William McDonough
Associate Professor of
Theology
Coordinator, M.A. in Theology
St. Catherine University,
St. Paul / Minneapolis,
Minnesota
Alasdair
Maclntyre as Help for
Rethinking
Catholic Natural Law Estimates of Same-Sex Life Partnerships
William
McDonough
Annual
of the Society of Christian Ethics, 2\ (2001): 191-213
Abstract
Christian ethics struggles to articulate a method
for thinking about homosexuality and the sexual acts of same-sex oriented
persons. In 1988, Hanigan suggested a promising "social import"
approach and then judged homosexual acts deficient. Maclntyre's Dependent Rational Animals (1999)
articulates a fuller social import approach to morality. Although he does not
address homosexuality, Maclntyre rejects narrow understandings of family and of
"disinterested friendship": we need "communal relations that
engage our affections" to grow in "the virtues of acknowledged
dependence." How do gay people grow in these virtues? What if Hanigan got
the method right, but the evaluation wrong?
Introduction
Do homosexuality and homosexual sex prove that what
Stephen Pope recently referred to as a "wall between natural law theory
and narrative ethics" is permanent and impassable? Catholicism's natural
law proscriptions and the narratives of homosexual persons, it would seem, have
no possibility of meeting. Against such a thesis this paper argues that in his
latest book Alasdair Maclntyre provides a rationale for why the Catholic
Church, precisely because it is committed to natural law thinking, must
re-think homosexuality…
…Maclntyre does write this: "All happy
families are not alike and only a very great novelist could have gotten away
with telling us otherwise." It is time for my religious tradition, which
now sees that God comes down into the lives of married persons and assumes them
into God's own life, to see that families established by same-sex life partners
can also be happy families. Not to do so is to continue asking homosexual
persons to live the Stoic mistake about friendship in their lives; it is to ask
them to find unconditional love by becoming indifferent to their deepest
desires. But indifference does not bring unconditional love; it brings distortion.
Simone Weil names both the distortion and the way out of it: "We cannot
take a single step toward heaven. It is not in our power to travel in a
vertical direction. If, however, we look heavenward for a long time, God comes
and takes us up." The Catholic natural law tradition should celebrate the totius vitae communio of same-sex
partners, just as it celebrates it for heterosexual partners, as a place into
which God can come and "take us up" into God's own life.
Read complete
paper:
William
C. McDonough - Natural Law
Read more & access related links
Perspectives on Natural Law
Michael J. Bayly
- The Wild Reed
Evelyn Fox Keller
Professor of the History and
Philosophy of Science, Emerita (STS)
Program in Science,
Technology, and Society (STS),
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Evelyn
Fox Keller
Bill Moyers on Faith &
Reason - PBS, May 6, 1990
"I believe in truths, but I don't believe in
the Truth. Furthermore, I think that vision of an underlying Truth, with as
capital T, that scientists are privy to, has been a very counterproductive
vision. It has served scientists very well, but what it has done, above all, is
encloses the world of science and immunize it from criticism." -- Evelyn
Fox Keller, physicist, and professor of rhetoric
Read more:
Transcript:
Evelyn Fox
Keller:
Historical, Psychological
and Philosophical Intersections
in the Study of Gender and
Science – 7/22/99
If there is a single point on which all feminist
scholarship over the past decade [the 1980s] has converged, it is the
importance of recognizing the social construction of gender, and the deeply
oppressive consequences of assuming that men and women are, in Simone de
Beauvoir's words, "born rather than made." All of my work on gender
and science proceeds from this basic recognition. My endeavor has been to call
attention to the ways in which the social construction of a binary opposition
between "masculine" and "feminine" has influenced the
social construction of science. I argue that it is only by recognizing the
social character of the construction of both gender and science that we can
realize the emancipatory value--for men, for women, and for science--of transcending
that opposition. The first step, of course, is to abandon the myth that the
opposition between "masculine" and "feminine" is somehow
"natural," and therefore fixed. (Evelyn Fox Keller. "Evelyn Fox
Keller Objects to Editor's Title." The Scientist. 7 January 1991) ()
…Keller opens this publication which is published
one year later with the following poignant paragraph expressing her personal
relationship to her current project:
A decade ago, I was deeply
engaged (if not quite fully content) in my work as a mathematical biophysicist.
I believed wholeheartedly in the laws of physics, and in their place at the
apex of knowledge. Sometime in the mid-1970s--overnight, as it were--another
kind of question took precedence, upsetting my entire intellectual hierarchy:
How much of the nature of science is bound up with the idea of masculinity, and
what would it mean for science if it were otherwise? (3)
In this pivotal work in the history of science,
Keller is not merely seeking to understand men or even women, for that matter,
but the discipline of science and the constructs that have left it as a
predominantly male-oriented field. She begins with the assumption that all
three variables--men, women, and science--are socially created phenomena and
that delving into the manner in which men and women are "made" in
society will shed light on the making of science. Building on her early work,
she concludes that men and women are made not born as is the discipline of
science. Science must exist in a context, as Kuhn's work makes clear, but
Keller again raises the caution of not allowing these contexts to degenerate
into relativism. Science should be recognized as the search for
"truth" or value in Nature, but, as with all human endeavors, cannot
be infallible because it is performed by humanity…
Read more:
The Work of
Evelyn Fox Keller
as a Resource
for Study in Science and Religion
by Kathleen
Kordesh – December2001
“How things
are is, well, how things are: our scientific account of Nature, an account of
what we can call the Epic of Evolution.”
Does it sound
strange to read the singularity in the above statement? Is there a scientific
account of Nature or are there multiple accounts? Biologist Ursula Goodenough
wishes to persuade her readers that because there is only one story, then we
can and should all get behind it and together solve the ecological crises that
threaten us. The goal is worthy and the author is no doubt sincere, but still
the words ring untrue. This essay draws attention to the work of Evelyn Fox
Keller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, Emeritus, at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the Program in Science, Technology
and Society. Keller would argue, contrary to Goodenough, that not only are
there multiple scientific accounts (of Nature), but that the various accounts,
theories, explanations, do not always rest easily with one another. When
convergence of accounts takes place, it may happen for reasons other than that
an explanation or a theory objectively fits the evidence best or is most
logically coherent. Keller would argue that while science is a unique endeavor
in its forms of disciplined encounter with the natural world, scientists are
human actors and science is inescapably embedded in human society. This means
that some effort is needed to interpret the knowledge that science provides,
wherever this knowledge is encountered.
The
connection between Keller’s work and the science and religion dialog is
indirect, perhaps one step removed, but very important for what it has to say,
not only about the biological sciences, but all of science. Her work yields
insights about technology, ethics, the nature of life or living organisms, and
about how we know what we know, or what counts as knowledge.
It should be
of great value to students in theology and ethics as they engage in a dialog
with science and, in particular, with those aspects of the dialog that deal
with the powerful and pervasive influences of science and technology on human
society and on all life on earth. Keller’s work provides critical tools needed
to interpret and evaluate scientific knowledge and the technology that is
developed from such knowledge. It contributes a critical new perspective to a
growing dimension of the science and religion dialog, which emphasizes
relevance to sustainable human societies…
Read more:
Kathleen Kordesh is Reference Librarian at
The
United Library, Garrett-Evangelical and
Seabury-Western Theological Seminaries, Evanston, Illinois.
Gay True
Nature - Sexual Orientation Development – Biological/ Environmental – Twins,
Testosterone masculinizes body & brain hypothalamus=sexually attractive |
Benedict XVI Misunderstanding of Human Nature
UK -
Churches' hostility to GAY MARRIAGE only underlines their impotence - by Ian
Birrell - Thursday 27 December 2012
Gay Marriage
- Benedict XVI’s Christmas Address - Not preaching social justice - same-sex
marriage in civil law | Construct "human nature" just out-dated? |
Each human person is so unique that there are virtually as many human natures
as there are human persons? - By Professor Thomas Farrell - 12/21/12
Gay Marriage
– Benedict XVI Antigay Christmas Statements – DISMISSES SCIENCE – Renders -
NATURAL LAW - "NONSENSE UPON STILTS" --- Kids Are Being Hurt!!! –
12/27/12
Pope Benedict XVI is not preaching social justice regarding same-sex marriage in civil law - 12/21/12 - Professor Thomas Farrell
Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) December 21, 2012: Is there one human nature that male humans and female human have by virtue of being human? Or do male humans have a male human nature, but female humans have a female human nature? Or is the conceptual construct "human nature" just out-dated -- and there is no such thing as human nature? Or is it the case that each human person is so unique that there are virtually as many human natures as there are human persons?
I know, I know, these questions sound abstract. But consider the claim that "all men are created equal." Does this claim mean that all male human persons are created equal to one another because they all have a male human nature? But this understanding of the claim would exclude female human persons, presumably because they do not have a male human nature. Thus the claim that "all men are created equal" should be understood to mean that all human persons have a human nature, which is the basis for human equality…
Now, many Americans today see the issue of same-sex marriage as a social justice issue. If men and women both have a human nature, why should it make any difference in civil law if marriage is operationally defined as being between one man and one woman, or as being between one man and another man, or as being between one woman and another woman?...
Read more:
About: Professor Thomas Farrell
Thomas J. Farrell
Professor Emeritus
Department of Writing Studies
College of Liberal Arts
University of Minnesota Duluth
Gay Marriage – Benedict XVI Antigay Christmas Statements – DISMISSES SCIENCE – Renders - NATURAL LAW - "NONSENSE UPON STILTS" --- Kids Are Being Hurt!!! – 12/27/12
The Pope's Christmas Condemnation of Transsexuals – 12/23/08
Pontiff equates GENDER THEORIES with threat to rainforests – 12/23/08
AUSCHWITZ -- CHRISTMAS 2008 -- A flashback far more severe than in --- BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN – December 26, 2008 – by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Benedict XVI - Vatican out of step on gay rights, says Tony Blair – 4/4/09
Last year, Pope Benedict XVIsparked fury in the gay community when he suggested that homosexuality was as big a threat to humankind as the destruction of the rainforests.
Blair, who converted toCatholicism after leaving Downing Street in 2007, said that views on homosexuality had to keep "evolving".
"There is a huge generational difference here. There's probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on [homosexuality], because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end? You'd start having to rethink many, many things."
He added: "If you went and asked the [ordinary Catholic] congregation, I think you'd find that their faith is not to be found in those types of entrenched attitudes." Photo
Read more:
Gay Marriage ILLINOIS – President OBAMA - believes in treating EVERYONE fairly and equally, with dignity and respect - …it's wrong to prevent couples who are in LOVING, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so. | FREEDOM - This is the United States of America – 12/30/12
"I Hate You Then I Love You" … Gay? - J. EDGAR HOOVER and BENEDICT XVI - Homophobic Men - a "tragic story...about HOW DANGEROUS SEXUAL REPRESSION IS." 12/09/12
J.K. Rowling – “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”
Excerpt:
…One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes…
…Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read…
…Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places…
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
…I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy…
Read more – view video:
Luke 16:23-26
The Rich Man and Lazarus
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' Photo
But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'
Gay Marriage & Benedict XVI Mirroring – “Hitler Youth” supporting Nazis Brutal RE-EDUCATION of Homosexuals | 1997 Orders RE-EDUCATION for Gay Priest, Fr. Marty Kurylowicz’s Public “Coming Out” for Protection of Gay Children |---No USA Civil Laws to Protect Gay Catholic Priest or Children – 9/15/12
PRESIDENT OBAMA‘S letter – August 2012 - Appreciate Perspective on Gay (LGBT) Rights of Fr. Marty Steven Kurylowicz - LGBT Rights Begins with CHILDREN | VATICAN CRACKDOWN – August 2012 - Gay Catholic Priest - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz “Coming Out” 1997 for “Protection of CHILDREN from Antigay Social & Religious Norms - 10/10/12
Developmental Narratives Growing Up Gay - Overview - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - November 16, 2008
Perpetuation of Generational Violence On Children -- Who Grow Up to Be Gay - Kids Are Being Hurt!!! – December 19, 2008
Homosexuality: Coming out of the confusion, by Sidney H. Phillips, M.D. – December 8, 2008
Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New International Version)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again.
1 Chronicles 16:30 (New International Version)
30 Tremble before him, all the earth!
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
1 Chronicles 16:30 (New American Standard Bible)
30 Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.
Psalm 93:1 (New International Version)
1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
Psalm 93:1 (New American Standard Bible)
1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.
Psalm 96:10 (New International Version)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
Psalm 96:10 (New American Standard Bible)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity."
Psalm 104:5 (New International Version)
5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Psalm 104:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever.
Injustice anywhere is a
threat to
Justice everywhere
Martin Luther King
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964
Martin Luther King Jr.
What you cannot do is accept injustice.
From Hitler – or anyone.
You must make the injustice visible
– be prepared to die like a
soldier to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6
Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
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