Where Has Our Moral Compass Gone?

The secular news is full of stories about crimes against various segments of society. These crimes range from, so called, crimes of passion to financial scams by individuals and corporate or political greed. It was not too long ago, perhaps thirty or forty years, that the worst thing we could imagine was our children being offered a “reefer” (now known as “joints”) or perhaps invited to play “hooky”. Our doors, at least in the suburbs or in more rural communities, were rarely locked and rape was a capital crime. In those days a girl was “easy” if she kissed on the first date and the most common weekend pastime for teens was “cruising” the local burger joints if they were lucky enough to have a car to use. Those were the days when being connected involved writing letters and notes or perhaps being on the phone for as long as one’s parents would permit because there was no such thing as call waiting or answering machines.

We of older generations, not to mention those of the “Great Generation” who are still with us, wonder what has happened to our moral compass. Why is it OK for a child to insult a teacher at school? Why is it OK for a child to be given marijuana by a friend and be simply given a warning? Why is it OK to offer condoms in high schools let alone middle schools? Where did the idea of “responsibility for one’s actions” get lost?

It sometimes feels like this all started with the 60’s and the liberal ideals of “free love” and “if it feels good, do it.” Not being a social scientist or social historian, we will not speculate on the ultimate roots of the problem but rather on were a solution might lie. Since much of what seems to be driving the social and moral decisions in our country is sex, let’s begin there.

Let’s start with the basics. The Church has always held that, for a person to be in God’s good graces and hence eligible to be in full communion with the Christ and the community of faith, one must be chaste. For persons not bound by vows of celibacy, entered into voluntarily, with full knowledge of the perpetual nature of those vows, chaste is defined as abstinence from sexual relations (e.g. sexual intercourse) with a person not sacramentally joined to that person in marriage. That means all single persons are bound by Church teaching to abstain from such actions lest they fall into mortal sin.

For those who feel cohabitation is now a secular premarital tradition approved of by the Church, they are dead wrong and need to be told so by all involved. It’s not OK to live together without the blessing of sacramental marriage. To be fair to those who feel same sex attraction (a disordered state, identified as such based upon human biology) the same exact rule applies. The Church does not recognized and will not recognize a same sex union as sacramental, regardless of its duration and regardless of what civil law says.

So, why is it that such a fundamental idea as Chastity has become an anachronism? Social liberals have long held that the state (and the Church) should not have a say in an individual’s “personal life.” Why, we ask, should that view have come to be? Quite simply, sex, especially for those who are younger than 60 years old is not only hedonistically gratifying but, because of the human hormonal condition, a force that drives especially males, but females as well, to reproduce. The fact that purely sexual relationships often rely on one person extracting personal pleasure at the expense of another (fostering disrespect) is inconsequential as long as sexual gratification is achieved. The fact that this was intended as a creative act, to foster new life is seen as inconvenient and undesirable. Hence, to prevent this possibility, contraception is necessary. And, if contraception fails or is inconvenient and new life is initiated those that consider personal gratification their sole goal will willingly take the expedient course of infanticide (abortion). Personal responsibility is ignored, sexual anarchy prevails.

The basic underlying moral stance that is ignored or misunderstood by those who believe that sexual promiscuity is somehow liberating is the fundamental idea that sexual union between husband and wife is a gift given by God. Its intent is to provide the couple with the ultimate gift, new life. To ignore this intent is to reduce the human spirit to animalistic instinct in the drive to reproduce the species.

So often we hear from various pro-life groups that contraception is bad; that abortion is an abomination. What we do not hear is the logic behind those assertions. It is ironically the feminist movement that most vocally insists that women should not be told what to do with their bodies. Does that mean that women should be exempt from the concept of chastity? Does that mean that, just because men cannot get pregnant when they disrespect another purely for sexual gratification, women should have the same debasing privilege? In the end the argument put forward by the sexual anarchists is don’t bother us with sexual morality, we should be free to rape and kill all we want as long as we feel physically gratified.

Although it is not announced as blatantly as this, most mainstream media broad casts this message in all but the most fundamental programming. From a media standpoint, we have left the age of Christian morality far behind and are now embarking upon an age of unprecedented “sexual freedom”.

And what are we, who hold fast to the concepts that Christ teaches, to do? We must hold our ground and stand squarely against those who foster the objectification of the human person as purely as sexual thing to be used or not as seen fit. We must cry out saying every person has worth from the unborn to the elderly and every person deserves to be respected. When challenged we must be ready to present the logic behind our arguments not just saying contraception is bad or abortion is murder, explain why that is so. Tell those who belittle our attitude that it is for them and for their children (if any survive) that we hold human life sacred.

Pax

The picture above is “The Holy Family” by Sisto Badalocchio, c. 1610