In my youth a book arrived on the shelves of bookstores (back when there were actually shelves).
Carl Menninger wrote convincingly about the topic, “Whatever happened to sin?” His thesis was that we had disregarded the matter of trespassing on sacred ground. I suppose in the end, anarchy would be the result.
Until now, I thought we were still dealing with that thesis.
I’m not so sure any more.
We’re not even sure what sacred ground is anymore.
Until there is a place where we can say that something is sacred, we cannot say that there is sin. The greatest eraser of a society is the brush that finally lets nothing be sacred and all things common. In that case, the society reverts to individuals and the individual’s own sense of priority. In which case anarchy arises.
So, what is sacred today? If we boil it down to our own God within us, we will soon end our society in chaos and confusion. If we boil it down to a group of people, the group will become fearful of outside influences and will implode.
I guess we need a sacred that is outside of humanity in order to have a society that is peaceful. Perhaps Christmas has something to do with that?