Upcoming Synod Must Address Family Disintegration

Crisis Magazine ^ | September 23, 2014 | REV. CORMAC BURKE

[Tax-chick]

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[redgolum]

But that still begs the question.

We in the Church seem to be very focused on the law of the State. Be it in “social Justice”, abortion, marriage, etc.

How did the early church, which had no recourse to the law, swim against the culture? How did they win in the events leading up to Constantine?

If the argument is that the only reason the Church succeeded is that after Constantine it became advantageous to be Christian, than the Church has a larger issue.

[sitetest]

Dear redgolum,

No, it doesn't beg the question.

It is YOU who is creating this dichotomy between law and culture, and saying that Catholics only focus on law.

That's a fib.

If you actually read someone like,..., oh, I don't know,... like... St. John Paul II, you see that although he understands that law shapes culture, it is ultimately culture that wins.

I haven't said otherwise. It is you seem to think that I think or say otherwise.

Law is a moral teacher. It shapes culture. But as I said in the my FIRST POST, culture shapes law, too.

And, what I'm saying is that the laws on abortion were changed WITHOUT first changing the culture, at least not anywhere as dramatically as Roe would suggest.

THIS is why 40 years later, more folks identify as pro-life than in the years immediately following Roe, and most folks are, whether they know it or not, more pro-life than pro-abort. Because the underlying culture had never shifted to support the change in law, which was, after all, not achieved democratically, but rather by nine black-robed tyrants, for the very reason that the pro-aborts realized they couldn't accomplish their goals widely through the democratic process.

And thus, law, again, shapes culture, as many more folks are accepting of legal abortion than before Roe, but culture will eventually re-shape the law, as the move toward a legal regime that protects life becomes inexorably more appealing to most folks.

Stop creating this dichotomy between which shapes which, and then attributing it to me.

Your thesis is incorrect. Abortion on demand did not become legal because the culture first changed or collapsed. Rather, abortion became legal IN SPITE of the fact that there was a real and growing cultural backlash against the attempts to make abortion widely legal, and this was done through judicial tyranny, NOT through legislative processes.

sitetest