Moral Truth: Usually Hard, Always Right
It often seems that taking the morally correct choice often demands a considerable amount of moral courage and a considerable bit of moral strength. I suppose that this is because we live east of Eden. Living outside of the Garden, we are not only faced with our own concupiscent desires, we are also pressured, cajoled, threatened, persecuted, even killed by those who seem to require our assent to their submission to their concupiscent desires.
Sometimes the assaults come from those who bring with them science and common sense to support their ideological agendas of making the world free from those who would oppose libertine orthodoxy. One such example is the assault by many, some well meaning ”most not, against the Church for Her stand against using condoms for any purpose, even to stop the spread of AIDS. The canards that have been slung are astounding, including those critics who try to place the AIDS epidemic at the feet of John Paul the Great. There are many unstated and unproved presuppositions which go with these criticisms proceeding from the presumptuous to the absurd. For example, many assume that condoms are effective, theoretically and practically, in stopping the spread of AIDS. Zenit published an article over the weekend which shows that those who make this assumption do so without data to support their view. In fact, the data points in the exact opposite direction. The rates of AIDS infection in African countries which push condom use ranges from 37-43%. However, in Uganda which pushes abstinence only and has the highest percentage of Catholics, is down near 4%.
So much for ideological ignorance. As for the absurd, is one actually supposed to believe that Catholics, or anyone else, will listen to the Church’s opposition to condoms and so not use them when they would disregard Her teaching against sex out of wedlock”the primary cause in spreading of the AIDS epidemic? As it turns out with a host of other issues, including embryonic stem cells, the morally correct choice is also the best”even more, it usually seems to be the most pragmatically correct choice as well.
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Well, I can’t argue with you on the AIDS stuff you referred to in your post - that’s completely true and people who make the claim that sex + condoms is better than abstinence for stopping the spread of HIV is not really thinking about how the disease is spread in the first place.
As for the rest? Well, I will say that it is a bit presumptuous to assert that the Church is “Always Right,” but I will say that to believe otherwise would mean that you lack faith, right? So, I sort of can’t argue with you there either: paramount to having a strong faith would seem to (logically) mean that you really have to start with the proposition that the Church is “Always right” on moral issues.
Since so rarely the Church supports the assertions on moral issues with hard evidence besides the encyclicals, the Bible, or other internal standards, this is really an important value to have. Indeed, it does take a lot of balls to stand up for the Church and your faith, but I guess that is what is demanded of us by our Church and that is part of “having faith.” I don’t think it would be so strong if it were easy.
Comment by wondertwin — September 27, 2005 @ 9:52 am
If the individual teachings of The Church are seen as an end unto itself, it doesn’t make sense to many people. Kind of like a piece to a puzzle, if one focuses only on the individual pieces and does not have the big picure to follow as a guide, you are left to your own imagination on what you think the picture should be. I hope this make’s sense.
Comment by xyz — September 27, 2005 @ 6:03 pm
Condoms appear to be the answer for so many sexual issues today. It is a quick fix for complex issue.
Comment by Anonymous — September 27, 2005 @ 8:14 pm
Condoms appear to be the answer for so many sexual issues today. It is a quick fix for complex issue.
Do you mean to emphasize “appear”?
Comment by David — September 27, 2005 @ 10:00 pm