Fakers, Frauds, and FoolsIt’s important to know the difference between a person who is trying to live authentically and a person who is a fully willing fraud, peddling in lies that masquerade as truth.
By Emina Melonic
February 21, 2023
The Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) knew a thing or two about freaks, fakers, and fools. Her stories are filled with false prophets claiming to know the truth with a capital T and what comes of our encounters with them. Such fakers claim to know God and bring salvation to the spiritually needy. (Of course, salvation only ever comes with a hefty dollar fee.)
O’Connor’s 1952 novel, Wise Blood, features many fakers. One of them is Asa Hawks, a blind preacher who turns out not to be blind at all. Hawks spends his time preaching the Gospel as he sees it (no pun intended), all the while knowing that he is a con artist. Hawks doesn’t have any redeeming qualities because he’s willingly perpetuating fraudulent spirituality, and treating salvation as some kind of brand to be sold for a good price.
Hazel Motes, on the other hand, is not necessarily a fraud or a false prophet. He’s troubled by Hawks and is generally dissatisfied with the world. He’s an odd creature, as are most of O’Connor’s characters. Haze is convinced there is a better way to live than what Jesus offers, and resolves to start “The Church Without Christ.”
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Our false prophets are the fakers, frauds, and fools in media who prey on people’s need for trust, peace, and knowledge. Occasionally, they are guilty of accidental journalism but rarely do we get anything other than spin. The fearmongering comes from pundits and writers on both the Left and Right. An apocalypse is observed almost daily, yet somehow the world recovers—at least long enough for another destruction to occur.
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Source:
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/21/fakers-frauds-and-fools/
