Orthodoxy and Dogmatic Teaching Are Built-In Corruption Resistance

For those who still care, and are looking still for guidance originating in and aimed at truth, the beauty of dogmatic teachings in the Church is that — once dogmatically defined — things mean what they’ve always meant. (Thus, for example, the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of the Lord, was not cooked up in the 1950s when it was dogmatically defined. Rather, by that dogmatic decree the Church declared that the teaching has always been true, and must be believed — unless you want to call God a liar.) 

In authoritative, absolute, teachings on moral matters this is especially significant. There’s just no honest way to pretend that what is called sin (because God calls it sin) somehow suddenly now isn’t sin because the definition of the word has evolved. 

Dedicated sinners would always rather dial back on the meaning of sin than on their own appetite for sinfulness. 

The Church is built on a Rock. It is meant to stand. It isn’t designed to shift or be reshaped by the forces it stands against that have always opposed it; and that futilely slam against it continually from every direction. 

Standing with the Church has always been a sure defense of the faithful against the dangers of the storms that are in the world around it and them. The Church is not designed to bend, or to tumble to a new place, or be worn down by erosion into a new shape, or to wash away.