It is not our passions that are like God but rather our Rational Soul as is said by St. Thomas and other Theologians. The oughtness of things must be determined completely apart from subjective experience but rather in the confines of objective principles. Ethical judgment cannot be done from the subjective but only from the objective.
I have a need to respond to this idea, although it is at this point only very obliquely related to the main subject of the thread. The great Christian writer Tertullian stated that our emotions are indeed created in the image of the divine. He says that humans have, “the same emotions and sensations as God, although they are not of the same kind; differing as they do both in their conditions and their issues according to their nature… for we indeed do not possess them in perfection, because it is God alone who is perfect.”
Theologians and even saints often have differing opinions, but I think that our Catechism backs up the above idea in paragraph 1769 which states, “In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.”
I am, however, in complete agreement with you insofar that as an emotional reaction alone is not just cause for adopting a certain moral stance.
Now, moving on to the subject at hand…
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the only disagreement we have left is whether or not we as Christians contribute to scandal by either hosting or attending a baby shower for an unwed mother. Or in other words, are Christians likely to lead others into sin by attending such an event?
I think we are all in agreement on the following:
- We should not commit a scandalous act (leading others into sin by making a particular sin seem ok to do).
- It is charitable to give (time, things, compassion) to the needy, regardless of the state of their souls.
Despite what I view to be several miscommunications on this thread, I think we’re all pretty much in agreement regarding theology and the Catholic understanding of love. We have some disagreement regarding how one can best show love, but that’s not at the heart of this thread.
So how are we to determine whether or not we lead others into sin by attending the shower of an unwed mother? The most anybody has offered so far is mere speculation on what the motives of teen girls are when they fornicate, and more importantly when they purposefully conceive a child out of wedlock.
I was reading an interesting report from Great Britain regarding unwed mothers who
purposefully conceived. Among other things, this report listed the reasons these young women gave for their choice to become unwed, teen mothers. All of the women listed one or more of the following:
- Wants to escape her home life
- Wants a loving family of her own
- Wants to have a purpose for her life
- Desires to prove she is capable of doing something independently (raising a child)
- Loves taking care of babies
- Wants to get childbearing over with when she’s still young
~(Cater and Coleman. “‘Planned’ teenage pregnancy: Perspectives of young parents from disadvantaged backgrounds”)
None of the young women named “the desire to have a baby shower” as a reason for conceiving.
If I understand you correctly, you are fine with giving gifts to the unwed mother, being kind and charitable toward the unwed mother, and going to a party that celebrates the child in some way (i.e. a birth date or Baptism party). So given all that, it seems rather illogical to conclude that–although gifts, compassion, and parties are neither sinful nor scandalous–to combine them in the form of a baby shower would be scandalous.
