Sacrificing the Intellect

"False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect". (Matthew 24:24)
A blogger has perfectly captured the end result when everything is seen as a positive ‘case study’ where Christ is found in every feature of the Legion:

Shalimar (full article):

What I discovered was a mixture of reactions, which is to be expected of any group of people, considering different personalities and pain thresholds. But I did encounter one reaction more common than my own… that ‘tranquil peace’, the ‘joy’, the gratefulness that Fr. Maciel was also a sinner like the rest of us… the ‘let’s move on’ attitude, especially from our suffering priest leaders...

It was the belief in an ideal that sacrificed the intellect; that asked us to continue down a road when we had been lied to by the founder of our group and his cohorts… grave lies and deception, and that we were supposed to believe that our remaining associated with the founder and his movement would bear good fruit, and we were supposed to gloss over it, move on, and simply focus on Christ...

I have heard some compare Fr. Maciel to King David who committed grave sins, or St. Peter who denied Christ. But I don’t think those comparisons are accurate. Both of these Saints repented publicly, in Scripture, for all to see, and amended their life. I compare Fr. Maciel to Judas...

There is no way to make Judas look good, or gloss over his sin. We should never start a group imitating Judas or claiming him as our leader, or associating with anything even related to him... God did not inspire Judas’ sin, anymore than I believe God inspired Fr. Maciel to found an order. But God has, and will, bring good out of this man’s grave sins...

The elephant has been exposed, and elephants are elephants, no matter how attractive we want to make them. To deny the elephant is to sacrifice our God-given intellect, and that is a sign that we may have fallen under the influence of someone or something with power over our mind, however minor, and that is a dangerous place to go, because Jesus doesn’t ask us give up our intellect.

(Click photo to visit the elephant @ Exlcblog)