Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A Little Corporal Punishment Never Hurt Anyone

Much.

Good. He deserved it.

A priest in Valencia Spain witnessed a young man during communion take the Eucharist and throw it on the floor. The priest then decided on a course of action that one could properly call old school apologetics of the corporal kind.

The priest slapped the young man across the face and dragged him from the Church and loudly pronounced him a ‘blasphemer.’

Because that's what he is.

Here's the thing. If somebody knocked down the President or your mom or spouse or pretty much anybody, you'd probably take exception to it. If you're a guy, you would probably consider it a duty to provide an attitude adjustment to the offender. If you're the Secret Service in the former scenario, you'd definitely beat the hell out of the offender and have him thrown in prison.

All of these reactions demonstrate your belief that the offended person is important and due a certain amount of respect.

If Christ is our King, should we not do the same for Him? The Word Made Flesh Who died for our sins merits some level of fealty, right?

I know what some folks are thinking. The article itself mentions the perspective that the young man should have been taken aside an counseled about his action, rather than treated in such a harsh manner. For those taking this view of things, I simply point to the last few decades as demonstrative of how such an approach works. Counseling and such has been tried and has failed. This young man clearly had an issue with the Eucharist. Would counseling have gotten his attention? Doubtful, since the natural reaction to such counseling is "I just threw God to the floor and your only response is to tell me not to do it again? Yeah, right."

Such measures are easily dismissed or forgotten. Being popped in the face and called a blasphemer will leave an impression (pun intended).



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