Robert George, Polyamory and the death of American Culture

Robert George writes at American Interest:

Of course, the case for polyamory and its legal recognition presupposes that marriage is in fact what so-called "marriage equality" advocates have depicted it as being: committed sexual-romantic companionship or domestic partnership.  And this is precisely what has been denied by defenders of what used to be known as "marriage" and is now called "traditional marriage" (i.e. as the union of husband and wife).

CBS reports:

A polygamous family says the landmark US Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage shows that laws restricting consensual adult relationships are outdated, even if certain unions are unpopular.

The advocates of so-called "same sex" marriage, polygamy, and polyamory are seriously confused about the central question.  Why does the state recognize and bestow benefits on marriage?

Marriage, as it has been known, provides something that is of inestimable value to society.  Even when it was misunderstood as polygamy this value existed.  Marriage produces children, because the defining act, the most essential act of marriage is sexual intercourse between the husband and his wife.

This defining act is the means by which a future is produced for the society, which is not produced in any other way.  The children, raised by their mother and father learn the value of their society and are prepared to continue that society when adults.

A society that does not value itself, its children or its future is redefining marriage to its own demise.

You should read the article by Prof. George.

Reflection -- 11 Aug 2015, St Clare of Assisi

Today, 11 Aug 2015, is the memorial of St Clare.  She was a contemporary of St Francis.

When I went to Italy a couple of years ago, I went on a tour of Orvieto and Assisi.  One of our stops in Assisi was the Church of St Clare, seen below with its' flying buttresses.

Church of St Clare, Assisi Italy

St Clare's body is entombed in this Church.  St Francis was entombed here as well, before the Basilica of St Francis was completed on the other side of Assisi, and his remains were moved to that church.

There is a community of Franciscan women near where I live who are Poor Clares.



Brandon McGinley, Torture and PP videos

At National Review Online Brandon McGinley writes an article entitled "The Planned Parenthood Videos Expose Our Country's Silent Pact with the Abortion Industry."

He begins by discussing the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report, and the "Dirty Hands" description posed by Michael Walzer, in 1973.

He likens responses to the torture report and the Planned Parenthood secret videos.  His most important passages are at the end of his piece:

Like the Senate’s torture report, the Planned Parenthood videos explode this convenient arrangement. They compel us to confront the grisly details of the bargain we’ve made. They eliminate our pretense to innocence. They force us to undertake honestly the moral reasoning we have shirked.

In the end, the “dirty hands” theory was always unstable. Evil cannot be neatly contained, even (especially not!) by legal and governmental institutions. We can’t dabble with the demonic. Having heard the frigid voices of the abortion industry, having witnessed the illogic of its inhumanity, having seen the hands and feet and innards of the victims, we face the danger that, knowing nothing else, we will still choose that nightmare. And all our hands will be filthy.

This reminded me of an article  by James Martin, SJ  at America Magazine about the erection of a Satanic statue near Detroit MI.

He begins by discussing the movie The Exorcist, and his own experiences.  He concludes:

In other words, I’m describing not only my belief, but my experience. Evil is real. How Satan fits into this, I’m not exactly sure, but I believe that a personified force is somehow behind this. There is a certain “intelligence,” if you will, and a sameness, as St. Ignatius identified. As C.S. Lewis said about Satan, “I’m not particular about the horns and hooves, but yes I believe.” Me too.

So while the Satanic Temple may smile at their victory, and the mainstream media might chuckle at the “Gotcha” moment vis-à-vis other religious groups (If the Ten Commandments, then why not Satan?) my fear is directed in another place. I recall all those stories I read and heard about Satan, and I think: You have no idea what you’re dealing with.

You are playing with fire.

 So is our society when in dabbles in the Dirty Hands of abortion.

Pete Spiliakos on Planned parenthood and Cecil the Lion -- UPDATED

Pete Spiliokos at First Things writes:

What the Planned Parenthood videos have revealed about liberal elites and the dynamics of American politics is extraordinary. Outside of those who consume conservative media, Americans are more likely to have heard of Cecil, the dead Zimbabwe lion, than of the videos. Those who have heard of both stories know more about Cecil's last moments than about fetuses having their brains destroyed so that their organs—their human organs—could be sold.

The July 30th NBC Nightly News report on the Planned Parenthood videos was, in its own way, a beautiful example of how properly motivated journalists can make an inherently interesting subject incomprehensible and irritating. Imagine if a network had covered Romney's infamous (surreptitiously taped) 47 percent remarks by never quoting Romney, including clips of a hostile interview with the journalists who released the Romney tape, and then had ended the report with the suggestion that the attacks on Romney could lead to declining business investment and job growth.

He begins by discussing the passing interest of Trump, and points to the more enduring and critical story of the Planned parenthood videos, and their lack of coverage by the MSM.

Read his entire article.  And get a lot of information on these videos at The Federalist.

UPDATE:
No sooner had I posted this than I found this article at GetReligion on the NY Times and a correction pointed to by an author at The Federalist.  She has posted many articles on this topic. 

Kathryn Lopez, Dorothy Day and a Culture of Death

At National Review Online, Kathryn Lopez, writes an article entitled "Building a Culture Hospitable to Life."

She begins by quoting from Dorothy Day:

Three little pigs are crowded into a too-small cage, the case is brought to court, the judge’s findings in the case being that pigs should not be crowded the way subway riders are.”

The late Dorothy Day was writing (in House of Hospitality, recently reprinted by Our Sunday Visitor) about the contrast between how we treat animal life and human life sometimes. This certainly rang true last week as the news was dominated by the dual stories of the killing of Cecil the lion and the harvesting and selling of aborted children’s body parts.

Quoting from Day again:

God forgive us the sins of our youth! But as Zachariah sang out, ‘We have knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of our sins.’ I don’t think anyone recognizes the comfort of this text better than I do. 

Then Lopez adds:

She wrote this at 75 years old, in Commonweal. Despite a full life, one devoted to service; despite religious conversion and forgiveness; despite age, she still had a wound that needed tending from the abortion she had had in her youth.

Kathryn closes with:

We have the right instinct, being sensitive to our stewardship of animals. But human beings, especially when most innocent and vulnerable, are part of creation, too. And if we can’t see humanity always, we’ll be lost on all other fronts.

It is a good well written article and you should read it.

George Will, Roe and Planned Parenthood

George Will, at the Washington Post writes an op-ed piece regarding Roe vs Wade, and the barbarity exposed by the Planned Parenthood videos.  He writes:

When life begins is a scientific, not a philosophic or theological, question: Life begins when the chromosomes of the sperm fuse with those of the ovum, forming a distinctive DNA complex that controls the new organism’s growth. This growth process continues unless a natural accident interrupts it or it is ended by the sort of deliberate violence Planned Parenthood sells.