Consistency

Stability. Reliability. Assurance. Regularity. Loyalty. Reputability. Steadfastness. Responsibility. Faithfulness.
     The thing you can always count on to be the same. If you ever leave home for several months or a couple of years and return, people change, streets look slightly different, and trees get taller. However, there's that gem of a person, flawed or not, that you know will be exactly like when you left. Whether or not this person is a friend is irrelevant. Sometimes just having something stay the same makes the passage of time easier to bear since sameness grounds people. Change is constant, omnipresent, and unpredictable, but by having mountainous landmarks, a timeless sense pervades life that calms and eases reflection.
     Ignoring the accuracy of its stance on any issue, the Roman Catholic Church has been the most stable social institution in Western history. Established by the Roman emperors themselves, the church provided the unifying factor to Europe throughout its history. Kings and empires have risen and fallen while the church remains continuous despite several Schismic earthquakes in its past.
     With the pressure from humanitarians in the West today, the Catholic Church is criticized for being backward, out-of-touch, inflexible, and intolerant. While few would deny the Church has problems, the consistency which it faces opposition is safely reliable. Since Catholicism includes people from nearly every country in the world, a relatively small change in stance or doctrine to pacify one group may ostracize another. While the Church is no stranger to politics, the divisiveness its members have brought against one another presents an old threat. Spain, France, and Italy have rarely interacted agreeably (Spain has been a reliable ally of Britain against France), the Church has kept them united.

     In the age of hyphenated-nationalism, a unifying force should be welcome. One as inherited and popular as the Catholic church should be honored for its consistency. Many reforms have occurred both in the 1960s and 1990s which shows its understanding of cultural shifts. However, while Aristotle only needed a lever long enough to move the earth, the Church requires time, prayer, and tradition to effect change.
     Again, regardless of religious views, the Catholic Church has solidly held its beliefs with earnestness. When you hold down your own bunker of beliefs, don't be discouraged by a few bad raps or scattered criticism. Keep at it, press on.
     Need more examples of consistency? The most identifying part of countries: geography. Greece is characterized by steep coasts and scattered islands. Germany is known for the plains of central Europe. Egypt's Nile has remained steady for thousands of years in stark contrast to the desert. When travelling to other regions of the world, the thing first noticed once your eyes shift away from the odd clothing is the landscape. The exceptions to this are monuments of the past, the great buildings that demonstrate the wealth and power of local ancestors. Churches, stone defenses, and tombs hold the character of a people while standing unchanged for centuries.
     As Herodotus said, "Man fears time, time fears the pyramids."

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Agatha Tyche