I think this is where the mistake is. Many people are *not* sane. Minds have been gone for a long time.
We can start by looking at education. Everybody seems to have their pet theory about the "why", but the "what" is clear. A significant percentage of students do not take knowledge seriously. Not just schooling, I mean, but knowledge itself. It is some objective accessory that a person can accept, or reject, or have some opinion about. Maybe the knowledge can be memorized as a magical tool to make money, to get a job, or even to signal allegiance. But lost is the understanding that all of creation is from God, is in relationship to Him, and reveals Him. And gone is the understanding that, because of that relationship to Truth as Person, knowledge has an existence that connects with Absolute Truth and goes far deeper than any one individual.
And looking at what draws people to Orthodoxy, it is frequently...not Christ. Sure, ultimately it's Him, working through all of creation. But people come because they like art, splendor, and abstract feelings about history. They come because they need to have a father/guru/power figure to tell them what to do, tell them everything is ok, and fill an emotional void (which is not Orthodoxy anyways but spiritual abuse). They come because Orthodoxy is supposedly "different", a public badge of pride(!), a clear mark(!) of distinction against the "other". Yet how many come because they are willing to lay down their life for their neighbors (the vaccine is not even that—we benefit too—but how many would die for their neighbor instead of their own pride?), to deliver the Good News (and maybe a cup of cold water) to the poor, and to enter into a relationship with a God Who has commanded us to be crucified daily (in everything from what we eat to what we say to what we wear)? That some people have intellectualized a series of bullet points (7 this, 7 that, etc—which is all actually incorrect, but I digress), or made grand public gestures, or shown up for fellowship does not change the fact that the number of people who are living in any way that could be construed as Christian is staggeringly small. It isn't just about inability to measure up, trying yet failing, but about mistaking Christianity for something that is is not—or maybe, given what we often mean by "Christianity", maybe they've actually judged rightly what it is.
So back to personal sanity, I think there is far less of it than the thin veneer of society would claim. We're teetering on the edge of an abyss, not because of any vaccines (science is God-given and really does save lives), or the rule of law (tell an anti-masker we should all go pants-less and you'll see how quickly "freedom!" ends), or we've all the sudden changed—we've not changed, and that is the problem! We are in trouble because we've treated civilization as a collective cover for our insanity, as a grand bargain for personal "rights" and similar mumbo jumbo, and as a useful fiction to get what we want: with very little demonic prodding, that insanity comes flooding out, and we will be revealed for who we've always been—and we will soon receive precisely the evil that our perverted hearts desire.
www.saveourchurches.org
