Terrified of Conscience
by S. M. Hutchens
“Conscience terrorist,” a term apparently coined by Dr. Elfriede Kreuzeder (1927–2013) for those who opposed her crusade to ordain women in the Austrian Old Catholic Church, is really a very good addition to the Devil’s Dictionary, to designate people who insist that adherence to the natural dictates of conscience is an act of terrorism.
Following vivid examples in Dante, Lewis, or Gary Larson, one may expect people to make their own beds in hell while on this earth. Extrapolate to a final state in which a person is assigned to a circle of existence where conscience (as witness to the inescapable Word) remains, no longer a counselor, but a terror.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
18.8—October 2005
European Islam & the Doubtful Future of Christian Europe by William Murchison
18.4—May 2005
The Idylls, Idols & Devils That Corrupt the Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian
31.1—January/February 2018
Getting Sex Wrong Is a Foundational Error by James M. Kushiner
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
