I did something morally questionable!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Delphinus85
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Delphinus85

Guest
So after work today, I headed to my gym to get a quick workout in before a weekly bible study I attend. I pulled a magazine off the rack and hit the cardio machine (mind you this is not a magazine I bought, but rather it belonged to the gym, this is why I state this as morally questionable). I was a good 10 minutes into a good run and I came across an article about a woman with a troubled pregnancy. Intrigued, I read on. It was about how her water broke at 22 weeks (or something like that) and she was taken to this hospital. This was a planned pregnancy after a miscarriage. She was worried. Then she pours out this horror story of mourning the possible death of her baby girl, so (and this is a stroke of pure SICK logic) she decides to have it killed and ripped out of her womb (partial birth abortion). She wrotes how the term partial birth abortion is a judgemental and misleading term, and how it was her right to decide to kill her child for sure rather than to take a chance on life (with no harm to her by the way). I didn’t read on when she started talking about those judgemental anti-abortionists. I put the magazine down, finished my cardio, took that magazine ripped out those 3 pages and flushed it down the toilet to join the rest of the **** where it belongs.

I was SO MAD. Of course, all of this is a whole 2 days after i heard yet another radio station hammering out ads for Planned Parenthood. Is anyone else getting frustrated about this? Does anyone else feel like something is so horrendously wrong witht he world that a child can be killed by the one person who is supposed to love it more than life itself? I don’t get it!I’ve heard planned parenthood ads on more than 3 radio stations, and now these stories are popping up in major women’s magazines. I am just so upset I could scream.

About the magazine, I do feel guilty for destroying their property. Should I pay for it and just try to get the whole magazine out of that gym?
 
I don’t know…

Yes, destroying the gym’s property was wrong. But sometimes those magazines aren’t even their, people leave them (I know I have) after their workouts.

I don’t know what to tell you.
 
Bring an issue of This Rock and leave it there in reparation.

But yeah, lots of times the gym doesn’t provide those magazines, they’re left there by other people.
 
Some magazines should be flushed down the toilet. So should some books.

You didn’t do anything wrong. You are to be commended for preventing such nonsense from being read by other, perhaps more impressionable, souls.
 
Seminarian_X said:
Some magazines should be flushed down the toilet. So should some books.

You didn’t do anything wrong. You are to be commended for preventing such nonsense from being read by other, perhaps more impressionable, souls.
Click to expand...
Honestly, that was my first thought. I like the idea of leaving a magazine in it’s place. Maybe I’ll keep my eyes open and find one with a strong pro-life article, buy it, and leave it there in the gym. Any suggestions? (probably should avoid something directly catholic, maybe some popular magazine with a prolife article)

Basically, I am just unbelievably frustrated. I dont know if it’s just where i live (VERY liberal state) or if it’s everywhere. MLK day has become a day to defend gay rights, pro-abortion articles in papers and magazines without representation of pro-life. I am hearing more and more Planned Parenthood ads on the radio asking people for money. I just…I feel like I’m stuck in a losing battle. It’s so aggrivating!
 
Seminarian_X said:
Some magazines should be flushed down the toilet. So should some books.

You didn’t do anything wrong. You are to be commended for preventing such nonsense from being read by other, perhaps more impressionable, souls.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it’s someone else’s property. Using that logic, we should go into the library and destroy all of the objectionable material in there. I know what you’re saying, but some would generalize it to that degree.
Feedmysheep said:
Bring an issue of This Rock and leave it there in reparation.

But yeah, lots of times the gym doesn’t provide those magazines, they’re left there by other people.
Click to expand...
This is a much better idea. 👍
 
Did you happen to notice if there was a subscription label on the magazine? If so, and it was the gym’s magazine, you probably should have left it alone. But if the label was cut away or blackened out, it’s safe to assume that it was dumped off by another gym member, and as such is “fair game” for whoever might find it. After all, people tear coupons and recipes out of left-behind magazines all the time. 🤷 FWIW, the only magazines at the gym where I work out are health and exercise-related; they don’t provide the typical women’s magazines, fashion magazines, entertainment/gossip rags, etc. Personally, if I had found that magazine and knew that it was not purchased by the gym, I would have “liberated” the whole thing and put it in the recycle bin.
 
In my opinion:
What you did was not theft and not immoral.

God is the first owner of all that exists in Creation. When a possession is being used in a fundamentally immoral manner, it can be taken against the owner’s will. For example, if someone owns a gun and intends to use it to commit murder, one can take away his gun and refuse to return it. This is not a theft because ownership is first to God and only second to the particular human person (or group of persons).

What you did may have been slightly illegal, but it was not immoral. That said, it was not the most prudent or wise course of action, because destroying the immoral article would not seem to result in any significant good being accomplished. There is the risk of the loss of your gym membership, which might be a greater good that the small good of destroying one copy of an acticle offensive to God.
 
Ron_Conte said:
In my opinion:
What you did was not theft and not immoral.

God is the first owner of all that exists in Creation. When a possession is being used in a fundamentally immoral manner, it can be taken against the owner’s will. For example, if someone owns a gun and intends to use it to commit murder, one can take away his gun and refuse to return it. This is not a theft because ownership is first to God and only second to the particular human person (or group of persons).

What you did may have been slightly illegal, but it was not immoral. That said, it was not the most prudent or wise course of action, because destroying the immoral article would not seem to result in any significant good being accomplished. There is the risk of the loss of your gym membership, which might be a greater good that the small good of destroying one copy of an acticle offensive to God.
Click to expand...
:confused: (If it were to be) illegal, it’s not immoral? The ownership is God’s first is shaky ground on which to make a moral argument in this situation. But a very well put (my emphasis) second paragraph! 👍
 
It sounds like you were very upset (understandable; I would have been, too) by what you read. And maybe reacted impulsively… in destroying the magazine. You didn’t set out to steal or damage the gym’s property. I think your outrage, caused by the story… was justified. I believe that our Good and Merciful Lord understood the horror and scandal, you experienced from reading it.

So… maybe you could mention the destruction of the magazine at your next confession… and explain to the priest WHY you destroyed it. And then, pray for the woman in the story (and her child). Hope this helps. God bless.
 
Thanks guys. Most of these magazines in the gym are pretty beat up with several pages and sections missing. The one I tore the pages out of already had several other pages missing as well. Doesn’t justify me, obviously, but yeah.

Just today a magazine I had, had the whole back half ripped away. Still, I don’t like breaking other people’s stuff.
 
If you feel you did something wrong, just head in to confession. Heck, it couldn’t hurt; it could only do good. When in doubt, confess!👍

In Christ,
Rand
 
Since it was a magazine it probably was no big deal. I probably would have done the same thing. If it were a more expensive item (a book or a CD or DVD), I would have hid it in a place that would have been hard to find again. (I’ve gone through bookstores and libraries and looked through the religion section and hid the “Catholic” books that misrepresented things before- it’s not stealing, but if it gets lost in circulation, there’s less of a chance an unexpecting person will find it and be misled).
 
Sounds like it was at most a venial sin.

The woman in the article is in a much worse moral position than you.
 
I do not believe you did. Destroying material that attempts to justify the murder of children and vilifies those who are opposed to such murder is justified. You are protecting people from exposure to dangerous and murderous statements. You may have even saved a life.

I like the idea of dropping off a copy of This Rock. 👍
 
Delphinus85 said:
Honestly, that was my first thought. I like the idea of leaving a magazine in it’s place. Maybe I’ll keep my eyes open and find one with a strong pro-life article, buy it, and leave it there in the gym. Any suggestions? (probably should avoid something directly catholic, maybe some popular magazine with a prolife article)

Basically, I am just unbelievably frustrated. I dont know if it’s just where i live (VERY liberal state) or if it’s everywhere. MLK day has become a day to defend gay rights, pro-abortion articles in papers and magazines without representation of pro-life. I am hearing more and more Planned Parenthood ads on the radio asking people for money. I just…I feel like I’m stuck in a losing battle. It’s so aggrivating!
Click to expand...
I personally feel that nothing wrong was done by destroying the magazine. I have never be to a gym/doctor/dentist or any place where they give out magazines to customers that wouldn’t simply let you take the magazine home if you asked them. After all you are paying for your membership there. If it is eating away at your conscience I would recommend just telling someone who works for the gym that you did throw away one of their magazines and that you are willing to replace or refund the cost of it. This will clear any thoughts of theft from your mind and I can guarantee that the gym will not make a paying customer refund ONE magazine.

As far as your frustration with the memory of MLK being perverted by abortion supporters I am completely with you on that one. Its a shame that these people ignorantly come to speak out about how Dr. King would support women’s rights while at the same time ignoring that same man’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, who shares her Uncles message and how it relates to abortion.

Excerpt from actile catholic.org/diocese/diocese_story.php?id=26554:

If her uncle had lived, King said, he would also be championing the cause of the unborn. “My uncle said, ‘The Negro cannot win if he’s willing to sacrifice his own children for immediate comfort and safety,’” King told Catholic San Francisco. “He also said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Abortion is unjust.”
 
I personally feel that nothing wrong was done by destroying the magazine. I have never be to a gym/doctor/dentist or any place where they give out magazines to customers that wouldn’t simply let you take the magazine home if you asked them. After all you are paying for your membership there. If it is eating away at your conscience I would recommend just telling someone who works for the gym that you did throw away one of their magazines and that you are willing to replace or refund the cost of it. This will clear any thoughts of theft from your mind and I can guarantee that the gym will not make a paying customer refund ONE magazine.

As far as your frustration with the memory of MLK being perverted by abortion supporters I am completely with you on that one. Its a shame that these people ignorantly come to speak out about how Dr. King would support women’s rights while at the same time ignoring that same man’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, who shares her Uncles message and how it relates to abortion.

Excerpt from actile catholic.org/diocese/dioc…php?id=26554:

If her uncle had lived, King said, he would also be championing the cause of the unborn. “My uncle said, ‘The Negro cannot win if he’s willing to sacrifice his own children for immediate comfort and safety,’” King told Catholic San Francisco. “He also said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Abortion is unjust.”
 
Will you PM me the name of the magazine this article is in? I will not give my money to a company that supports this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top