We all heard Pope Leo a few weeks back say he's not going to obsess about some minor issue like sexual sins because there are bigger fish to fry in the world. That's like standing in Europe in 1944 and saying armed conflicts are not the big issue right now. The death and suffering toll of the sexual revolution almost boggles the mind, if one is willing to step back and honestly assess what we've seen. More than that, Pope Leo's statement seems in reaction to a popular narrative - a false caricature - that Christians ever and only care about sins below the waistline and not much else.
One of my professors said that he was having dinner with Dr. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During their talk, Dr. Mohler expressed frustration that the only time CNN or other news outlets wanted to talk to him was about sexual issues like the Lewinski scandal or homosexual marriage. As a brilliant theologian and scholar in his own right, Dr. Mohler happily would have spoken to other, larger issues. But no, not for the press. They wanted sex or move on to someone else.
Which is why I always chafe at the mendacity of so much modern progressive activism and its media talking points. Who is it that only wants to talk about sex? It's an age old pop culture stereotype that it's only those fundamentalist Christian puritan types obsessed with sex. Which is laughable, as one need only look at pop culture to see who obsesses about sex above almost anything else including food and oxygen.
Nonetheless, it's standard liberal tactics 101. For example, kick down doors, leap through windows, shove gay everything in our faces, demand conformity, plaster gay everywhere, make every social function an outlet for advancing gay anything, and the second someone says 'But I sort of disagree', the liberal activist feigns indignation over the individual obsessing about homosexuality.
So when I see a Where Peter Is headline that sexuality is not the only moral issue, I have to agree and happily report that no Christian I've met in the three major traditions - Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox - would disagree. They never say that. Ever. Oh, it might be a constant point of discussion, but only because of the 24/7 saturation of the topic in our modern world.
Nonetheless, what this misrepresentation does is twofold. For the secular, godless Sodom and Gomorrah era activists, it's a way of shutting down opposition by shaming people into thinking the real problem is thinking about sex when the only thing we're told to think about is sex (unless it's racism).
The other boon of this falsehood is that it allows an out for those Christians who don't want to get within a mile of calling out our modern secular leftwing orgy of debauchery and narcissism (ahem, Pope Leo). You see, all people ever want to do is talk about sex, so I'm boldly going to go a different direction that won't put me in the crosshairs of modernity. And this isn't some assumption of malice or ulterior motives on my part. It comes from watching and listening these last many decades of my Christian experience.
Oh, and just one more thing. Before people say that sexual sin, as catastrophic as it can be, is still rooted in deeper, spiritual problems and eternal considerations, let me say I fully agree. The problem is, those who rush out and say 'it's about more than sex' almost never go there either. Instead, it's off to this or that socio-political problem or policy issue that aligns strangely enough with the side that has used sex to entice followers for generations to begin with. Irony alert.
(Tom New Poster)
ReplyDeleteSex is the way we share in God's great power of bringing new life into the world. Thus, the Devil hates it (because he has no such power) and hates Woman especially. Does anyone notice that the first imperative God addresses to Adam and Eve is: "Be fruitful and multiply"? Does anyone care to notice the times He drops the hammer on sexual sin in the Torah: Cities of the Plain (homosexual vice), Her and Onan (contraception), rape (the men of Sichem and later Gabaa of Benjamin), or that two of the Ten Commandments and four of the Mount Ebal curses refer to sexual sin? Does anyone notice that breaking faith with God is compared again and again to adultery (and not, say, pickpocketing)? St. Paul's list in Romans and 1 Corinthians are well known (and by the Left disdained).
Sounds to me like God means business on this point.
As I said, there is no argument from me that the issue of sexual sin is, with all due respect to Pope Leo, a major issue. The point is, it's hardly the only issue (all matters of eternity are important), but often the only one the world cares about. And certainly the modern world's main obsession. Much like some of the pagan societies of old. I'm sure there are Christians who go beyond merely responding to modernity's sex obsession to the exclusion of other issues. Though the ones who do would likely never downplay the overall importance of more eternal issues. The problem is when the stereotype that Christians care abouts sex and nothing more is then used to ignore the manifold problems that have arisen from our modern sex obsession.
DeleteIn all the hypothetical scenarios people tend to construct to make arguments like in the article linked above (man in hospital wondering how to pay for treatment, family wondering how to pay for rent/food...), they tend to characterize the hypothetical destitute as a completely innocent victim of circumstances. In reality, however, most *actual* situations could easily be a different story if the main characters had made different (often sexual) life choices. Having children out of wedlock, divorces and remarriages, drug addiction, etc... all these contribute to impoverished situations and in 95% of instances, the person's own agency put themself in a difficult situation. Also, the solution always presented is "vote D" so that the government can take care of more people, with no acknowledgement of fraud. I joke at times with my husband we should get civilly divorced and I could get a ton of money on the government dole as a "single mom."
ReplyDeleteI think that is a more reasonable observation. Too often conservatives swipe away financial hardships as something virtually everyone deserves for not being, well, perfect, hard working, and ambitious. Which isn't true. What is true, however, is what you point out, that often times the baseline economic problems we face today can be traced to things like that - out of wedlock children, drugs, rampant divorce culture and such. All of those impact the social and economic wellbeing of the country, and usually in a negative way. I would like to see more conservatives call those things out when looking at the problems hindering finances in so many households. Not that these always lead to ruin, or not that nobody who struggles does so for lack of ambition. But we know the problems with these modern life choices that are endorsed by our society, and speaking more openly about them could only help.
Delete"Too often conservatives swipe away financial hardships as something virtually everyone deserves for not being, well, perfect, hard working, and ambitious."
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You're attributing to 'conservatives' a viewpoint that Ayn Rand might have wished to qualify.
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People vary in their earning power and what positions are open to one will always depend to a degree on the ambient skill level. What public policy might do in response to this is work to make the labor market well-lubricated, socialize the costs of certain goods and services, and institute income transfer programs. Leftoids are opposed to the first of these and have no limiting principle to regulate the scope or intensity of the latter two sorts of measures. (Which can be vulnerable to perverse incentives). However much is being spent, the answer is always MOAR. However lax are the eligibility requirements, the answer is always MOAR. (Usually justified by cherry-picking a niche population whose 'plight' they wish to publicize).
I'm noting a growing number of conservatives and commentators basically distilling the struggles people are having with somehow those people being the problem. Especially poor Gen-Zers, who are frequently dismissed as a bunch of whiny ne'-er do wells, instead of considering that they might have some legitimate gripes.
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