According to the Pope, Canada is suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism” and pointed to “the plummeting birth rate” as proof..
Perhaps the best evidence possible of this being the Pope playing at politics is this statement itself. It's a classic "talking point" style from the political right wing - take two topics that are utterly unrelated and then presuppose a connection between them. The argument that the declining birth rate in "Western" countries is connected to secularism is deeply flawed. First of all, it supposes that secular society discourages children - it does not. Second, the argument quickly degenerates into a line of thinking that supposes that a woman's primary value in society is to give birth to children, and does not value them as children. Such arbitrary valuations arise not out of enlightenment, but out of the ignorance of those who have a need to perpetuate a "masculine hierarchy" of power. (Take a close look at the RC Church and its long held stance with respect to female clergy)
There's a few things about this that really irritate me - first of all is the blind presupposition that the Pope has that he can dictate law and political policy to entire nations - nations that he has never lived in, nor attempted to understand. Just as I think it is deeply flawed thinking on BushCo's part to "export democracy", I take similar umbrage at the Pope's attempt to export his morality to the rest of the world.
The second thing that annoys me is this bit of blatant stupidity:
“In the name of tolerance your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse, and in the name of freedom of choice it is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children,” the Pope said.
Both of these are arguments buried in the logic of ignorance and a dramatic failure to comprehend the legal structures of this nation.
The legal notion of spouse changed in this country as soon as common-law couples became "equivalent to married" for the purposes of property and divorce. I didn't hear the Popes complaining about this since over the years, largely because that one small change in law was something that specifically works to the benefit of women and children - who otherwise found themselves left destitute should the relationship collapse. The second aspect of the error in the Pope's argument is the failure to recognize the distinction between personal morality and legal relationships. There are many places where secular law is obliged to diverge from the desires of individual faiths. In fact, the very fact that Canada has no "official" religion means necessarily that our laws cannot legislate based upon the arbitrary moral declarations of a religious leader.
The second part of the Pope's comments is the classic whinge about abortion rights for women. I find this particularly offensive on several levels. First, the Catholic Church's prohibitions against abortion ignore the risks that a woman takes when she is pregnant. Second, it ignores the consequences of rape and incest on women. Last, it reduces women to being little more than baby bearers who are held hostage to the "madonna/whore" contradiction by their husbands. In the last century or so, women have become much more in control of their fertility. We understand the biology of conception fairly well, and women have availed themselves of that knowledge quite actively to gain a degree of control over their own destinies.
While there are aspects of abortion that disturb me, I think that the Pope errs in assuming that a woman is unable to make an intelligent, moral decision for herself. Unwanted pregnancy impacts women disproportionately to men, and in the past condemned the woman to both poverty and social ostracization - for the "sin" of getting pregnant. It seems to me utterly reasonable that a woman can make a moral decision on such a matter, in either direction.
If the Pope is so worried about the "evils" of secularism, I suggest that he focus his attentions upon the decision making that goes on in the boardrooms of the corporate world. Business has become amoral to a degree that should positively frighten the pope, and it has done so in ways that are truly damaging to people's well being. It strikes me that attempting to regulate people's sex lives, and reproductive lives, is not merely foolish, it is doomed to fail.
No comments:
Post a Comment