Modern Christians Between Two Worlds Far Apart, by Dr. Donald DeMarco

By Dr. Donald DeMarco, Catholic Exchange, May 10, 2021

Dr. Donald DeMarco is Professor Emeritus, St. Jerome’s University and Adjunct Professor at Holy Apostles College. He is a regular columnist for St. Austin Review and is the author of thirty-nine books. …

I had just finished another day of teaching and was on my way home when I spotted a hitchhiker. He was a university student and, once he climbed into my car, we found ourselves engaged in a lively conversation. He eventually asked me what I taught, and I responded by informing him that I taught ethics. Upon hearing this disclosure, my companion on the road exploded in uncontrolled laughter. He thought that in today’s world it is preposterous, even unthinkable, for anyone to assume he could lay out an ethical program for anyone else. I was suddenly cast as a creature from the dark ages, a time when people actually believed that there was a teachable code of ethics.

My enlightened passenger, a true representative of the new times, presumably knew better. Today’s world belongs to the individual who will figure out for himself how to conduct his life. We were only three feet apart in space, but we were eons apart in time. Was my liberal advisor a member of a progressive elite or was he a citizen of the ancient world of Pontius Pilate who, in scoffing at truth, was also dismissing the basis of ethics? …