6/15/2023 0 Comments Bill martin blues orthodoxyBut it is an intolerable violation of the etiquette by which one is tolerated if one has the effrontery to propose that this or that is normative for others.Ī well-mannered church can put up with a few orthodox eccentrics, and can even take pride in being so very inclusive. The orthodox may be permitted to believe this or that and to do this or that as a matter of sufferance, allowing them to indulge their inclination, preference, or personal taste. It is therefore a conditional admission, depending upon orthodoxy’s good behavior. When orthodoxy is optional, it is admitted under a rule of liberal tolerance that cannot help but be intolerant of talk about right and wrong, true and false. Orthodoxy, no matter how politely expressed, suggests that there is a right and a wrong, a true and a false, about things. ![]() ![]() Some otherwise bright people have indicated their puzzlement with that axiom but it seems to me, well, axiomatic. I’ll presume to call it Neuhaus’s Law, or at least one of his several laws: Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed. The next edition of First Things- the April 2009 issue-will contain tributes to his extraordinary life and career. ![]() We present here a few of our favorite items from the nineteen years of his work in The Public Square. ![]() Richard John Neuhaus died on January 8, 2009, at the age of seventy-two-a great loss to the magazine, to American public discourse, and to his many friends.
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