“Cleanliness is not next to godliness nowadays, for cleanliness is made an essential and godliness is regarded as an offence.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Defense of Nonsense
Godliness was at one time considered virtuous and cleanliness, as a result, advantageous for its proximity to it. Godliness has since, in the Christian sense, been abandoned. Cleanliness is now only next to godliness in order to shove it out of the way.
Cleanliness is the new godliness.
When godliness was abandoned, cleanliness was not abandoned along with it. Far from being cast off, it was embraced; rather than being turned out, it moved into the vacancy left by godliness’s eviction. Deity, as it turns out, does not tolerate a vacuum. The position is never open. When Christendom was excommunicated, cleanliness was promoted.
"Many great religions, Pagan and Christian, have insisted on wine. Only one, I think, has insisted on soap. You will find it in the New Testament attributed to the Pharisees." — G. K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers
Our new age Pharisees are no less religious than the ones who killed Christ. They are equally up to the task of persecuting other's opinions and equally sure that theirs are the opinions of the pure. Accordingly, cleanliness is now the virtue. But now, godliness is nowhere near to it. So much so, that one cannot even say, "godliness is next to cleanliness." It's not. Cleanliness apparently needed some space. In fact, few things are now called "unclean" more than anything that clings to Christ. Christ is now considered the stain and antichristianity the spot remover. Christendom is called the irritant and cleanliness the disinfectant. Godliness is now considered the antithesis of cleanliness.
And as far as cleanliness is now venerated as a divine end in its own right, I suppose it, more or less, is its antithesis. For the seed of Eve will forever be at war with the seed of the Serpent, regardless of what name or form he takes: morality, progress, political correctness, tolerance, loving your neighbor, inclusion, or diversity. Yet a rotten egg by any other name would smell just as bad and Christ would still declare war on it.
"Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it." — G. K. Chesterton
Modernity calls for soap while it recants of its soul. It cannot tolerate soiled clothes, but it tottles about soiled souls. In the new world, sanctification is by sanitization, but salvation is never mentioned. If you catch a cold, you can catch hell and quarantine is akin to confession and no one, but you, can carry your sins.
"As Mr. Blatchford says, 'The world does not want piety, but soap -- and Socialism.' Piety is one of the popular virtues, whereas soap and Socialism are two hobbies of the upper middle class." — G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World
It should not shock us to see soap and socialism running for office on the same party ticket. They both see people as scum in need a thorough scrubbing. While Christianity calls a man's best but filthy rags, it still offers him white robes if he agrees; whereas the cult of the clean calls man a pest and a disease and then encourages him to exterminate himself.
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