A Natural Law Defense of Visible Devotion
It is a truth universally acknowledged by any people in possession of sound reason, that the human heart naturally inclines toward the tangible and material. If we are, as Natural Law teaches, to order our lives according to logic, tradition, and the common good, then visible, inherited forms of worship that are rooted in our sacred heritage, are not only permissible but essential. Consider the ancient Israelites, so often misrepresented by modern moralists for their adoption of the worship practices of their neighbors. Seen through the lens of Natural Law, they were not rebels but guardians of patrimony, protectors of the faith of their fathers, and heirs of the Great Tradition. Many of their so-called “foreign” neighbors (Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites) were not outsiders at all but kin, bound by blood and soil, and by the natural affections that arise from shared ancestry. What could be more in keeping with reason and nature than honoring the household gods of one’s extended family?...