Posted on 06/07/2014 11:44:33 AM PDT by ReformationFan
Based on the findings of a recent Gallup poll released on May 30, Americans are becoming more accepting of a number of controversial issues. At the top of Gallup’s list of 19 issues was contraception, of which 90 percent of Americans approve, followed by divorce at 69 percent and premarital sex at 66 percent. Others making the top ten were embryonic stem cell research (65%), childbirth outside of marriage (58%), same-sex unions (58%), euthanasia (52%) and abortion (42%).
These numbers shouldn’t surprise us; after all Americans have been steadily rejecting a Judeo-Christian morality in favor of secular relativism for decades. In the so-called sexual revolution of the late 1960s, sex was separated from the person — body and soul — and the human body became regarded as an instrument one could manipulate and even exploit for pleasure.
Of course, it goes back more than a few decades. As is often the case, what seems like a sudden explosion was really the logical outcome of hundreds of years of growing confusion about who we are as persons.
René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French scientist and philosopher who many credit with helping to launch what later became known, somewhat ironically, as “the Enlightenment.” Among his contributions to the way people thought was to place body and soul in opposition to each other, later leading to the idea that the human body could simply be seen as an object one could manipulate according to one’s desires. Simply put, you are your mind, and you have a body; as opposed to the traditional Christian view that you are both body and soul. In this, Descartes followed Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who believed that the goal of human knowledge should be to successfully achieve not stewardship of, but domination over, nature.
It’s telling that today this does not sound controversial to many people. It’s even difficult to see how radical this change was, but let’s put it this way: instead of beginning with the idea that we grasp reality through our senses and think about it, we would now begin with our own mind as the basis of knowledge and from there subjectively interpret reality.
Books are still being written about what became known in philosophy as mind/body dualism, a view that is rejected by the Church. This dualistic view is assumed by most today, even though most don’t realize it or see how it informs even their most basic assumptions about reality, and other people.
Okay, enough philosophy. Let’s look at how this affects our lives today with respect to our own bodies and relationships, the results of which are shouting at us from the Gallup poll.
The contraceptive mentality, so identified by the Church, is a perfect example of what happens when we embrace dualism. Notice how the promoters of contraception promise a consequence-free control over our lives if we could just control our fertility with their drugs and devices. All the pleasure, none of that inconvenient fertility. My body is not me, exactly, it is an object for me to control for whatever reason I want; so sex is just about my pleasure, maybe someone else’s too. It is not necessarily about giving myself to the one I love with the possibility of creating new life as a result of that gift.
Following this view, sex becomes a mindless, meaningless function for which I can use my body. The idea of myself as a unity of body and soul is gone. And with this ignorance follows the matching ignorance of the nature of human sexuality as a unity of our basic human gifts of fertility and bonding between spouses.
This is why the world was so angered by Humanae Vitae, which arrived right in the middle of the sexual revolution. In soon-to-be Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on human life, the Church clearly reaffirms the inseparability of the unitive and procreative meaning of the conjugal act. To employ contraception and embrace its mentality is to act contrary to the God-given purpose of spousal love between man and woman, which distorts other human relationships as well, exactly as the Holy Father predicted.
Many believe that Paul VI’s work in Humanae Vitae was deeply influenced by that of the man who would become Pope Saint John Paul II. In Love and Responsibility, then-Archbishop Karol Wojtyla laid out the case for why the proper, integrated view of the human person as body and soul is necessary to understand ourselves and one another, especially in our sexuality: “In the order of love a man can remain true to the person only in so far as he is true to nature. If he does violence to nature, he also violates the person by making it an object of enjoyment rather than of love.”
To go against our true nature is to fracture our natural sense of responsibility towards another. Does anyone not see this happening today?
Obviously, seriously bad ideas have seriously bad consequences. Father Paul Marx, the founder or Human Life International, affirmed the Church’s point in his autobiography based on his broad experience in traveling the world:
Having traveled and worked in 91 countries, I find no country where contraception has not led to abortion, to increasing fornication among the young, to divorce, and to all those other evils we see today that make up the international sex mess.
And it is quite a mess, isn’t it? The Gallup poll should serve as a wake up call. If we are serious about strengthening the family, promoting the well-being of children, reversing the growing number of broken marriages in our nation, ending abortion, upholding the dignity of the aged and ill, and promoting purity and chastity, then let’s be honest about where the moral breakdown begins.
Reprinted with permission from Human Life International.
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Abortion is part of the end goal. It is not the gateway. Murder is a goal, not a gateway. Besides, the contraception mentality naturally LEADS to abortion.
Contraception led the way for abortion. The Supreme Court’s decision (Griswald) opened the door for abortion. After all abortion is many resorted to when contraception fails and is but another form of contraception.
It was the Enlightenment that led to the idea of limited government, replacing the Divine Right of Kings, which led to the American Revolution.
The real end goal is getting one to prioritize material possessions as one’s object of affection. In fact, come to think about it, contraception, abortion, having sex like a party favor, it’s all related to materialism above all else, putting material concerns/fears above altruism and/or respect toward God, putting the quick gratification over the long term sustainability. From a Christian standpoint, Satan is one miserable ^&*$^$ and he really wants company in his self-inflicted misery at that.
I am also Protestant, but I think that the Vatican understood this issue correctly from the very beginning.
Example: Thou shalt not kill.
I KNEW that I wasn't going to murder anyone, so I thought I was "safe." I also knew that abortion WAS murder, as was euthanasia.
**However, doing things that MIGHT lead self/other deaths like speeding and DUI were also putting myself and others in grave danger.
**Taking that commandment (not suggestion) another step or two:
over-eating
over drinking
smoking (anything)
promiscuity
and not exercising enough to be as fit as appropriate to one's age are also forms of killing self/others.
I guess I have to go back to catechism which told me that our bodies are temples of the Lord. That should make one careful about how one treats God's temple.
Does the end always justify the means?
One of my oldest girlfriends got pregnant out of wedlock. There would be no wedding and she could not take care of the baby.
She informed the father, whom she never saw again, and gave her son up for adoption. It just about killed her. I don't see her anymore but I hope she's been rewarded for her act of generosity.
Yeah, there was never moral decay until contraception came along. /sarc
People need to read the Bible more.
I believe in contraception because there are many people who are unfit to raise children.
But I am against gueer marriage, abortion, childbirth outside of marriage, and euthanasia.
According to the polls there must be many Christians who approve of every thing except abortion.
But since out siders to the Catholic or Protestant Churches are not considered Christians, it gives reason to wonder.
That should make one careful about how one treats God’s temple.
This is exactly what the world teaches, so maybe it should be given more thought, Paul said the only one that defiles the temple is promiscuity.
1Cor 6
18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
People need to read the Bible more.
Besides, the contraception mentality naturally LEADS to abortion.
It is true. Contraception separates sex from procreation, and from that all the sexual vices spring, one by one, ever increasing in depravity and destruction of individuals and society.
Many people hate to see this. So be it, many people do not want to see truth if it goes against their personal wishes or desires or beliefs.
Learn to read:
“Besides, the contraception MENTALITY naturally LEADS to abortion.”
Contraception: the gateway to abortion.
And to the whole idea of divorcing the marital act from procreation.
Nice tagline, Mrs. Don-o! I’m quite fond of John 7:24 myself.
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