows this in his heart and in his head. But to do this would require a humiliation this man is unwilling to bear. This pride will cost him his soul.
What should you do? You should profit from the good commentary Dreher has about the Roman Catholic Church and the filth and corruption found there. But you should not follow his example and become a schismatic. And you should pray and work to help rid the filth and corruption from Catholicism.
It is a sad shame that a guy like Rod would leave the Catholic Church. He is a man who has done the wrong thing for the right reasons. This happens. If the Roman Catholic Church was just another institution or church, I would have left by now. But it isn't just another institution or church. It is the one and only church of Jesus Christ. Everything else is a copy and a substitute. Leaving the Church is not an option even if it is full of the vilest men we know. God has allowed this to fall upon us. It is a test of our faith. I trust that God will deal with these bastards in His time.
