There is a man on FB who is a convert to Catholicism. He would describe himself as a faithful Catholic, vigilantly pro-life and faithful to the Magisterium. He likes to post provocative stuff in order to get people talking. I am guessing, but I think he does so because he believes his provocative statements spark real discussion, however he makes no effort to join his reason with compassion. As a result, he comes across as angry, hateful and one of those people the Left can use as an example of a Catholic who hates women.
I read his latest rant and posted a response, though I don't understand why I try to get through to him. Frankly, I am close to deleting him as a friend but birds need both the left wing, the right wing and the center to fly. Besides, sometimes the statements he makes are so incredibly silly I get a laugh out of it and it makes my day.
Anyone who believe VANITY is the reason women get abortions is not engaged in the world. That is his latest assertion.
One of the issues no one on the right wants to look at is the state of women in the world and why they became open to the idea of legalized abortion.
I remember reading Betty Friedan, The Women's Room and the Rubyfruit Jungle. I remember the premise that was set before the women of the United States beginning in the 1950's and I remember WHY they were so open to the lie.
Men would leave their families, walk away from their children without a second glance. Many had two or three families in different cities. Women were forced to raise their children alone, working non stop to keep roofs over their heads, clothes on their backs and food on the table.
When radical feminists told women that they could never be equal or free as long as they bore the main responsibility of bearing and raising children, they had solid evidence to point to in order to prove their point.
What was rejected was the idea that women are fundamentally different from men. We are not better, we are not worse but we are DIFFERENT. The lie was a lie because this truth was rejected. Women were not told that killing their children would cause a wound to their psyche so deep that it would take years and years to heal.
Today many of the "women" who go to get abortions are underage girls, impregnated by older men. The number who are coerced into these abortions is astounding. The number of women who are caught up in sex trafficking, who are addicted to drugs and alcohol because of abuse suffered as children or have simply been abandoned by the men who told them they were loved is that dirty secret no one wants to drag into the light.
The guy on Facebook does not want to look at the role men have played in the destruction of the family. Just as he claims that there are no good women left because he has been rejected (despite being a good and moral Catholic man), his inability to look at the actions of his own sex gives his observations about women and their reasons for thinking abortion is an answer to what they perceive as a problem a nasty and hateful edge.
The nasty and hateful edge he adopts ignores the wound post abortive women suffer. It ignores the role society has played by telling them they are the same as boys when they are in kindergarten, only to have them grow up and wonder why they are unhappy, why they are looking for love through sexual relations when they are too young and unmarried and why they are so willing to settle for men who treat them as tissue to be used and discarded.
Women and Men make babies. Women and Men are both responsible for Abortion. Women and Men together can eliminate the need for Abortion, but only when they are both willing to accept that, regarding this particular issue, they have found true equality.
I pray every night for those women who today will make the mistake of believing the lie. I will now pray that they be protected from men who accuse them of making this choice because of mere vanity. I pray that when they take an action that severs them from God and wounds their souls they hear only the voice of their brothers and sisters calling them to forgiveness and Love.
2 comments:
Leslie,
I don’t know about that “no good women left” drivel. I know plenty of good Catholic women. I am friends with some, although I am currently not dating anyone, Catholic or otherwise. Being alive for the last 51 years has been interesting. I have survived “men don’t cry/men do cry”, and the infamous, ridiculous, absurd “I can feel your pain” phase. The only thing I know for sure is that men must be men and women must be women. I know, a simpleminded way of viewing a sociological phenomenon. But as a man once said, “Most good ideas are simple.” Since becoming a Catholic, and looking at the concept of a Sacramental Marriage, I have not quite been the same.
So, I don’t have a lot of room in my life for the kind of whining shown by the statement “there are no good women left.” The character Howard Beale said it succinctly in “Network,” “I ran out of B.S.” One of the consequences of trying to live a spiritual life.
Robert
Thank you, Robert. I have no doubt that our unique perspective ON perspective has shaped our Catholic Faith. Maybe I am being too harsh on this man as I know he is sincere. I think what bothers me about him is the hard edge to his tone and his proclivity to start these 'discussions' by throwing women under the bus. He really dislikes Abby Johnson and from the sound of his arguments he hates her because she is a woman who got her story out there and so grabbed media attention in the pro life world. There is that little flavor of 'why not me' in his negative posts on her.
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