I won't ever be a credible "gay-hater," because it's not who I am. I've probably made jokes and the like, as young men have been known to do when they lack experience. Yet my culture is one of acceptance, even celebration. I am affected by this, even as I am constrained to hold otherwise. And what gay activists would find from me and many others is a certain kind of acceptance, born of common humanity. Nevertheless, we are constrained by an anthropology--that is, that which concerns humanity's destiny and purpose--to profess what we profess. It is not a "phobia," or animus, but a fundamental disagreement about what human life actually is. Associate Justice Kennedy once famously opined that rights in this society confer the opportunity to define one's own destiny and purpose. It is at precisely this point, we part ways. I am constrained to acknowledge reality, not to create it for myself.
Suppose for the moment that the reason people are expending so much energy defining themselves is that all the ways people used to know have been shattered. Our families have been shattered, along with our sense of community, in countless ways. You have to hand it to classical liberalism: even as it takes away everything people rely on--without them realizing it--it convinces us all that these changes are the fruit of our "liberty." Liberty to do what?
Emotivism is on the rise. Emotivism may be the reason why you're not prepared to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the relevant paragraphs, giving the ideas a fair hearing. As many wiser than me have noted, take note of how often you or other people make a declarative statement that begins, "I feel..." What we intend to say is, "I think..." but we don't. "I think" is a relic from the time when truth was not "my truth" or "your truth," but something outside of us, something we either conformed to, or fruitlessly fought against. The indomitable Dr. Bryan Cross noted:
"When philosophical skepticism is the dominant background philosophy, not only is the very discoverability and intelligibility of the order by which actions are rationally judged to be ordered or disordered denied, but such rational judgments can only be seen as bigoted and emotivist, and therefore as irrational and coercive exercises of power and control over others."
We're dealing with so much more than cakes and rainbow flags, if we take a moment to reflect upon this. And I might suggest that a person who rejects truth claims when it comes to what they ought to do with their sex organs will not be so sure when ICE is taking children from their families. If you surrender the claim of truth, feelings are all that remain, and your interlocutors and opponents take the opportunity to reject those moral claims, such as they are. In the process, I find to my horror that some deny any value of feelings at all, or surrender to their worst instincts and emotional responses, as if those feelings were as valid as any truth claim.
One other thing: Some people offer the opinion that the true humanity and compassion is offered by those who profess no faith at all. Careful, now: do you offer what amounts to an emotivist claim about what others believe, and why? I'd be hard-pressed to convict the man who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop of bigotry, unless I decided that his truth claim was per se evidence of it. Before I got too comfortable in my alleged superiority, I might try to figure out exactly how I know the things I think I know.
What if "Love is love" is a conceptual house of cards? I hope it hasn't been too long since you have asked a question that shakes the foundations of how you lean into the world. It's daring to ask; it's even more daring to build upon the true truth of what you find.
Suppose for the moment that the reason people are expending so much energy defining themselves is that all the ways people used to know have been shattered. Our families have been shattered, along with our sense of community, in countless ways. You have to hand it to classical liberalism: even as it takes away everything people rely on--without them realizing it--it convinces us all that these changes are the fruit of our "liberty." Liberty to do what?
Emotivism is on the rise. Emotivism may be the reason why you're not prepared to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the relevant paragraphs, giving the ideas a fair hearing. As many wiser than me have noted, take note of how often you or other people make a declarative statement that begins, "I feel..." What we intend to say is, "I think..." but we don't. "I think" is a relic from the time when truth was not "my truth" or "your truth," but something outside of us, something we either conformed to, or fruitlessly fought against. The indomitable Dr. Bryan Cross noted:
"When philosophical skepticism is the dominant background philosophy, not only is the very discoverability and intelligibility of the order by which actions are rationally judged to be ordered or disordered denied, but such rational judgments can only be seen as bigoted and emotivist, and therefore as irrational and coercive exercises of power and control over others."
We're dealing with so much more than cakes and rainbow flags, if we take a moment to reflect upon this. And I might suggest that a person who rejects truth claims when it comes to what they ought to do with their sex organs will not be so sure when ICE is taking children from their families. If you surrender the claim of truth, feelings are all that remain, and your interlocutors and opponents take the opportunity to reject those moral claims, such as they are. In the process, I find to my horror that some deny any value of feelings at all, or surrender to their worst instincts and emotional responses, as if those feelings were as valid as any truth claim.
One other thing: Some people offer the opinion that the true humanity and compassion is offered by those who profess no faith at all. Careful, now: do you offer what amounts to an emotivist claim about what others believe, and why? I'd be hard-pressed to convict the man who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop of bigotry, unless I decided that his truth claim was per se evidence of it. Before I got too comfortable in my alleged superiority, I might try to figure out exactly how I know the things I think I know.
What if "Love is love" is a conceptual house of cards? I hope it hasn't been too long since you have asked a question that shakes the foundations of how you lean into the world. It's daring to ask; it's even more daring to build upon the true truth of what you find.
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