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March, 1994 - Volume 1, Number 3
York Township, IL. Mar. 15, 1994 Since I've gotten a few comments
on last month's issue, I thought it would be appropriate to open
up a "Letters to the Editor" column. You'll find it
in the editorial section (yea, I know, the whole ...excellence
not deleted... thing is an editorial column, but then...).
Susan, from Crete, IL, says I should mention that violence in
the pro-life life movement is wrong. I agree. They would do better
to raise their hands in prayer, than in shooting doctors, or in
finding out the patients names and numbers from their license
plates and calling them at home to charge them with murder. Aside
from the fact that an abortion is often traumatic on the woman
receiving it, and she needs love rather than condemnation at that
critical point, they certainly win no support from the women that
they call who merely went in for a routine Gynecological visit,
or, worse yet, from a woman who is in miscarriage.
Cate from VIlla Park says that I need to stop making assumptive
statements without backing them up with references to source material,
or without having any source material. Well Cate, I somewhat agree,
so here is a somewhat bibliography to the February issue:
- The God Who Is There, by Francis A. Schaeffer, ©1968
L'Abri Fellowship, Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove.
IL
(how about this for a controversial title?)
- Liberalism Is A Sin, by Fr. Felix Sarda Y Salvany
(Spanish in 1886), Translated by Conde B. Pallen, Ph.D., LL.D.
(English in 1899), Adapted for modern readers (revised statistics)
by Thomas A. Nelson, Published by TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford
IL
- On Humane Vitae, (Don't remember who the author
is, and I didn't read it, but I listened to her comments in an
interview on TV.)
As for making assumptive statements without sources, as editor,
I claim the right to make statements that in my assessment are
philosophically sound without having to clutter the column with
the proofs leading up to them.
George from Hindsdale says "Just don't forget? Cause and
effect, cause and effect." Very good! That's exactly what
I was trying to get at when I mentioned Kierkegaard. He is widely
considered the "Father of modern thinking", and his
major contribution was to say that, rather than cause and effect
being reasonable from thesis and antithesis, instead there was
a synthesis from a thesis that required a "leap of faith"
(because this synthesis could not be arrived at by reason). Although
not practical in everyday life - such as setting a proper price
for your goods based on something other than supply and demand
or punching someone in the nose without fear of retaliation -
it did allow Philosophy and Theology to develop new forms that
denied any reliance on an absolute truth. Which (ironically by
cause and effect) has led to a new definition of truth as anybodys'
own private synthesis, which must therefore be "respected"
rather than challenged on the basis of thesis/antithesis, since
it cannot be arrived at except by a leap of faith. See how long
I went on? That's why I would prefer to not clutter the column
with these obvious statements.
2
Mary, from Chicago, wrote a beautiful letter, which I will reply
to separately, however, one source that she recommended does bear
some comment. The book is Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven,
by Uta Ranke-Heinemann, and is subtitled "Women, Sexuality,
and the Catholic Church". According to the New York Times,
this is "The book that accuses the Roman Catholic Church
of degrading women and undermining the sexuality of believers."
Yes, it certainly does accuse it, but it cannot hope to prove
it, because proof is impossible when you misinterpret the teachings
of the church in the first place.
The tone is set in the first paragraph of the introduction, where
the author, talking about a court decision, informs us that the
court "decided, in the name of the people, that Jesus was
a thoroughly 'lust-free', i.e., joyless Redeemer" (The equation
of lust-free and joyless is her opinion, not the court's). This
opening shows how little the author knows about joy, and the book's
many assumptions about what is good and bad in general, point
to a total misconception on the author's part about the mission
of the Church. And yet we are told that she is not only scholarly,
but a Catholic theologian. She attacks the Roman Rite's discipline
of priestly celibacy, and the doctrine of the virgin birth as
evidence of the Catholic Church's scorn of human sexuality, and
goes on to use prominent protestant theologians to support her
stand. If she wishes to profess a non-catholic faith, then she
should do so; but to continue using the affirmation of "Catholic"
demonstrates that she does not believe in the principles of that
word.
In dealing with celibacy, p. 32-33, she (or the translator) paraphrases
the relevant verse from the Gospel of Matthew (19:12): "and
he (Jesus) adds that there is a self-castration for the sake of
the kingdom of heaven.". She then states that this is "naturally
to be understood metaphorically", and that the word "for"
grammatically connects it with the discussion of divorce in the
preceding verses. I'm sorry, but rules of grammar dictate that
conjunctions such as "for", "but" and "and"
are used to connect two adjacent phrases, preferably in the same
sentence. Why does she expect that we should see this connection
to the previous verses, when in fact Jesus was, as usual, answering
far more than their question called for? The New Jerusalem Bible
puts the verse this way: "'There are eunuchs born so from
their mother's womb, there are eunuchs made so by human agency
and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake
of the kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.'"
Although the heart of the quotation is paraphrased, she is close
enough to it in the very title of her book, so why does she obscure
it here?
Perhaps I should have turned to the back cover first. There, in
prominence is the anti-endorsement meant to sell as many copies
as possible: "The book condemned by New York's Cardinal O'Connor...".
If I had, I could have saved myself the trouble of reading as
much as I did. I prefer the teachings of Cardinal O'Connor to
that of those who protest the Church's right (indeed it's duty)
to call us to holiness over worldliness in matters of faith and
morals, or of those who condemn the Church for not accepting the
"obviousness of modern thought" (whose leaps of faith
are prompted by who knows what spirits), over the promptings of
the Holy Spirit.
Yes, there have been many instances of chicanery in the Church's
history, and many a religious (even Popes) who led a much "less
than exemplary" life, but it is one of my personal proofs
of the Church's legitimacy, that in spite of these, never once
has a Pope had to retract a teaching of one of his predecessors
on a matter of faith or morals. There are those who will ask now
why the Church used to say that eating meat on Friday was a mortal
sin, but now says it's permissible. This is neither of faith nor
of morals, but a matter of discipline, and the Church can and
does enact and retract disciplines as the Spirit moves it. (Whatever
you bind...whatever you loose...). These disciplines are for our
own good, and if we accept them in a spirit of faith and humility,
they will draw us closer to God.
So great, now I'm doing book reviews! What's next? I'll close
this commentary with a note about the rules of the Catholic Church.
The intention of these rules is to make people saints, and if
you don't understand what a saint is, you'll never be capable
of giving the rules a fair hearing. His kingdom is not of this
world! But the rules will help us to be happy in this one (even
if the joy involved is lust-free). You see, Jesus called us to
a number of levels of holiness. The three basic ones are: a) basic
by rote obedience - Keep the commandments if you want to gain
eternal life {cf: Mt 19:17}, b) proactive obedience - "If
you love Me, keep My commandments" - where God asks us to
not only avoid killing our neighbor, but to have concern for his
health and safety. e.g. "Blessed are the peace makers",
and c) total abandonment - "If you would be perfect, sell
all you have, give the money to the poor...and then come, follow
Me." {Mt 19:21} As you can see, it gets progressively more
difficult if we're too attached to the rewards of this life, yet,
ironically, more rewarding in this life and the next. {cf: Jn
15:9-12}
I am sorry, but I don't seem to have enough space left to do any
justice to the topic of Science in the age of rationalism. We'll
try again next issue. In the mean time, would anyone like to venture
a guess as to the statistical probability that life, even DNA
itself, could have just started on it's own? Now, can anyone try
to apply Maxwell's second law of thermodynamics to the concept
of old (entropic) life giving way to new (ordered) life? What
can we learn about eternity from Einstein's general theory of
relativity?
As always, Toes' Newsletter is published monthly (maybe) and the
publisher wishes to state that opinions expressed herein are not
only his own, but sometimes borrowed. Next month's topic: Science
in the age of Rationalism (maybe). My love to all of you, and
may God bless you, your families and those you hold dear.
First class postage paid at Villa Park, or where ever a mailbox
is handy at the time.
March, 1994 Toes' Newsletter Page 2
©1994, James A. Croteau - e-mail:
jim.croteau@sbcglobal.net
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