Richard Doerflinger
By Richard Doerflinger • Catholic News Service • Posted March 4, 2021
Once upon a time, many people assumed that dogma, especially religious dogma, was the enemy of freedom and friendship. If only we relaxed and let each person live by his or her own truth, we could love each other and the world would be a paradise. John Lennon’s “Imagine” was the anthem of this belief.
Here we are, decades later, in the age of diversity and inclusion. Relativism, the claim that all claims to objective truth should be questioned, is the religion of our intellectual elites and has spread through our culture.
Echoes The perils of isolation Published 2/5/2021 thebostonpilot.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thebostonpilot.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Richard Doerflinger
By Richard Doerflinger • Catholic News Service • Posted January 29, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many victims, beginning tragically with the death of hundreds of thousands of our neighbors. Some of its harms are more intangible but equally real.
Precautions needed to contain the spread of the virus masks, social distancing, the closing of public venues also tend to isolate us from others. And that can leave us with no trusted person to tell us when one of our bright ideas is incredibly stupid.
For me, as for many married people, that person is my spouse. For others, it can be other relatives or a friend, neighbor or fellow parishioner. But when deprived of their usual close connections with those who can offer a different perspective, people starved for love and acceptance gravitate toward those who see things exactly as they do. And that can help create the kind of tunnel vision that leads to violence.
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