Good Things Gone Bad

Recently, the Roman Catholic Church laicized Frank Pavone. This basically means Frank Pavone was previously a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, but is no longer. Without getting into who is right or wrong, because I really don't know, I think this case illustrates an important idea.

Father Frank Pavone was the director of the pro-life organization Priests for Life. From the outside Father Pavone seemed to be everything the Catholic Church would want in a Priest, but according the Vatican,  Pavone continually bucked the Catholic hierarchical structure and took some of his pro-life positions to the extreme. 

In C.S. Lewis' novel "The Great Divorce" a character called Pam, is so stricken by the death of her son Michael, that she puts her grief and misguided love of her son above her love for God. Lewis asserts something as pure as a mother's love for her son can be twisted in such a way it pulls us away from God.

In Father Pavone's case, the Roman Catholic Church contends that something done in the name of protecting the unborn, one of the Church's top priorities, can be as a subterfuge for grave sin. 

The Jewish elite of Jesus' time, under the guise of obedience to God, crucified Christ. Saul, before his conversion, persecuted Christians as a faithful defender of the Jewish faith.

So if seemingly pure things, protection for the unborn and religion itself, can be corrupted, what about other, seemingly benign things?

A father working 80 hour weeks to "provide for his family" at the cost of his family when there is no pressing reason for him to do so. 

The person who checks their social media "likes" constantly to validate their worth. 

A codependent romantic relationship where one or both parties can't function alone for anytime without a fear of their partner's status. 

Exercise, work, social media, friendships, romantic relationships are only a few things that are subject to perversion that could be otherwise good. 

In Christianity, there is a belief that God made all things good and Satan can only manipulate these good things for bad. So all sin, is rooted in good. 

So, I think it's important, as Christians and Non-Christians to be watchful of the things that may be disguising themselves as "good" and immune to introspective analysis. What good things are we perverting and elevating in such a way they are taking away from our true priority. Are we allowing our hobbies to take away from our friendships? Our friendships to take away from our family? Our kids to take away from our spouse, and as Christians, are we allowing anything to be placed above God?

Our consumerist society is geared to take our resources by trading commercial goods for our resources. Consumer marketing has no motivation to respect personal boundaries. A luxury watch ad doesn't care if it makes someone go into a dangerous amount of debt to acquire an unneeded item.  So we must make it a personal responsibility to protect our resources.

Satan is a master marketer, he will take the things that are good, perfect, and pure, and corrupt them. While the luxury watchmaker is satisfied with taking your money, Satan will work further to steal, kill, and destroy. We must be aware that everything we cherish is under overt and covert attack. Don't miss where you are losing a battle you don't even know is declared.