Two items came in my inbox today which fit together like hand in glove. One has to do with another shocking case of moral relativism and sexual perversity. The other has to do with a call to return to a world of moral absolutes. Both nicely dovetailed so I present them here in this one article.
The call for moral realism and a rejection of moral anarchy has been made by plenty of leaders and thinkers over the years. Many have noted how the process of secularisation has resulted in a moral free-fall, where it seems like anything goes.
As long as individuals are allowed to indulge in all their wants and desires, with little or no concern for the social good, most Westerners are quite happy. But few realise that such selfish and cavalier attitudes are leading to social decay and moral destruction.
One church leader has just issued a stern warning about how in today’s society “morality has ceased to exist”. This is how one religious news service covers the story: “Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s highest court, delivered a dire yet hopeful message about the current state of society in an address at the 129th Knights of Columbus Convention Tuesday. ‘We are witnesses of a society in which, in many respects, morality has ceased to exist,’ said Burke. ‘We are called ever more urgently to the new evangelization of our culture.’
“Cardinal Burke pinpointed the problem as ‘moral relativism,’ which he said ‘has even entered into the thinking of some theologians in the Church and which has provided an ideological foundation for a culture which is predominantly marked by violence and death.’ The Pope, said Cardinal Burke, ‘described a moral relativism, called proportionalism or consequentialism in contemporary moral theology, which has generated profound confusion and deadly error regarding the most fundamental truths of the moral order.’
“He exemplified the erroneous thinking, saying: ‘We think, for instance, of the justification of the murder of the unborn child in the womb as the exercise of the right of the mother to choose, weighing other goods, whether to bring to term the baby she has conceived; the justification of the abhorrent practices of the artificial generation of human life and its destruction, at the embryonic stage of development, as the means to obtain supposed cures for crippling or deadly diseases; the justification of the so-called ‘mercy killing’ of those who have the first title to our care, our brothers and sisters who have grown weak through advanced years, grave illness or special needs, as respect for the quality of their lives; and the justification of the sexual union of two persons of the same sex as tolerance of so-called alternative forms of human sexuality, as if there were a true form of human sexuality other than the form written in the human body and soul by God.’ Effectively, according to Burke, the culture’s need for evangelization now is as dire as when the Church first began.”
Quite right. I and others have been saying much the same for years now. We are entering into a new dark age, and the situation today in the West is not unlike that which the early Christians found themselves in. Thus while we work for moral, cultural and social reform, we also have to almost go back to square one in terms of re-evangelising the West.
And the evidence of the moral decline so prevalent in the West is so very easily documented. Indeed, I would have hundreds of examples on this site of the moral decay found all around us. But the most recent example I wish to present here really does serve as a perfect example of what Burke and others have been talking about.
Consider this headline: “UK judge to teacher: ‘I don’t criticize you’ for sexual attraction to two-year-olds”. Yes you read that right. In yet another case of judicial madness, here we have a big-cheese judge effectively telling us that the lusts of the paedophile are just peachy keen.
She is basically saying: ‘Hey, no probs man. We all have our particular tastes, whims and desires. Who am I to tell you that your sexual lust for little children is wrong? After all, truth and morality is whatever we make it to be. So don’t get too bothered about it.’
Here is how the story goes: “A UK judge assured a teacher busted with pornographic images of children as young as two years old that she would not ‘criticize’ him for being sexually attracted to children. On Saturday, Judge Mary Jane Mowat addressed remarks to substitute teacher David Armstrong as she handed him a suspended sentence for pleading guilty to possession of 4,500 images of child porn. ‘I don‘t criticize you for being a teacher who’s attracted to children…Many teachers are but they keep their urges under control both when it comes to children and when it comes to images of children,’ said Mowat.
“63-year old David Armstrong was reportedly caught when a colleague at the Little Heath School in Tilehurst notified police after finding files on Armstrong’s laptop with names such ‘rape wife,’ ‘nude model,’ and ‘gay alligator.’ The Blaze reports that some of the images retrieved from Armstrong’s possession include ones of children as young as two years old. This is not the first time Mowat had stirred controversy over her handling of sexual abuse of children. The Daily Mail reports that, in 2008, she allowed a former headmaster charged with pedophilia to walk free after he blamed the attraction on his drugs for Parkinson’s disease.”
Ah, don’t you just love the progressive and enlightened view modern jurists take? We have become so clever and up-to-date in realising that sin is just a foolish old notion from the dark past, and today we know that people might be sick, but never evil, or wrong.
Today we seek to heal the sick in our law courts, not punish the criminal. We have long ago abandoned the notion that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and moral absolutes. Instead, we prefer to treat so-called criminals as those who are socially maladaptive, or enduring some sort of illness.
No wonder all over the Western world horrendous crimes are being committed, and horrific criminals are getting off scot-free. No wonder victims’ groups are springing up all over the place, demanding that we get rid of these ridiculous lenient sentences and these ridiculous judges who are more concerned about criminals’ rights than victims’ rights.
This is all because the West has lost the notion of sin. And now we are paying the price big time. With sin out of the picture, so too is morality. And so too is any solid defence against evil. Now anything goes, even paedophilia. What a price we have paid for the loss of sin.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-cardinal-burke-in-todays-society-morality-has-ceased-to-exist?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d54ff50e8a-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines08_04_2011&utm_medium=email
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-judge-to-teacher-i-dont-criticize-you-for-sexual-attraction-to-two-year?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d54ff50e8a-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines08_04_2011&utm_medium=email
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