Balance is the secret ingredient in Truth. Without it, you don’t have Truth, but a lie. Balance isn’t “centrism.” Centrism is a position in between opposing sides of any Truth. Centrism compromises a Truth, thus manufacturing a lie that resembles Truth.
“Human life is sacred. But sometimes abortion is necessary and should be permitted.”
That’s a lie that compromises the Truth. Abortion is always objectively wrong because it always ends an innocent human life.
Where Balance differs from Centrism is while centrism attempts to find synthesis between opposing sides, compromising on the Truth in the process to reconcile differences between sides, Balance reconstitutes the whole of a Truth from its fragmented parts across ideas/philosophies/claims. It’s the composite of true-fragments on every side of an argument, since neither side of an argument is in possession of the whole Truth.
Truth Starts with God
God is Truth itself. He is the whole Truth. Human beings, made in His image, naturally aspire to Truth. We desire it. We pursue it in the hopes of finding it and applying it to our lives. But because we are fallen, we tend to approach and apply Truth imperfectly. The result is that different parties, individuals, or segments of the human order will have portions of the Truth mingled with ideas that are false (“Life is sacred, but abortion is sometimes necessary”). That’s most apparent in politics. Are liberals right? Are conservatives right? Well, on some issues, both sides have pieces of Truth, but neither side usually has the whole thing.
Looking at political philosophies—conservative and liberal—we see this acutely. Liberals and conservatives each have portions of Truth. Neither side possesses the whole of it. Should we care for people from the cradle to the grave? Or should individuals be empowered to command their own destinies? The answer to both is yes. But each side of the argument gets it wrong somewhere. Liberals want government to be the master of the individual, compromising their dignity. Out of control social assistance programs demonstrate this.
Conservatives favor an inordinate emphasis on individual power, failing to recognize that sometimes individuals are disempowered by misfortune, circumstances, or other obstacles, and that their individual empowerment may require assistance or supplementation—however temporary—from a source with more power than they posess (government? Community?). Liberals tend to overemphasize mercy. Conservatives tend to overemphasize justice. Liberals are all heart, sometimes to a fault. Conservatives are all head, sometimes to a fault. To establish the whole truth, fragments of the whole truth, which are found on both sides of, in this case, the political spectrum (or of an argument or claim), must be applied.
Balance is Human, not Divine
There is no balance in an individual Truth. Truth itself is not balanced. We, who are imperfect, require balance in order to find the Truth. God is the whole Truth. He isn’t balanced, he simply is the whole of Truth. We, who are imperfect in our pursuit and application of Truth, require balance. Balance is how we imitate what God is, more perfectly. It’s something that we do, rather than something that God is.
So make no mistake, there is no balance necessary when making a truth claim, such as “Abortion is wrong” or “God is real” or “Jesus is Lord” Balance is required when an idea or claim has some truth in it, but lacks the whole.
Balance arrives at Truth by pulling together the true-fragments from each side in order to establish the whole Truth of any argument. Balance doesn’t reconfigure nice ideas from each side, but fragments that are objectively true.
On Sunday’s episode of The Catholic Experience I’ll talk about Balance and apply it to the lived human experience. I’ll start by reviewing some stories in Catholic or secular news that demonstrate a lack of balance and identify why the stories go off the rails in their duty to Truth. This will illustrate how Balance comes into play when establishing Truth, and will demonstrate its importance in our ordinary daily lives.
The show will stream to X, Facebook and YouTube and will be mirrored here on my website.
The tentative schedule for this show is Sunday at 2:00PM (ET). I may have to shift that time schedule. Please follow the podcast’s X account and turn on alerts. I’ll post schedule updates there. If you turn on alerts, you’ll be sure to get the update when I post it. Get ahead of the game. Here’s a link to a special episode live page, with stream links and resources –
