(Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The Virgin of the Host. Source)
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(Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The Virgin of the Host.
Source)
Note: Voodoo is an animist cult, a mix of magic rites, witchcraft, and elements of Christian rites. (Petit Robert)
It's fashionable these days to attack the Catholic Church, especially its teachings concerning sexuality. If we believed some journalists, the Church would encourage young people to practice a kind of voodoo cult to protect themselves from Sexually-Transmitted Diseases (STD) and unwanted pregnancies. Instead of listening to Science, the Church would prefer Rosary-twirling and incantations to the Pope and the Virgin Mary, with predictable results: even more STDs and unwanted pregnancies!
Are these accusations justified? Does real Science really accuse the Church as much as these journalists claim?
To begin with, let's limit our topic a bit. I won't deal here with the question of the morality of condoms, abortion, etc. I'll rather try to see whether or not the Catholic Church uses "Sex-Voodoo".
What is the contrary of Sex-Voodoo? Real Science. What does Science tell us? That human behavior can be studied by sciences like Psychology and Sociology. Of course, human behavior can also be studied by other sciences, like Physics for example. If you throw somebody out the tenth-floor window, that person's fall will be described by the following formula (if we neglect air resistance):
Final Speed = Initial Speed + (gravitational acceleration * time)
Except in that case, you'd be studying the behavior of a man as an inert body, and not as a man. If you study the behavior of a young human person strictly speaking, you'll need to take into account many other factors apart from gravity, like:
2.1) Parental education
2.2) Schooling
2.3) Moral education provided by films and television
2.4) The behavior of the group in which the youngster is inserted
2.5) Absorbed psychochemical agents
2.6) Messages transmitted by ads
2.7) The ideas suggested by objects in the environment
2.8) The ideas suggested by art
Etc., etc.
What is going on these days with young people and sexuality? Given the sociological and psychological factors these young people are subjected to, it is very difficult for them to have an adequate sexual behavior. Consider:
3.1) Parental education. Parents educate by their words, but even more by their example. How many fathers promised before God and Society that they would be faithful to their spouse, and then divorced? How many parents "dump" their kids at the day-care center, in order to be able to have two salaries, so they will be able to keep up with the Jones' (in-ground swimming pool, second car, trips, etc.)? How many children have had the shock of realizing that the brother or sister they should have had, died poisoned by the abortion pill? Whether or not we agree with these things, it still remains that young people are influenced by their parents, and the message that is often transmitted is that stable relations are impossible, children are a burden, and the goal in life is to have as much bodily pleasure as possible.
3.2) Schooling. Many schools in the Province of Quebec limit sexual education to things barely more refined than: "Boys have a part A, girls have a part B. To make love...
carry the total of line 1292 over to line 3482. Add the result of line 9823 as calculated in the form TRX-235-7B.1: "Federal abatement for a sprained hand sustained while filing your Provincial Income Tax Return"
... Don't forget part C to avoid conceiving a child, and if you forget C, you can kill the child with D or F". As deviant as this materialistic and hedonistic message might be, it's the one many young people get in school.
3.3) Moral education provided by films and television. Whether we like it or not, films and TV educate our young people. Many films put forth the idea that friendship begins when an unbearably handsome young heman sees the unbearably beautiful body (often heavily "improved" with surgery) of a young woman, and that the sexual relations which quickly follow are totally inevitable, and fill both partners with perfect happiness. We rarely hear a hero say things like: "I'd like to sleep with you, but that would be disrespectful to you, me, and the children we should have together. Let's go outside and talk calmly in a public place, rather than stay here alone in the dark". Nor do heroes say things like: "Miss, the rag wrapped around your soul is temporarily good looking!" (although it would be quite true). Just go push some wheeled stretchers in a hospital for a few weeks, you'll see the "bombshells" and the "hotties" of a few years ago reduced to carrion that's not quite dead yet.
3.4) The behavior of the group in which the youngster is inserted. Men in general, and teenagers in particular, often have great difficulties in behaving differently from the group in which they are inserted. The odds are not in favor of a teenage boy placed in a group where every sentence contains some profanity, where great admiration is bestowed upon those "courageous" enough to smoke pot, or "audacious" enough to get drunk, and "talented" enough to fondle girls without being punished.
3.5) Absorbed psychochemical agents. All else being equal, if alcohol is easily available, the statistics for irrational behaviors will rise. The same is true of all substances which reduce natural inhibitions, and which impede the use of reason and common sense.
3.6) Messages transmitted by ads. Try a little experiment: take a sample of ads, whether the huge billboards you see along the highway, or TV ads, or posters in the shopping mall, etc. Then, calculate the number of these ads where the message boils down to an association between product X and sex. The continuous stream of references to sex we are subjected to is mind-boggling.
3.7) The ideas suggested by objects in the environment. Anybody who tries to lose weight knows we have to avoid places where our senses are swarmed by tasty foods, like pastry-shops or delicatessens. But many teenage girls these days are partial to the "shrink-wrap school of fashion", who's sole purpose seems to be to demonstrate the high quality of the meat offered to the buyer. All they are missing is a bar code tattoo [Lv 19:28] so people can scan the price per kilogram (especially since many of them already have tattoos of weird signs in locations which shouldn't even be visible in public).
3.8) The ideas suggested by art. Have you ever seriously tried to understand the words of some of the popular songs that play on the radio and on the Internet? We know art disposes men to accept as true what is presented with beautiful appearances. But many of these songs contain heaps of pornographic and violent trash. And what do some young people listen to religiously every morning, sitting in the bus on the way to school?
Etc., etc.
Scientifically, we know a young person placed in such conditions will have a tendency to have an inappropriate sexual conduct. But these factors are often under the direct control of the Government and the media, and their current state is explicitly condemned by the Catholic Church!
Let's quickly review what could be done tomorrow morning to change these factors.
4.1) Parental education. The Government should cease its incessant attacks on true marriage, that "sanctuary of life and cradle of love" in which children must be received. The list is long, but we can mention:
4.1.1) Stop treating unmarried cohabitation like marriage. See among others Family, Marriage And "De Facto" Unions.
4.1.2) Don't treat homosexual unions like marriages. See among others Considerations Regarding Proposals To Give Legal Recognition To Unions Between Homosexual Persons.
4.1.3) Require couples with difficulties to consult good marriage counselors, instead of pushing them toward divorce.
4.1.4) Require young persons who want to marry to prepare appropriately for marriage. This specifically excludes pre-marital cohabitation . See among others The Immorality of Sexual Relations before Marriage.
4.1.5) Forbid abortion. Killing children doesn't solve any problems. See among others A Reading List for Pro-Choicers.
4.1.6) Offer real help to young women who have an unplanned pregnancy.
4.2) Schooling. The Government should completely revamp the sex education courses given in schools. Sexuality must not be presented as being simply a question of hedonistic and irresponsible copulation. The word "Chastity" must stop being either ignored, or ridiculed, or ill-defined. See among others Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality.
4.3) Moral education provided by films and television. Same solutions as item #4.6 here below.
4.4) The behavior of the group in which the youngster is inserted. By definition, the Government cannot directly influence informal groups. On the other hand, it can indirectly influence them, by promoting formal groups of young persons who fight against profanity, drugs, and the sexual exploitation of women. It can also directly eliminate all formal groups (like topless bars) where men learn to sexually exploit women, etc.
4.5) Absorbed psychochemical agents. It is possible to fight against tobacco addiction, alcohol and drugs in an effective way, with appropriate laws. See among others The Three Different Kinds Of Political Power.
4.6) Messages transmitted by ads. The Government can eliminate overnight all bad ads, by appropriate laws. Moreover, nothing prevents the Government from using the media to educate young people.
4.7) The ideas suggested by objects in the environment. Without going into the contrary excess of the Islamic chador, high schools and universities can easily set up a simple, reasonable, easy to respect dress code, that is also comfortable in hot weather. You could imagine for example the "Marble Test": if you put a marble inside the top of some piece of clothing, and it doesn't fall to the ground but stays stuck, the cloths are too tight. You could also set other simple limits, like being covered from the bottom of the neck to the top of the knees, or not being able to read the underwear's label right through the cloths that cover it, etc. It would then be easy for other public institutions to jump in. All the Government would have to do is block the inevitable legal attacks mounted in the name of a misunderstood "Freedom of expression".
4.8) The ideas suggested by art. Same solutions as item #4.6 here above.
Etc., etc.
(Please note I'm not advocating a knee-jerk reaction which would take us back into the past. See among others The Quiet Revolution, and the Rowdy Pendulum.)
Does the Catholic Church practice Sex-Voodoo? Isn't it on the contrary the bad politicians, teachers, filmmakers, journalists, and artists who indulge in it? If these people did with a car what they do with sex, they would floor the accelerator pedal, turn off the headlights, spray-paint the windshield, pump up the volume to the max, disconnect the brake pedal, and then proudly proclaim: "The Voodoo Gods have decreed that accidents are inevitable! The dark forces of our sexual destiny condemn us to have accidents! All we can do is put on our safety belt and wait for the impact!"
The Catholic Church condemns this "Sex-Voodoo" superstition used by bad politicians, teachers, filmmakers, journalists and artists. The Catholic Church on the contrary transmits a message of freedom and light to all young people: "You are not the slaves of money, drugs, genes, sex, or anything else. Christ has come to free us from bondage. We can live as free men, if we use the medication offered by Christ, as well as natural means." The Church has always spoken of the liberating force of Prayer and the Sacraments (especially Confession and Communion), but it has also always added the mention of "natural means" studied by Science. These "natural means" are among others the factors listed above.
Practitioners of Sex-Voodoo don't want young people to hear the message of the Catholic Church, a message which says that it is possible to live one's sex life in chastity, and that it is not only possible, but easy and enjoyable.
Science tells us we must absolutely avoid letting superstition pull the wool over our eyes, and on the contrary we must stick to the real facts we can observe with certainty. But there is an irrepressible and invincible fact that practitioners of Sex-Voodoo want to hide: the existence of people who lead chaste lives.
If you have doubts, come and observe by yourself. As Marshall Foch used to say:
Don't be content with what you've been told, go and see for yourselves. I'm not asking you what you think. Tell me what is. The facts are out there, they don't run away.
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