Judgement: Male and Female

We love the person always; but not always what he says or does. These we must judge. And in truth we must correct him if he is in error or sin. In some spheres, the modern mind accepts this as with cigarettes which are bad for you so it is an act of love for me to tell you this. But in the sexual sphere it is not so. For the Catholic, sexuality is sacred as a vehicle of intimacy that images that of God Himself and as a participation in the creation of life, even of an eternal soul. For the secular modern it is sacred but in an opposing way: sexuality is a sacrosanct, private expression of who I am and any judgement by another is an intolerable violation. If I am not directly hurting another, who are you to judge me? There is an absolute intolerance of difference of opinion: it is unthinkable that one suggest anything pathological about pornography, homosexual activity, contraception or cohabitation. It also has to do with the feminine and masculine minds. The strength, and weakness, of the feminine intellect is to move to the concrete, to the person, to synthesize; it is the strength and weakness of the masculine intellect to disengage, abstract, analyze and distinguish. In the act of love and the act of knowing both there always involves both engagement and distance: the counselor who completely engages without distance will be swallowed by the emotion of the client; but one who distances without engagement will be cold and detached. Both are required: union and distance. Love and knowledge are always both: union and distance. The feminine tends strongly to union; the masculine to distance. They need to balance each other. If the immature male mind tends to detachment and abstraction, the immature female brain is weak in distinction, distance and abstraction as it embraces the concrete person. The two need each other to strike a balance in love and knowledge. The contemporary, cultural liberal mind is that of the immature female that lacks paternal influence: immersed in emotion and unable to distinguish. And so, if I critique contraception or cohabitation, I must hate all contraceptors and cohabitators. This intellect is incapable of entertaining the possibility that I might love them and want to separate them from what is toxic and sinful. In theology and politics both, the conservative mind at its worst is that of the immature male and the liberal mind at its worst is that of the immature female. We need each other to grow in wisdom and love.