Like the Mormons. But not.
I really have an issue with the USCCB’s pro-marriage ad campaign. Stable marriages are important to the Church and to society, but the issue is a lot more complex than the ads would have you think.
The real problem is the timing, though. One blog that regularly annoys me with anti-Catholic bile had an entry about it (linked) which, under the bile, has a point. There must be better uses for that money that won’t set the Church up for more ridicule at a time when stories in the news are not really helping our worldwide profile.
Blogosphere bits
I had been working on an outline and some background research for a blog entry or even an article along these lines, but someone else wrote it for me. I’ve written before about my experiences in France. I loved France and intend to go back for a while once I have the money to spare. Like Québec, what was once a culture so thoroughly based on Catholicism (practices, if not necessarily faith) clamored in the late ’60s and early ’70s to cast off religion like a particularly scratchy wool sweater.
I found the story of the young woman who came up to Ms. Eden after her program particularly touching. I can’t presume to say what’s always the best thing for everyone, since premarital and extramarital sex has been going on, well, for as long as there’s been marriage. In a way I surround myself with like-minded people, since even the most liberal of my friends are only interested in sex in the context of a relationship.
I really think, though, that the last few generations have been sold a bill of goods. I always thought so, even as an atheist. Sometimes I longed to act on my impulses… well, that’s not true, since it wasn’t so much to act on my impulses as it was to finally make myself just like everyone else since being a “geriatric” virgin (i.e. older than 20) is rather shameful in the circles I moved in in college.
Even if the sexual revolution’s backlash doesn’t change society as a whole, if writers and religious leaders are brave enough to speak out about it, if that saves some people from the suffering that mindless sex can cause, then so much the better.
And the “Three Cool Cathechists” title of that post made me have to track down the Beatles’ version of the song it pays tribute to.
Lastly, for some reason I missed “The Colbert Report” on his latest night of super-awesome Catholic content (discussing the Gospel of Judas) and only heard about it through Custos Fidei.
Based on interviews I’ve read, Stephen Colbert seems to come from the same school of liberal but still devoted and theologically nerd faith that I do, and I’ve long been a fan of his. It’s fun to see him explode across the Catholic blog scene periodically.
Speaking of TV, the Holy Whapping Television Network (HWTN) post made me giggle so hard I nearly spit cranberry-grape juice on my (white) skirt. Oops.
Eternal rebels
Who are the real rebels, indeed?
Considering how much anger I inspire in most of the people I know when I say fascist things like “having sex with someone you’re not even dating is always morally wrong” and that most horrible, rebellious of all things a young single woman can say, “I’m against abortion,” I do identify with this article. The hatred Eden inspires in the secular press (see Gawker) makes me wonder where it comes from. I’ve experienced much of the same online, just with a lower profile.
