Deceived Conscience and Deluded Consciousness

The concept of an “ignorant conscience” (vincible or invincible) is an important and significant one in Catholic moral thinking because it allows us to uphold the primacy of following conscience and yet acknowledge the possibility of error; to distinguish objective evil and subjective guilt and so judge the act but not the heart of the actor; and to suffer serious differences in belief within family, society and church and still maintain bonds of mutual respect and love. The concept is troubled, however, for several reasons:

1. It underestimates the active dynamisms of deception and delusion operative in all human groups.
2. It suggests that mere information or instruction may ameliorate the situation when
   the erroneous intellect is already resistant and hostile to such information.
3. It suggests that evil acts spring from a lack of knowledge, rather than from a surplus of information that is erroneous and deceptive.

It is more accurate and illuminating, therefore, to speak of a deceived conscience since exposure to new information will either reinforce the error or provoke resistance and hostility.

If Rene Girard is correct, than every society generates a “myth,” a primal narrative which justifies the foundational accusatory gesture and sacrificial violence against a scapegoat by which it directs and controls the threatening chaos of mimetic rivalry, violence and anxiety. Therefore, the knowledge and information of any culture is already directed to rationalize violence against the scapegoat, who is often innocent and randomly chosen.

Socialization then is always indoctrination into a rationalization of victimizing violence. The more information gathered, the deeper becomes the fog of deception and delusion. So, for example, the 12-year old suicidal Palestinian terrorist who blows up a busload of Israeli children is not suffering from an ignorant conscience; rather, his conscience has been plentifully informed by the ruling myth of the indignant Arabs. A few minutes watching MSNBC or Fox News will vividly demonstrate this myth-making dynamic: Keith Oberman and Sean Hannity are equally adept at demonizing and disparaging their designated goats and each is passionately convinced of his narrative. Turn to CNN and you can hear Lou Dobbs rant about the ominous illegal aliens from south of the border.

Evaluating the current climate from a Catholic context, we note that the higher the level of education, the greater the support for the politics of choice and the culture of death. The more information one absorbs from ivy-league-wannabe institutions and the greater one’s credentials (especially in the humanities or the social sciences), the more sophisticated become one’s rationalizations for the genocide of the unborn.

What we face in our Church and culture is not ignorant consciences, but deluded ones: they have been deeply and broadly formed in the prevalent myth. Confronting these consciences about the sanctity of defenseless life will provoke a convoluted, complex and passionate argument. This mindset is not vulnerable to logical argument or evidence.

Is there any escape from these demonic dynamics of deception? Yes, there sure is! The Church! Within the liturgy of the Church, the Gospel of Christ is announced: the call to convert; the call to empathy with the victim; the call to worship God and release ideology and rationalization. Here we surrender ourselves to a culture of contrition, not accusation; a ritual of thankful sacrifice, not sacrificial violence; and a dynamic of trust and abandonment, not one of mimetic jealousy and rage. Listening to the Gospel as proclaimed by apostolic authority we are enabled to unveil the violence underlying societal myths and ideologies and confront the Culture of Death. We undergo what John Paul called a purification of consciousness; and we hope that it becomes contagious.