Section 1983 Blog has a post about Catholic League v. City and County of San Francisco, a frivolous case in our frivolous times. In Catholic League, the Catholic Church sued because the City of San Francisco hurt Catholics' feelings. Suing for hurt feelings is only more evidence of our culture of narcissism.
Thinking about the lawsuit reminded me of a passage from from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
That's the culture of narcissism. Hurt someone else...No big deal. Fail to bend to our whim...Lashings!In the exercise of domestic jurisdiction, the nobles of Rome express an exquisite sensibility for any personal injury, and a contemptuous indifference for the rest of the human species. When they have called for warm water, if a slave has been tardy in his obedience, he is instantly chastised with three hundred lashes: but should the same slave commit a wilful murder, the master will mildly observe, that he is a worthless fellow; but that, if he repeats the offence, he shall not escape punishment.
Rape children? No big deal. Confess your sins, and we'll transfer you to another parish. Call us bigots? We're filing a lawsuit!
The Church has become part of the culture rather than something separate from the culture. Blurring the line between church and state has not turned the United States into a theocracy. Instead, it's turned Catholicism into the Church of Narcissism.
It is the Church, not the state, most is need of separation of church and state.
