George Weigel has a good article on the Synod on NRO
today. He correctly states that the Church will not change her teachings on marriage, the family and human sexuality. However, he misses an opportunity
in this paragraph.
What the Catholic Church believes about the ethics of human love and about marriage is not a matter of “attitudes.” It’s a matter of truths. Many of those truths can be demonstrated by reason, if people are willing to work through a reasonable argument. Some of those truths, especially those pertaining to the permanence of marriage, come from the Church’s Lord Himself. (Emphasis mine)
He makes it sound as if the problem is that people just won’t listen to a reasoned argument. I’m not suggesting that we abandon reason. But we have
been reasoning ourselves to death and no one is listening. If this debate could be solved through reason alone, we would have won a long time ago.
A more fruitful approach, I suggest, is to note the fact that millions of people have been harmed by the Sexual Revolution. Children of Divorce,
Reluctantly Divorced Spouses, Heartbroken Career Women, who have good educations and jobs, but fewer children than they wanted, and many other groups of
people, have all been taken in by the false promises of the Sexual Revolution.
- “The kids will be fine as long as their parents are happy. Kids are resilient after all.”
- “Divorce is always mutual. Everyone is better off after a divorce.”
- “Successful, educated women can “have it all,” including complete control over their fertility for their entire lifetimes.”
Rather than trying to “work through a reasonable argument,” why not reach out to these wounded men, women
and children? Why not give them a voice, to tell the full story about the Sexual Revolution and all its consequences, not just the airbrushed version created
by the New York Times? Why not give the Victims and Survivors of the Sexual Revolution a turn at the microphone, so the next generation does not follow
them/us down the same primrose path? In short, I propose that we speak directly, forcefully and compassionately about the Victims and Survivors of the
Sexual Revolution. Put the Revolutionaries on the defensive for a change. The human wreckage caused by the Sexual Revolution makes their position
indefensible. They get away with this nonsense only by systematically scrubbing the public square of any evidence of the pain people endure from the broken
relationships that are at the heart of the Revolutionary ideology. An appeal to human experience, powerfully and truthfully told, will be more effective
than a “reasonable argument.” After all, an accurate recounting of lived human experience is a subset of rational discourse. Changing the narrative
has a better chance of being heard in today’s environment of broken hearts and guilty consciences than trying to pummel people with logic. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.is Founder and President of the Ruth Institute. Learn more about the Children of Divorce at our project, KidsDivorceStories.org
