Are we obsessed?

[Michie]

#3
10-1-13

A few passages from Pope Francis’ famous interview published in America have unsettled some people for many reasons. My reason for being unsettled is that it would not be a complete distortion to say that I have been “obsessed” with the issues of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality for nearly all of my professional life. I prefer the terms “dedicated” or “committed,” of course, but whatever word is appropriate, I have long thought that helping people understand why abortion, contraception, and homosexual acts are not in accord with God’s plans for human happiness is a very effective way of drawing people closer to the Lord and to the Church, and thus, more or less, most of my adult life, I have been evangelizing in this way.


Enough about me. Let me talk about the legions of pro-lifers who run pregnancy help centers (which outnumber abortion clinics), of those who host pro-life websites and give pro-life talks, of those who try to get pro-life politicians elected, of those who do the hard work of trying to find jobs, housing, and other kinds of support for single mothers, of those who provide healing ministries to women who have had abortions, such as Rachel Weeping. Let me talk about teachers of Natural Family Planning and the Theology of the Body and abstinence educators. Let me talk about those who work for and promote Courage, a compassionate ministry to those who experience same sex attraction and about those who against strangely strong odds make the case against same sex “marriages.” Let me talk about those who use Facebook, blogs, and comments on blogs to try to dialogue with those who reject and even despise Church teaching and those who defend it.


I know these people and most of them radiate the love for Christ and the Church that the Holy Father desires. They sacrifice their time, talent, and energy because they love Christ and those who hate Christ and those who don’t know Christ. Undoubtedly some pro-lifers and some opponents of contraception and some who crusade against the widespread acceptance of homosexuality are angry people ready to condemn others as unredeemable sinners, but I suspect they are few and far between in the US at least. Although I have seen rare postings on the internet, written by putative Christians that are very unchristian, I have not met any such individuals in “real life.”


In fact, I don’t think the Holy Father was speaking about my friends, when he states:

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context.​

My friends definitely talk about these issues “in context,” in fact in many contexts. Again, their reason for boldly and sacrificially and ardently addressing these issues is precisely because they love Christ and the Church and want others to do so. They are trying to save people, to save them from ignorance about Church teaching, to save them from serious sin, to save them from missing out on the great joys of accepting Christ as their savior and the Church as their home. And—praise God—sometimes they succeed. In fact, my own reversion to the Church was greatly facilitated by an anti-Catholic professor who patiently argued with students that truth exists. It pained him that many of his students converted to Catholicism, once they came to accept that truth exists, and even moral truths that require most students to change their behavior radically.

Are we obsessed?

 

[MKJ]

Yes.

There is something really funny about all of these articles in blogs by people that conclude the Pope really could not be talking about them.

Of course, he means someone else.

Two points:

The author said:

I have long thought that helping people understand why abortion, contraception, and homosexual acts are not in accord with God’s plans for human happiness is a very effective way of drawing people closer to the Lord and to the Church, and thus, more or less, most of my adult life, I have been evangelizing in this way.

This is part of the problem. In many cases, talking about these things does not bring people closer to the Lord and the Church. I think this is a pretty basic - and i would even like to say obvious - part of what the Pope has been saying. These are more advanced teachings, not what you start with. And in many cases, they make no sense at all to the unchurched because the underlying assumptions about life are different.

There was one quote in the comments I thought was very to the point. It was a response to the paragraph where the author said that asking people to stop obsessing about abortion and SSM was like asking them to stop obsessing about slavery when there was still slavery.

I hope it is ok to post a comment, if not I can remove it. The commenter said:

@Pay I had never quite thought about it until your comment about slavery. I think the reality is that directly in the New Testament we do hear St. Paul very much saying "hey stop talking about slavery." Now granted, we only have his letters, not the ones sent to him, but how else could we interpret lines like, "slaves, be obedient to your master" along side "in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, Slave or Free" and alongside the letter of Philemon. It sounds very much like Paul saying, "we can't change the state of the world right now, but we must first preach the Gospel, and convert hearts to Jesus. Only then can we make appeals to change peoples morals or laws, as he did with Philemon and Onysemus. Honestly, it seems like a pretty good parallel on the Pope's comments on how to change the world.

 

[KatherineS]

My reason for being unsettled is that it would not be a complete distortion to say that I have been “obsessed” with the issues of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality for nearly all of my professional life. I prefer the terms “dedicated” or “committed,” of course, but whatever word is appropriate, I have long thought that helping people understand why abortion, contraception, and homosexual acts are not in accord with God’s plans for human happiness is a very effective way of drawing people closer to the Lord and to the Church, and thus, more or less, most of my adult life, I have been evangelizing in this way.

Here is what I would say is the difference between "obessesion" and "dedication" (or "committment"). Dedication is when you have devoted yourself to a particular task or cause. Obsession is when you expect everyone else to do the same.

 

[Michie]

Here is what I would say is the difference between "obessesion" and "dedication" (or "committment"). Dedication is when you have devoted yourself to a particular task or cause. Obsession is when you expect everyone else to do the same.

Good point. We see a lot of that from all sides imo.