False Hope in the Neutral, by Carol Robinson

False Hope in the Neutral

Most of the naturally good reforms mentioned earlier are "neutral"; that is, they are good in themselves and standing alone. The question arises whether we ought not to try to put them into effect as soon as possible without waiting for the world to become Christian. It seems like a much more ambitious project to restore all things to Christ than to get young people to do folk dancing or to make and distribute whole wheat bread to malnourished people. Besides, many non-Catholics, not ready to join the Church, are willing to cooperate on these naturally good projects. We also belong to this world, it is argued, and owe it to our citizenship to work for good temporal ends.

Now the illusion here is that it is easier to bring about a good natural order through natural efforts than it is to obtain the rectification of the natural order through the reorientation of the world to Christ.

It is possible to obtain temporarily certain objects in the natural order, but by and large this naturally good world is impossible, and therefore unrealistic, whereas the ordering of the world to Christ is our mission and may perhaps be closer to realization in our day than it has ever been.

The reason the naturally good order is impossible is, theologically, owing to Original Sin. A naturally good society is impossible to fallen man.

But apart from theological considerations we should learn by our own experience and analysis. Our great hopes are always failing us. We think we can create wonderful citizens if only everyone gets an education - but human virtue keeps declining. We think we can create good interracial relationships by non-religious means, but we do not succeed. We think we can clean up political corruption by the right use of our franchise, but the change is only momentary, or apparent, and the situation continues to worsen.

One difficulty with "neutral" means is that being neutral, they cannot sustain their indeterminism and will thus become an instrument of atheism, avarice or idolatry if we decline to impregnate them with Christianity. The Communists use folk dancing to better advantage than we do, the British cooperatives are huge capitalistic enterprises, and lots of people worship wheat germs.
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