We all really need to exercise some patience, in the sexual area. None of this is simple. Sex sins, of course, are universally regarded as the “juiciest” of sins, entitled to the most attention.
Why? Because we all secretly want sex, deep in our fleshly hearts?
In giving sex sins this kind of “special treatment,” however, we are in a sense, compounding sin with sin, because we are throwing a kind of “condemn-sex-sin sex party.”
Complex social dynamics including a hundred other varieties of human sin compete with sex mores, in our society, by making it advisable to engage in sexual sin.
Some of the simpler, more fundamental, Bible-pounding folks, here, won’t like the way I talk, here.
Deep in their secretly-lustful and hypocritically-regulatory hearts they will think, “THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! HE’S SO COMPLEX! HOW DARE HE CONFUSE THE READERS, HERE, WITH HIS INFERNALLY COMPLEX ANALYSIS OF SEX SINS!!!” and then they will throw of the adulterous woman into the pit and ask Christ to please stone her.
But, as Christ knew, with love, it is not that simple.
It’s not that simple.
Here’s how complex it is…
Our Church historically nastily condemns sex sins.
But what do we see?
We see a hefty percentage of our priests – between 6% and 8%, depending on who you believe and depending on how much you extrapolate the numbers – “doing it” to mostly post-pubescent young men (because the wrongdoers are homosexuals, not pedophiles).
Devout Catholics who are shattered by talk of this phenomenon immediately start talking about the good priests who don’t do it.
But when they do so, they ignore the fact that for a good half-century our bishops – probably the vast majority of them – not only ignored the problem, but they enabled it by sending the wolves to new unwary flocks, with recommendations.
In other words, the Church hierarchy functionally supported the misbehaving 6% to 8%.
They continued to do so, probably out of habit, even as the lawsuits kicked-in.
The lawsuits and the behavior they punished have caused the American church to lose about $1,000,000,000.00 in assets in the last 30 years.
Worse, the lawsuits and the behavior they punished have alienated the current younger generation from the Church.
It’s such a mess. It’s such a mess.
Here’s another sex-related Church problem.
Just about every parish in the nation has a pro-life fund in their budget.
But is it more complex than that? Are our parishes heroes for trying to save infant murder victims?
Years ago, I revisited the Church of the parish I grew up in. It was a Saturday, so I went to confession. Two priests were hearing confession. One line had about 5 people, the other line was empty. An old friend of mine was in the line for the one priest. I stood behind my friend and shook his hand warmly and said, “John, Father So-and-so, over there, is a nice guy! Why is no one in line for his confessional?” John laughed and said, “Oh, this is the ‘birth control line.’ The pastor regularly forgives regular uses of birth control, so the birth control users come here. Father So-and-so, over there, declares the sin ‘retained’ if you keep coming back and confessing birth control use.”
And then it dawned on me that the “forgiving priest” was regularly giving communion on Sunday to parishioners who he knew were not being true to the final pledge in their Act of Contrition – “I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to sin no more and to avoid near occasions of sin.”
And then it dawned on me that this is true across the United States.
A federally-financed study verified, I think about 5 years ago, that about 70% of Catholics regularly attending Mass and receiving Communion make regular use of artificial birth control in their marital sexual activities.
Two studies, that I am aware of, confirmed that mass use of abortion follows mass use of birth contril – the precise opposite of what is widely assumed.
Why should this be? Simple: Mass use of birth control generates its own social ethos of entitlement to “risk-free nookie.” When birth control fails, the social ethos is disappointed and abortion becomes the back-stop.
So, the real key to wiping-out abortion is to wipe-out use of artificial contraceptives.
Now, note: Our parishes don’t have an “anti-contraception” component to their budget. Just a “pro-life” component.
In other words, by quietly tolerating use of contraceptives, the Church tolerates the creation of the pro-abortion social ethos generated by contraceptive use.
And then it opposes abortion with the pro-life budgets.
Window dressing?
Our Diocese, about 10 years ago, actually experimented with trying to address this contradiction, specifically, with an event nicknamed “Contraception Sunday.”
The bishop carefully specifically ordered every parish priest, on a particular Sunday, to talk about use of contraception in their homily.
One-third of the priests, in raw terror, simply disobeyed.
When the other two-thirds obeyed, hundreds of people got up and walked out of Sunday Mass during the homily.
Thousands of black-heartedly-nasty letters were addressed to the bishop.
“Contraception Sunday” was never repeated.
So, the bottom line seems to be that, to keep from going bankrupt, the church is “soft on” a sex-related sin, artificial birth control, thus contributing to the “risk-free nookie” sexual ethos which causes the enormous demand for abortion.
And then, the more pious folks here pound on the head those seeking to find their way through the “Sexual Jungle” with advice like, “Of course, living with your girlfriend is to flirt with mortal sin,” and such.
Listen folks, it’s a jungle, out there. Be patient with those trying to find their way though it.
you people are something.this man is asking a question,he telling you he’s not having sex.and you don’t believe him.he would had been better off telling you he was having sex,then you would have given him an answer.
