Shackled to Fertility?
Fr. Longenecker makes an interesting point here about a comment he received. This goes back to the Big Lie I keep harping on:
You believe that your ability for sexual expression is there, like a nice Christmas present, for you to play with and enjoy without boundaries, without restriction, and without judgment. The fact that you feel certain things when you experience sex with someone else outside of marriage doesn’t faze you; you presume (because you’ve bought the Big Lie) that it’s just all those darned (fill in the blank with your favorite moral authority, be it the Catholic Church, Islam, the Southern Baptist Convention, your mom, whoever) are making you feel guilty! If they would just leave you alone, cuz you aren’t hurting anyone, why, you’d be just fine!
The problem with the Big Lie is that it is so pervasive, it’s hard to see how much it spoils things for everyone. The Big Lie justifies contraception, and by extension abortion (why should I be punished with a child for playing with my toy?). The Big Lie justifies divorce, and sometimes infidelity (s/he doesn’t “do it for me” anymore. Our marriage lacks intimacy. S/he just doesn’t understand me…). The Big Lie sexualizes our children at ever younger ages. It makes our female children feel like they need to set themselves up as objects to be used, to be socially acceptable. It makes us think the misogynistic lyrics of our favorite songs are actually funny. It makes us ponder why everyone is so uptight about the human body; why y’all stressin’ ’bout pictures of naked people having sex? It’s natural!
But the Big Lie doesn’t have hold of us completely. The Big Lie doesn’t keep us from hearing that still, small voice in the quiet moments, you know, the one that questions why we put ourselves through all this, the voice that says, reeeeeally quietly, that “there must be something more than this…” And most importantly…the Big Lie can’t compete with the Truth. Christ, the Light, can and does break through. He can and does make it clear that there is more than this. And He can and does help us to understand that our fertility isn’t a shackle, it’s a cooperation in Creation with God, who loved each one of us into being through our parents!
So, yes…abortion takes upwards of 60% of Black children in the womb in New York City. Yes, on every side, there are forces coming together to try to fundamentally change society’s definitions of its most basic units, to justify lifestyles that are destructive. Yes, the Guhmint seems to have gone stone crazy in its exercise of power against those who call Christ Lord and Savior.
But (spoiler alert!) I read the book to the end. God wins!
Shackled to fertility, indeed.
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Tall, Bald, and Called 
fertility, Morality, theology of the body, TOB
Article: Shackled to Fertility? An interesting commentary
Shackled to Fertility?
Fr. Longenecker makes an interesting point here about a comment he received. This goes back to the Big Lie I keep harping on:
You believe that your ability for sexual expression is there, like a nice Christmas present, for you to play with and enjoy without boundaries, without restriction, and without judgment. The fact that you feel certain things when you experience sex with someone else outside of marriage doesn’t faze you; you presume (because you’ve bought the Big Lie) that it’s just all those darned (fill in the blank with your favorite moral authority, be it the Catholic Church, Islam, the Southern Baptist Convention, your mom, whoever) are making you feel guilty! If they would just leave you alone, cuz you aren’t hurting anyone, why, you’d be just fine!
The problem with the Big Lie is that it is so pervasive, it’s hard to see how much it spoils things for everyone. The Big Lie justifies contraception, and by extension abortion (why should I be punished with a child for playing with my toy?). The Big Lie justifies divorce, and sometimes infidelity (s/he doesn’t “do it for me” anymore. Our marriage lacks intimacy. S/he just doesn’t understand me…). The Big Lie sexualizes our children at ever younger ages. It makes our female children feel like they need to set themselves up as objects to be used, to be socially acceptable. It makes us think the misogynistic lyrics of our favorite songs are actually funny. It makes us ponder why everyone is so uptight about the human body; why y’all stressin’ ’bout pictures of naked people having sex? It’s natural!
But the Big Lie doesn’t have hold of us completely. The Big Lie doesn’t keep us from hearing that still, small voice in the quiet moments, you know, the one that questions why we put ourselves through all this, the voice that says, reeeeeally quietly, that “there must be something more than this…” And most importantly…the Big Lie can’t compete with the Truth. Christ, the Light, can and does break through. He can and does make it clear that there is more than this. And He can and does help us to understand that our fertility isn’t a shackle, it’s a cooperation in Creation with God, who loved each one of us into being through our parents!
So, yes…abortion takes upwards of 60% of Black children in the womb in New York City. Yes, on every side, there are forces coming together to try to fundamentally change society’s definitions of its most basic units, to justify lifestyles that are destructive. Yes, the Guhmint seems to have gone stone crazy in its exercise of power against those who call Christ Lord and Savior.
But (spoiler alert!) I read the book to the end. God wins!
Shackled to fertility, indeed.
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