Absorbing Evil and Fr. Richard Rohr

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Neil_Anthony

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I’ve been reading quotes from Fr. Richard Rohr that are interesting but I’m not always sure if they’re orthodox. For example this one

“Evil is not overcome by attack or even avoidance, but by union at a higher level. It is overcome not by fight or flight, but rather by “fusion”!”

In other quotes he talks about absorbing evil instead of separating from it.

Is he a Catholic priest in good standing? Can anyone help me understand what it means to have “fusion” with evil, in this context?

Thanks,
Neil
 
“Evil is not overcome by attack or even avoidance, but by union at a higher level. It is overcome not by fight or flight, but rather by “fusion”!”
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Interesting. If he would have said “…but rather by transformation!” I’d agree.
 
Neil_Anthony said:
I’ve been reading quotes from Fr. Richard Rohr that are interesting but I’m not always sure if they’re orthodox. For example this one

“Evil is not overcome by attack or even avoidance, but by union at a higher level. It is overcome not by fight or flight, but rather by “fusion”!”

In other quotes he talks about absorbing evil instead of separating from it.

Is he a Catholic priest in good standing? Can anyone help me understand what it means to have “fusion” with evil, in this context?

Thanks,
Neil
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Fr. Rohr speaks from a deep spirituality that is often misinterpreted by anyone that is not familiar with the teachings of the Catholic mystics including Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and others. He correctly teaches that the only way to overcome evil is by not fueling it with confrontation…Love thy enemies remains a tough pill to swallow but is the ultimate call of Christian love.
 
tskrobacz said:
Fr. Rohr speaks from a deep spirituality that is often misinterpreted by anyone that is not familiar with the teachings of the Catholic mystics including Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and others. He correctly teaches that the only way to overcome evil is by not fueling it with confrontation…Love thy enemies remains a tough pill to swallow but is the ultimate call of Christian love.
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I would like to understand a bit more. Does fusing with evil, or absorbing evil, then, mean accepting sinners into the community so that they can be transformed? Or is it something more than that?
 
Neil_Anthony said:
I would like to understand a bit more. Does fusing with evil, or absorbing evil, then, mean accepting sinners into the community so that they can be transformed? Or is it something more than that?
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Absorbing evil means avoiding fueling it by confrontation. We must love not only in thought and in word, but in deed. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst give him to drink (Rom. 12:20) Nowhere is service more necessary or more blessed than when we serve our enemies. How does love conquer? By asking not how the enemy treats her but only how Jesus treated her. The love of our enemies takes us along the way of the cross and into fellowship with the Crucified. As Thomas Merton says: “Our job is to Love without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy - that is not our business, and in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is love and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors (or enemies) worthy, if anything can.”
 
CS Lewis said: “When you sup with the Devil, use a long spoon.”.

No matter what good spirituality “Fr.” R Rohr may have; the fact remains that hes a raging heretic dissenter. Itd be better to avoid him like The Plague.

His words might sound OK, but theyre poison......like the Serpents words to Eve. Both are from the one source.
 
SunnaB16 said:
CS Lewis said: “When you sup with the Devil, use a long spoon.”.

No matter what good spirituality “Fr.” R Rohr may have; the fact remains that hes a raging heretic dissenter. Itd be better to avoid him like The Plague.

His words might sound OK, but theyre poison......like the Serpents words to Eve. Both are from the one source.
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Thank you - your response is very instructive of the dualism that Fr. Rohr teaches us to guard against. It is our need to see things as good or bad, right or wrong that fails to recognize that none of us can see the full picture and fully know the will of God. To put on the mind of Christ we must all humbly seek the will of God for our lives alone and trust that His very presence in all creation, including Fr. Rohr, is in service of His good purposes.
 
SunnaB16 said:
CS Lewis said: “When you sup with the Devil, use a long spoon.”.

No matter what good spirituality “Fr.” R Rohr may have; the fact remains that hes a raging heretic dissenter. Itd be better to avoid him like The Plague.

His words might sound OK, but theyre poison......like the Serpents words to Eve. Both are from the one source.
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I Don’t Agree with your assertion that Fr. Rohr is so bad. Some of the so called Orthodox priests and preachers, i wouldn’t trust with a ten foot… Look at the Irish and American Scandals— many of these characters were orthodox types. I don’t agree with every single thing Rohr has ever said… but let him speak. Thomas Merton was silenced also, as were many visionaries.
 
I don’t know what his intentions were, but from his words, i can get more of a Kill them with kindness message. I’m the sorts who stands firmly in the stance that words, scenes, statements, none of them are in themselves evil, it’s all about how you see it. I can see the words “absorb evil,” and interperate it as, knowing the enemy. If you don’t know what evil is, if you aren’t familiar with it, you can’t fight it. You absorb a small virus to fend off becoming ill. You absorb small traces of evil to be able to wrd off what is truly devilish.

You learn about the evils of abortion. You know how it’s done, all the facts and figures, the details you wish you didn’t know. You talk to pro-abortion women, you listen to their side. You absorb all this evil information, so that you know how to denounce it.

I don’t know this man, who he is, or what his intentions behind his words are, but that’s what I get out of it. Know your enemy
 
I can credit a talk that Fr. Rohr gave in my diocese as the pivotal moment of my conversion back to the Church. :getholy:
I left as a young adult and had been gone nearly 20 years.
I had recently returned to Church, but life was dealing me a hand that my faith was not prepared to deal with and I was considering throwing in the towel all together!:crying:

I was fortunate to be able to attend this event, and Fr. Richard spoke with such a deep sense of love and respect for God that for most of his hour-long talk, there were tears in my eyes.

I believe that he is thinking ***“outside the box” ***(***much like Jesus did?!)***and truly trying to live his life in the spirit of St. Francis.

Do I agree with all that he says and does, no.
But the good he has done, and the gifts he has shared, IMHO cannot be denied.
 
%between%
I dont know much about Father Rohr at all, so I googled him and came up with this fromCatholic Culture, which is usually very reliable as a source. The language used in the article strikes me as emotive and rather emotional and probably not unbiased I have thought. Certainly having read the Catholic Culture article, I would be approaching anything Father Rohr had to say or write with some caution.

Catholic Culture: “The Fr. Richard Rohr Phenomenon”
catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6819
…"…To his detriment, Rohr, in his writings and conferences, gives the impression that Christ is not truly the divine Son of God, whose sufferings redeemed us from our sins, but rather just another guru, prophet, or great moral teacher, who like so many others before Him came to show us the path to self-enlightenment. Constantly quoting Buddha, Joseph Campbell, and Hindu aphorisms, Rohr’s syncretistic vision of Christ strips the Incarnate Son of God of His divinity and His uniqueness as mankind’s only Savior. Rohr’s unfortunate flirtation with paganism or Arianism leaves his wounded men naked, on all fours, crawling in the dark on the floor of the New Mexico desert, looking blindly for meaning in their lives, instead of humbly approaching Christ, their Lord and Savior…"…
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tskrobacz said:
Thank you - your response is very instructive of the dualism that Fr. Rohr teaches us to guard against. It is our need to see things as good or bad, right or wrong that fails to recognize that none of us can see the full picture and fully know the will of God. To put on the mind of Christ we must all humbly seek the will of God for our lives alone and trust that His very presence in all creation, including Fr. Rohr, is in service of His good purposes.
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Scripture says that our battle is with Principalities and Powers in the high places: ie fallen angels. (Theyre not very nice.) It also says to put on the armour of God. It also says that wolves in sheeps clothing will get in among the flock.
Theres dualism, all right. GOOD and EVIL are real. The sole aim of the fallen angels is to have us in misery forever. They dont do things by halves. Its pure malice. Theyre quite happy to work through some silly beggar whos gone off the rails. The demons are not a fairy tale: theyre REAL.

Hitler and Stalin were/are also part of Gods creation. Like those two, Fr. R Rohr has abused his God-given gift of Free Will. In some ways, **in the spiritual realm**, his actions are as bad as theirs. This priest knows damned well what the Church INFALLIBLY teaches re Faith and Morals; and he has freely chosen to dissent, to continue to do that for decades, and to spread that dissent. Hes had plenty of time to reconsider. Hes doing much more than thinking "outside the box". The Church has given us defined boundaries for a reason: so that we wont keep going down blind alleys, and worse.

Remember the Scriptural warning about itchy ears.
 
SunnaB16 said:
Scripture says that our battle is with Principalities and Powers in the high places: ie fallen angels. (Theyre not very nice.) It also says to put on the armour of God. It also says that wolves in sheeps clothing will get in among the flock.
Theres dualism, all right. GOOD and EVIL are real. The sole aim of the fallen angels is to have us in misery forever. They dont do things by halves. Its pure malice. Theyre quite happy to work through some silly beggar whos gone off the rails. The demons are not a fairy tale: theyre REAL.

Hitler and Stalin were/are also part of Gods creation. Like those two, Fr. R Rohr has abused his God-given gift of Free Will. In some ways, **in the spiritual realm**, his actions are as bad as theirs. This priest knows damned well what the Church INFALLIBLY teaches re Faith and Morals; and he has freely chosen to dissent, to continue to do that for decades, and to spread that dissent. Hes had plenty of time to reconsider. Hes doing much more than thinking "outside the box". The Church has given us defined boundaries for a reason: so that we wont keep going down blind alleys, and worse.

Remember the Scriptural warning about itchy ears.
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You are free to disagree with Fr. Rohr’s teaching, message, or to even question his orthodoxy, but to call him a “spiritual realm” Hitler or Stalin is really over the top.
 
This one bugs me a bit:
Question of the Day:
What is the difference between Jesus and the Christ?
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To understand Jesus in a whole new way, we must first know that Christ is not his last name, but his transformed identity after the Resurrection—which takes humanity and all of creation along in its sweet path. Jesus became the Christ, which existed from the moment of the Big Bang (John 1:2, Colossians 1:17-20) and included us in this divine identity (Ephesians 1:4-11). This is pretty amazing stuff, unappreciated by most Christians, it seems to me.
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That’s why Paul will create the new term “the body of Christ,” which clearly includes all of us. So think of the good Jesus, who has to die to what seems like him—so that he can rise as the Christ. It is not a “bad” man who must die on the cross, but a good man (“false self”)—so that he can be a much larger man (“True Self”). Jesus dies, Christ rises. The false self is not the bad self; it is just not the true self. It is inadequate, and thus needy and small, symbolized by Jesus’ human body, which he let go of.
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Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 191
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