The Catholic Predicament
  by Phil Stahl

The current predicament of Catholicism is interesting at multiple levels. First, there's the spectacle of a religion that's arrogated so much moral authority to itself -- particularly in sexual matters -- being placed under a moral microscope. Second, there's the innate denial of so many lay folk, who can't see that the sins of the various padres -- and cover-ups by the hierarchy -- issue from a self-consistent malignancy in their own doctrines.

Consider first the fact that many of the early Church Fathers were Manichaeans. This ancient philosophy divided the world into realms of light and darkness, flesh and spirit. The flesh was renounced as the medium employed by Satan and his legions to corrupt humans, and defy the laws of a would-be deity. Of course, since human sexual intercourse is a biological-physical act, requiring flesh for completion, it followed that it had to fall under the Manichaeans' blacklisted behavior. Females figured into this, and came to be regarded as "vessels of the Devil," since it was within their wombs that the devilish flesh sprouted.

Just before his passing, Gould had given us his magnum opus, the 1,433-page The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, which only appeared in March and summarizes the history and accomplishments of evolutionary science. Whether he knew that this would be his final work I don’t know (though I would not be surprised), but it serves as a fitting climax and tribute. To those who struggle against the theory of evolution and its evidence, here is a place to turn for enlightenment and answers. I am reminded of the letter in one of the local newspapers recently that claimed that there is not a single piece of evidence in support of evolution. To that letter-writer and others like him: read Gould and learn what we evolutionists know and what we get excited about.

Well into the Middle Ages this view persisted, manifesting in the belief (often echoed by Fathers such as Aquinas) that sins such as adultery required much more severe punishment of the female than her male counterpart. The female was believed closer by far in her carnality, to the demonic hordes. Indeed, the demise of male virtue as well as mental power, could be traced to becoming "ensnared" in female wiles.

St. Augustine, originally a Manichean, retained much of this mindset even after converting to Christianity in 387 CE. Not surprisingly, the inevitable flesh/pleasure = demonic connotations were interjected into his various teachings including his "letters." (For more on this, see the excellent monograph Eunuchs For the Kingdom of Heaven by Ute Ranke-Heinemann, Doubleday, 1990).

Augustine's harsh and sterile dogmas also probably spurred the Church Father Origen (of Adamantius) to cut off his own sexual organs -- because he was unable to control them. It is said that each time he became involuntarily aroused, he was reminded of the "Fall" and "original sin." Human biology had not yet advanced sufficiently to inform people that involuntary sexual reactions were perfectly natural, especially at night. There was no need to hysterically flee them.

The poison of the Church's teachings goes even further than actions, as noted by former Franciscan priest Emmet McLoughlin. (Crime and Immorality in The Catholic Church, Lyle Stuart Books, pp. 189- 214, 1962.) That is, unlike the Manicheans, the Church's latter day moral arbiters include sins of THOUGHT. A person who even briefly entertains one "impure thought" could as easily be earmarked for hell as one who actually committed the act(s) imaged. The common thread throughout Church history is the preoccupation and obsession with sexual acts. That includes condemning a host of natural behaviors, such as masturbation and sexual fantasies, as "evil" and hell-worthy. Given this, even the crudest intellect might well inquire: "If it is equally grievous to masturbate once as to kill twenty people, then where is the proportion?"

Applying the same penalty for radically disproportionate behavior leads to an inherent logical inconsistency that permeates and weakens the entire ethical foundation. In such a chaotic moral landscape, the contradiction of a sexually over-scrupulous Church harboring priestly sexual predators, makes perfect sense.

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