Sometimes I wonder if some women feeling hostility toward “their” men (husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, lovers, ex-lovers, hookups, whatever) who impregnated them see killing their babies as one way of doing them dirt, perhaps seeing the baby as an incarnation, representation, or similitude of its father. Maybe not: I never hear this factor entered into the discussions of Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice.
We are to respect God, other people, ourselves, and nature. To be aware of the existence of God is to know that such a loving, Supreme Being deserves respect in the such ways as obeying the laws given by God, thinking always and speaking as reverently as possible of God, worshiping, and structuring our lives so as to recognize and reflect God’s majesty. Other people must be respected by being treated prudently, intelligently and kindly. The same holds true for ourselves, but more continually, 24/7 in fact. Nature and its laws are respected by practicing good stewardship, avoiding waste and spoilage, and more widely by learning nature’s ways.
They are blasting the kids in many schools with a ‘just do it’ way of thinking about physically intimate activities, so we need to gear up to provide the children with a sound understanding of the ways we, as God’s creatures, are constituted as persons – spiritually, socially, emotionally, inter-personally and anatomically. For one thing, an earlier teaching of biology than the usual first year of high school might help neutralize some of the most bizarre deviations from sanity and conformity with the way God made us and intended us to behave, simply by presenting ‘what’s what’ about people.
There is already good Theology of the Body presentations for teens, the stage in life which sensible people consider to be the time when questions and decisions of a sexual nature begin to have a bearing on life. But ideologues promulgating untrammeled involvement of everyone in sexual activity chose to render children at younger and younger ages awash in waves of discussion and ‘information’ about how, where, when, with whom and how often to ‘express’ and act out sexuality. Amidst the drumbeat for universal sexual participation there are even activist groups encouraging greater attention and encouragement of their own preferred erotic amusements, such as child pornography and homosexuality.
I am reminded of the ’60s ‘Be-In’ phenomenon, which assembled in one place the widest variety of ‘freaks’ having all kinds of personal quirks to display before society, such as ‘flower power’, body piercing, and other varieties of ‘doing your own thing’. Except now the idea isn’t a one-time assembling in a certain place, but rather a way of being sexual at all times and in all places.
I came across an online discussion forum based on the things TV evangelist Pat Robertson said about Haiti having, I think he said or implied, brought down the wrath of God on their nation by being somehow in league with the the devil. The comments that were posted contained numerous allegations and counter-allegations about the As a friend of mine likes to ask, “ARE YOU CRAZY??!!” Here’s the worst disaster and sufering immaginable, and it’s seen by know-it-alls to get up on on their hobby horses and begin throwing accusations at their favorite targets. How about shutting up and insteadpray, and throw some money!
Ruthless, greedy, powerful men and women capture and entice poor, weak and vulnerable girls, women and boys into to sex slavery and other kinds of degradation. Other ruthless, greedy and powerful persons in places of authority take payoffs and bribery and thus allow the inhuman trafficking to flourish. Ruthless, immoral and exploitative individuals pay the criminals to take advantage of the unfortunate victims. The money collected serves to strengthen the criminal organizations and allows them to expand into additional forms of cruelty and corruption. Still other persons in places of authority, and the world at large, pay little or no attention.
Many young lives take a new direction in response to heart-to-heart talks sought out by perplexed individuals wanting to bring clarity to their decision making about how to live their lives. A young person might seek the advice of an older cousin or neighbor about such questions as whether to be true to the family religion, engage in sex, or carry out an abortion. It is my guess that most of this advice is a combination of what is ordinary, comfortable, and inoffensive, and not well thought through, far-seeing, or particularly in sync with Church teachings.
So I can see tht here might be great value in collecting generous samples of the kind of advice that struggling inquirers report was dished out to them so that it can be used to help prepare counter-arguents that would be capable of neutralizing the with good advice the bad coffee clatsch advice that young persons might expect to receive at every hand, which might be some version of “What they told you in Church is unrealistic and we are practical people like you, and have decided that it is better to … (fill in the blanks).”
With reference to the call to observe chastity and the teachings on The Theology of the Body, do people past the age of reproduction have to follow the same rules in their intimate lives as those who are fertile?
On EWTN today Fr. Joseph Mary built his homily around B. Miguel Pro who was martyred by the Mexican government in the 20’s. One interesting anecdote he offered was about a time when the anti-religious police raided a house where people were gathered for a clandestine Mass, hoping to arrest the priest. Bold Fr. Pro opened the door and took the police on a tour of the house, even though it was the first time he was in it. The police asked him if there was a priest hiding there and he said that if there was, he wanted to know about it, because he would like to go to Mass! Fr. Pro employed crafty disguises and deception to carry out his priestly duties right under the noses of the hostile government officials.
This is a marvelous example of what is called “hiding in plain sight.” Some things are so obvious that we don’t see them. I often look at everything on the front page of a newspaper except the big headline. Once in a while a person will mention something to me about the story behind the main headline, and I have to say that I don’t remember seeing anything about it.
It reminds me of something from biology class at St. John Fisher College. Our professor was an expert on beetles, and told us of a certain beetle that sometimes falls into the path of army ants. The army ants devour everything in their path except other army ants. The ants walk with a certain rhythmic motion which allows them to recognize their own numbers and attack anything around about moving in a different rhythm. The beetles, although far larger than the ants, are able to mimic the ant’s rhythm and can march along with them for a distance, but they inevitably tire and fail to keep up the correct rhythm, at which time they are immediately devoured.
Similarly, in an agressively secular society such as that in Mexico in the 20’s or ours today Catholics might be able to mimic the movements of those around them for a while, but will sooner or later be found out and attacked for not being like the others, believing in God and rejecting sin.
-MSNBC Headline 10/13/20099
And the other half of them each kill at least one baby. No one could find anything more unsafe than that – 100% unsafe!
Suicides and withdrawal of food & water from people are extremely unsafe as well.
Further reading:
A couple of days ago there was scheduled a demonstration of prayer outside the local abortuary. I had some free time so I went over to take part. I expected that there would be 25 or so people grouped there, for there had been a fair amount of publicity, but when I got there one one woman was present. It struck me that one of the temptations not to come was that I would feeel a little abashed at presenting myself before a bunch of zealots, and there certainly was no cause for that reservation.
The woman had a big plastic sign that required 2 people to hold it, so we got the sign opened up and facing the street that passes in front of the abortion mill. A third person then showed up, a Philippine woman carrying a large unbrella to keep the intense sun at bay. We began our prayers, and shortly still another woman showed up, this time with both umbrella and chair. After we had prayed awhile, a young man pulled up in his car and offered to and did get us some cold water, a touching sign of his solidarity with our intentions. The rest of the session was largely uneventful, save a few people in passing cars showing a little support by a honk or other sign or encourgement.
a Lapide's Catholic Bible Commentary
