Friday, November 15, 2024

Pro-Life in USA 2024: A Culture of Virile Chastity

 Who is it that has led the pro-life movement for the last half century? Who runs the pregnancy centers, the Marchs on Life, the literature? All women! The pro-life movement has not been fueled primarily by career politicians, nor by bishops, nor by males, chaste or unchaste. But by women. This movement is the authentic feminism of our age: the passionate, profound, persistent, maternal drive to nourish, cherish and protect the innocent, vulnerable, powerless.

Who really benefits from legal abortion? Unchaste, indulgent, irresponsible men who can use/abuse women and then manipulate them to destroy the child conceived. Violation of the sixth commandments leads directly to violation of the fifth: fornication/adultery lead to murder. Remember David, Bathsheba and her murdered husband Uriah?

Militant sexual progressivism has contrived the protection of the unborn as masculine control of the feminine body. This is an inversion straight from hell. It is abortion that violates the feminine body. This lie was the singular coherent thought of the recent Harris campaign: she proclaimed it obsessively, passionately, indignantly, self-righteously. She was indecisive, confused and incoherent in all things; but about abortion she was shrill, impassioned and condemnatory. She presented as the heroic, noble figure saving women from the violent control of evil, Trumpian men.

The gullible swallowed this in huge doses. Good, devout, otherwise intelligent Catholic women become furious as they entertain this paranoid, delusional obsession. They rage; become depressed and anxious about the new president. They throw themselves into a convoluted, demon-inspired gender war.

In fact, there have been more abortions since Dobbs, due largely to the availability of pills. Most of the state initiatives protecting abortion have passed.

In fact, the Trump campaign, in contrast with the Harris-abortion-obsession, has taken abortion off the table of national politics. This is a prudent policy on several levels. For one, it helped him win the election as we know voters in key states voted for pro-abortion initiatives and also for Trump: they understood the distinction. But at a deeper level, the return of abortion to the states is very good for our country. For the last half century, it has been the single most polarizing issue in the nation. Most political issues are negotiable: taxes, border policy, climate, guns, etc. But the value of the life of the embryo and "reproductive rights" are absolutely contradictory; there is no compromise. It is good that we battle this out on the state level and return our national politics, hopefully, to a degree of civility and cooperation.

Catholic progressives enhance their self-righteousness in voting prochoice by condemning Trump's support for life as insincere. They presume to judge his heart and soul, rashly and hatefully. We do better to leave that judgment to God and consider his objective record. It is mixed. Formerly he was prochoice. Recently he has, in apparent ignorance, embraced the freezing of IVF embryos. His record is mixed; he seems to mirror the majority of Americans who are ambivalent. I think there are about 20% passionate on both sides of the issue; about 60% are conflicted or unsure. Nevertheless, from the perspective of the unborn, he is the best friend they ever had!

Today we know about the marital infidelity and adultery of liberal heroes JFK, MLK, Clinton and others. Trump is in this club; but he is not in the major leagues like them. His deep narcissism draws his libidinal energies towards himself and leaves less available for even a physical craving of the feminine. They share with the many conservative adulterers and fornicators the value of hypocrisy: they tried to hide their wrong doing and not directly influence others to sin. Jesus said: "It would be better for you to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea than to lead these little ones into sin." Sins of the flesh are mortal and serious: against the possibly conceived, against the sacred feminine body, and against one's own dignity as a temple of the Holy Spirit. But leading others into sin is far worse. Consider Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch, father of JFK and RFK: he inducted his own sons into infidelity and lust. I can hardly conceive a deeper place than his, in purgatory or hell we cannot know...but it doesn't look good for him. In this November, month of the souls, let's give him a chance and pray for his soul, and his entire family, and his companions in sin. 

With Dobbs we see that our society, under Roe for half a century, has become overwhelmingly, even substantially pro-abortion. This is because in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s our society, in critical mass, rejected the sixth commandment: Thou shall not commit adultery. And the ninth: Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife. The new dogma: sex is not essentially conceptive. It is relational, recreational, relieving, expressive...it is not about babies. In this world, abortion is absolutely necessary as back-up contraception.

Another lie from the pit of hell: responsible use of contraception avoids abortion. The opposite is true: the decision to engage sexually but reject conception is already a choice to destroy the offspring that comes so often as the method is far from perfect. A "contra-ceptive" society  is already, essentially, an abortive society. We see that clearly after Dobbs. The epidemic of porn-fueled sexual addiction, the breakdown of marital fidelity as our moral norm, the embrace of unchastity...all of this is the root cause of abortion.

Political and legislative efforts to eliminate abortion in such a culture are largely futile. Indeed, they may themselves provoke stronger pushback as in the aftermath of Dobbs. This does not mean that we abandon the unborn. No, we need to defend them prudently with the resources at hand.

Each state is now a distinct battleground. Nationally we will have to deal with issues about funding and support for abortion overseas. But the real action properly happens at the state level. We cannot win the war across the culture.

What we must do is defend our own way of life: absolutely refuse to directly support abortion (as well as contraception, IVF, trans surgery and all the artificial technologies) ourselves directly. Our tax and insurance money cannot be used for evil purposes. Harris clearly stated that  "reproductive rights" are absolute and allow no exemptions: she would coerce Catholic doctors, nurses and hospitals to perform abortion, trans operation and the the entire litany of degradation. This we must fight passionately.

"Love chastity" Saint Benedict said. Yes! Love chastity. This is the heart of a prolife culture. Even as we suffer our own weakness of the flesh...lust, covetousness, isolation, jealousy, anxiety, depression, self-hatred, compulsions, bad habits...let us encourage each other in love of chastity. We are dealing with often constitutional weakness, with the allure of the world, and the hyper-intelligence of the devil! But we are immersed in the very Body of Christ; we are ourselves Temples of the Holy Spirit; we have the efficacy of the sacraments, the guidance of the Church, and the example of the saints, many of them around us. Come Holy Spirit!


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