Resenting Chastity

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Resenting Chastity by Edward P. Sri
Virtue is not something simply lacking in the modern world. It is something many in the modern world actually resent.

That’s a point that John Paul II — then Karol Wojtyla — makes when beginning his teaching on chastity in his book Love and Responsibility.

Why is virtue resented by many people today? First, living the virtuous life is not easy. It requires a lot of effort, practice, and self-denial. We are constantly battling against our fallen, selfish human nature. This side of the Garden of Eden, it is a lot easier to give in to our emotions and desires than it is to control them. For example, it is easier to indulge our appetite than it is to eat with moderation. It is easier to loose our temper when things don’t go our way than it is to moderate our anger. It is easier to give in to discouragement and complaining than it is to joyfully endure our trials with courage.
– Mark L. Chance.
 
The serpent tempted Eve and Adam because having chosen evil and rejected God, and taking a crew of angels with him in his voluntary descent into hell, Satan forever after must bring as many souls as possible to him in order to validate his own choice. the foundation of all his temptations is “you are right to choose this evil and everybody who rejects this evil is wrong. you are smarter, wiser, savvier, better informed, less ignorant, hipper, higher status, higher achieving, better looking, and cooler than anyone, especially the ignorant sap who makes the opposite choice and stays with God.”

Psychology calls it cognitive dissonance, the need to bring everyone and every circumstance who disagrees with a choice we have made into alignment with that choice, and to constantly seek affirmation and validation of that choice.
 
I would just like to say that chastity is a wonderful thing. When talking to people about chastity it is good to have the statistics about divorce rate, and relationships when people aren’t chaste. In society today everyone is about what feels good rather than what is truly good. Take it from someone who knows what it is like to be atheist, everyone is trying to fill a void that can’t be filled, except by God. Many people can’t figure that out, because they are either not living their faith out the way they should be, or they are science based rather than faith based. If people truly lived their faith, less people would be atheist, because they would see what comes from faith.
 
My experience has been that people who ridicule you for virtuous or chaste behavior are quite sure that they could not act in the same manner and therefore feel insecure about their rightousness. Others who show admiration for virtuous or chaste behavior are the realists. They are the ones that can say, “Wow, I think that is great that you can remain virtuous, I don’t think I could,” or they say, “That is wonderful, I am happy for you” These are secure people who are not trying to make themselves feel better about their choices by ridiculing your choices. I actually ran into this when people found out that I did not believe in pre or extra marital sex before my husband and I got married. Not that this was anybody’s business, but at times it did come up. For example, my boss inquired about how I put my back out, thinking he was being humorous he quipped, “Too much rough sex?” I guess the shocked and confused look really through him, I know it threw me. Without thinking I answered, “No, I’m not married” Hmmm, apparently it never occured to me at that moment that anyone would even assume such a thing of a single person. Another time, a co-worker made some comment about sex and inferred that my fiancee had his hands full with me. I just answered, “we’ll see” OMG you could have heard a pin drop in that office. Finally someone had the courage to ask if I could possibly mean to say that my fiancee and I did not have sex. I told them that I expect that if I am teaching my children (teens from a previous marriage) that pre marital sex is wrong, I had better set the example for them to follow. Wow, were they shocked! Some showed distain, as if to say, “how stupid, I would never make that choice” yet others were very supportive, including some of our young singles. I found it interesting the different responses I got.
 
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