Introduction to the Devout Life: Third Part--Chapter 29

Journeying With The Saints

Welcome, fellow Pilgrims, to another reading from our wise St. Francis.

One day, I was thinking about our current political circus and I thought to myself, "If my husband ran for president or if I did, what dirt would they try to dig up in my past to ruin my reputation?"

Thank God, I grew up before cell phones, but there are still things that people could dig up about my past that would cast a dark shadow over me. In our cancel culture today, people wickedly relish in digging up embarrassing and ugly things from people’s past so that they can say, “See! See! This person once said this! Or look at this picture of them from when they were 15! Look! Look how bad they were!”

Then the internet mob descends like a female black widow from her lare, ready to strike and kill her prey. Nobody checks to see if they’ve changed as a person. Nobody is forgiving in any capacity. Nobody asks any questions. It’s just, “We see this bad thing from long ago and now we will destroy your reputation.”

It’s horrible and such an grave sin, because it has quite literally ruined people’s careers, families, their good name, their safety, etc.

Today, St. Francis is going to talk to us about avoiding detraction, which is the sin of purposely seeking to destroy someone’s reputation with malicious intent. So, let’s turn to Chapter Twenty-Nine of the Third Part.