Expecting a response like Eduardo’s, I almost didn’t include in my post the reflections on the complicated family situations of the two young men. Yes, at first blush and without being snarky, the reaction is maybe those creating the complicated family situations should have used birth control. But, at second blush, maybe the answer is that they should have exercised self-control.
Here are the questions. Has widespread acceptance of birth control contributed to a general lowering of moral standards in society as Paul VI predicted? Has it contributed to a rise in infidelity? Has it contributed to a lessening of respect for women by men? We might rephrase this last one: Has it contributed to an objectification of persons, both men and women? If the answer is “yes” to any or all of these questions, then might it be conceded that possibly, just possibly, the Church has an insight into the human condition that has been overlooked by much of the rest of society, including many within the fold?
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I’m not sure that looking to Europe undermines the modest connection I attempted to make between human development and contraceptive use. First, I think it is way too early to tell whether Europe’s social safety net (human development) is sustainable given a declining and culturally changing population. (As an aside for another day, I am not sure why the phrase "demographic suicide" has “some extremely unfortunate eugenecist overtones.”). Second, although it appears that Europe has been more successful – maybe too successful for its own long-term good – in avoiding the “risk” of pregnancy in an era of sexual revolution than the United States, what is point to be drawn from this fact?
Can’t we concede that a sexually and relationally “liberated” society with high divorce rates, high rates of children born out of wedlock, high rates of personal and material absenteeism by fathers, is bad for human development? Aren’t these conditions related to a general atmosphere of self-indulgence predicted by Paul VI? And, isn’t it possible that the widespread acceptance of artificial birth control with its illusion of giving us control over sexual lives has contributed to this atmosphere of self-indulgent autonomy where a 21 year old fathers three children by at least two women and a 17 year old has six siblings with four different last names?
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Eduardo concludes his post with this: “I think I'd be willing to accept our president's current policy of official hostility to contraception (e.g., abstinence-only sex education, etc.) if the trade-off were a serious governmental commitment to human development among the poorest Americans. Unfortunately, that deal has never been on the table, at least not during my lifetime.”
In friendship, I offer two critiques of this statement. First, if widespread acceptance of contraception is problematic, then why not embrace “abstinence-only sex education, etc.” regardless of what other people are doing or whether the government is serious about human development? In other words, if “abstinence-only sex education, etc.” is a social good why condition acceptance of it on a trade for some other good? Second, I want to note the state-centric nature of Eduardo’s concluding lines. Whether or not the state is involved in the contraception business or abstinence business, we as individuals, professors, Catholics, spouses, parents, members of various communities, can acknowledge that today’s hook-up culture made possible by wide-spread acceptance of contraceptives is not healthy for many reasons. Can’t we?
Maybe I am naïve about this, but there shouldn’t be a left/right, liberal/conservative divide here. We ought to be able to take a common sense look at society and acknowledge that Paul VI had some important insights into what would happen to a society that artificially uncoupled sex from the possibility of procreation.
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza reviews society through the lens of "The Dark Knight." In the middle of his column, he says: "The fight between Batman and the Joker is not a fight between good and evil, but about something more fundamental than that: the question of whether good and evil exist at all. Is there order, including moral order, or chaos?"
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, Eduardo posted the disturbing results on Human Development in the U.S. The authors of the report stated: “The report shows that although America is one of the richest nations in the world, it is woefully behind when it comes to providing opportunity and choices to all Americans to build a better life.”
There are many contributing factors, I suspect, to a person’s or a group’s lack of thriving. One cause, predicted by Pope Paul VI forty years ago last week (Michael P., Rick, and Fr. Araujo have each posted on this anniversary), is the widespread acceptance and use of contraceptives. Mary Eberstadt lays this out in her article, “The Vindication of Humanae Vitae, in the September 2008 First Things.
Paul VI warned that widespread acceptance of artificial contraception would result in four trends, as Eberstadt reminds us: “a general lowering of moral standards throughout society, a rise in infidelity, a lessening of respect for women by men, and the coercive use of reproductive technologies by governments.”
Eberstadt writes: “Four decades later, not only have the document’s signature predictions been ratified in empirical force, but they have been ratified as few predictions are: in ways its authors could not possibly have foreseen, including by information that did not exist when the document was written, by scholars and others with no interest whatever in [the Church’s] teaching, and indeed by many proud public adversaries of the Church.” She then lays out the evidence, which I encourage you to read here for free.
The other day, I read the obituaries of a 21 year old male with three children bearing two different last names and an unrelated 17 year old with six siblings carrying four different last names. (May they rest in peace). As I read, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a connection between the lack of human development (flourishing), the predictions of Paul VI concerning the widespread acceptence of contraceptives, and the complicated family situations of so many people, including these two young people.
I have returned relaxed from my annual BARF weekend on the Frio River in the Texas Hill Country. I am blessed with the friendship of these ten wonderful guys, our wives (the wives congregate on the Frio in September for their own weekend), and our combined 34 children (our children now plan an annual trip to the beach). Over the past quarter of a century plus that our lives have intertwined we have experienced marriages – at first our own and now the kids, births, baptisms and other sacraments, a divorce, physical and mental illness, sickness and death among many of our parents and some of our siblings, semi-annual camping trips when the kids were young (imagine 30 kids, many in diapers experiencing the great outdoors), multiple fights followed by multiple reconciliations… You get the picture. We have shared the highs and lows of life during our entire adult lives. I am never sufficiently grateful for the gift of these friendships.
Texas Monthly’s August 2008 issue hit the newsstand just as we were departing for our annual excursion. Charlie Llewellin’s cover story scoped out the 25 Best Swimming Holes in the State Republic of Texas. Three of us took seven hours to make the three hour trip from Austin to Leakey as we sampled five of the top twenty-five. The group tried another two over the weekend, and we hit one more on the way back to Austin yesterday. As expected, Austin’s Barton Springs ranks numero uno, But, our number one is a secret spot (shown in this photo of yours truly - click on picture to enlarge) within a few miles of Texas Monthly's No. 6.
Oh, and by the way, BARF stands for Boys Assembled for Reflection on the Frio. Thanks for indulging me with the post that is light on "legal" and "theory."
