It is well known that the history of the Church is laden with a policy
of oppressing that which they do not understand and through that
oppression practice hypocrisy. For example, their initial disagreements
with the Occultists centuries ago stemmed from forbidding certain magics
to be explored and discovered. Rather than trying to understand them and
THEN decide if such magics should be forbidden they simply turned a
blind eye to it and persecuted those who opted to be free thinkers.

On a lesser note is a recent discussion with Brinn who asked me to not
leave my "evil blade" in their Basilica. This act, though seemingly
minor and trivial, says much about the thought process (or lack thereof)
that goes on in the Church. Clearly he saw a dark blade with fresh blood
on it and probably guessed that it is used in various Occultic rituals.
"Therefore", he concludes, "it must be evil since it's dark and bloody
and used in secret Chaos rituals I do not understand". Clearly he
ignored things like the fact said rituals may have been slitting the
throats of demons in an attempt to banish the evil fog of this land
since the forces of Chaos have lead the charge against evil as of late,
or sacrificing a lamb on an altar of Sarapis and offering up the flesh
in His name. (Blind assumptions that lead to baseless conclusions such
as this case is something many Twilighters will probably be familiar
with if they have ever read about Consistency Theory.) Rather than
asking about the blade to at least make an attempt to understand its
true nature he instead opted to take a guess and believe the guess as
fact. Now imagine a large organization making decisions in this manner.
(One would wonder if perhaps trolls have overrun it completely...)

So how does this inability to understand things in its entirety lead to
a practice of hypocrisy? Take for example their quest to destroy evil.
They call Chaos evil and thus conclude it must be destroyed. Chaos is
evil, but Chaos also is not. To say Chaos is nothing but evil is as
ignorant as saying nature is nothing but life. There is some amount of
overlap, but flying pigs and toads that manage a hotel are certainly not
things of evil. In other words, there is no isomorphism with Chaos and
evil (or Chaos and anything else). If they were in fact one and the
same, then why would there be two words for them? But of course, Eris,
you knew this. I merely state it for the edification of the
unenlightened who may be reading this.

So back to the main point of the Church's practice of hypocrisy stemming
from its inability to understand things, look at their aim to destroy
Chaos since it has some sort of association with evil. If they believe
Chaos is just flat out evil, well then perhaps this does not lead to
hypocrisy, but rather a sign of immense ignorance and mental blindness.
The Logos himself has said to all of us mere mortals that He created the
concepts of good and evil and "that in (us), they are all immanent." If
they believe that Chaos must be destroyed since it has some sort of
association with evil then clearly the Church must destroy its members
since, as the Logos says, evil is in all of us. Therefore, if a Church
member seeks to destroy all evil and all things associated with it then
his friends and family are his enemies, for evil is in them. Even you he
is his own enemy for it is within himself! So clearly the Church is
either extraordinarily ignorant or just hypocritical. I hypothesize a
mix of both.

Perhaps the Church believes that evil must be destroyed, and with it
anything that does not actively oppose evil must be destroyed. Since
Chaos is not explicitly aligned against evil then it would at first
glance seem logical to squash out Chaos. But of course this is another
example of a lack of true understanding leading to hypocracy. One only
has to look at the forces of Chaos leading the charge against evil as of
late to see that this makes no sense. And in addition, one who lives by
such a law would be obligated to slay any druids who do not actively
fight for good (or any other person that traditionally remains neutral
in such battles).

Perhaps some day the Church will embrace the ideals of Chaos. Or perhaps
someday the Church will embrace the subset of Chaos that allies itself
with the morals they supposedly uphold. But until that day I shall pity
its members for the ignorance they get fed on a daily basis.


-Grunt grunt blrrrrt snoof Saruman.

Penned by my hand on the 14th of Glacian, in the year 301 AF.