Hmm. Why would secular society settle around *one* norm? After all, there isn't a single standard to hold secular society to, so norms developing in different areas/groups would have no reason be similar.
Agreed on the cause/effect. The earliest case of sexual abuse by a priest that I am personally aware of (as in, have spoken to the victim) occurred during the 1930's. Further all of the literature I've read on child abuse indicates that the problem is not new, it was just more effectively hushed up in the past. Certainly the Salvos were rescuing children from sexual abuse in the 1890's.
And of course anyone with a conscience was opposed to contraception - and masturbation - in past centuries. When serious study of biology means Aristotle, and quackery has a claim to have grown a foetus in a glass of wine solely from sperm - then there isn't a distinction between abortion, contraception, or masturbation. All three then had to be viewed as clear cut murder, with a fully developed human being left to die. [shrugs] And a century ago, washing venom off a snake bite and cutting away the surrounding flesh was the ethically right thing to do. Doing that now is criminal negligence.
Still, her first shot - against people calling themselves Catholic but not being prepared to actually *be* Catholic - is a simple demand for honesty. She shouldn't even need to say this, it should be obvious.
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Date: 2008-08-14 12:47 pm (UTC)Agreed on the cause/effect. The earliest case of sexual abuse by a priest that I am personally aware of (as in, have spoken to the victim) occurred during the 1930's. Further all of the literature I've read on child abuse indicates that the problem is not new, it was just more effectively hushed up in the past. Certainly the Salvos were rescuing children from sexual abuse in the 1890's.
And of course anyone with a conscience was opposed to contraception - and masturbation - in past centuries. When serious study of biology means Aristotle, and quackery has a claim to have grown a foetus in a glass of wine solely from sperm - then there isn't a distinction between abortion, contraception, or masturbation. All three then had to be viewed as clear cut murder, with a fully developed human being left to die. [shrugs] And a century ago, washing venom off a snake bite and cutting away the surrounding flesh was the ethically right thing to do. Doing that now is criminal negligence.
Still, her first shot - against people calling themselves Catholic but not being prepared to actually *be* Catholic - is a simple demand for honesty. She shouldn't even need to say this, it should be obvious.