Just read this story over at Inquirer: Bishop opposes QC birth control ordinance. Now, Bishop Ongtioco isn't the first bishop to oppose such measures, and I'm pretty sure he won't be the last. So to help the Magisterium engage the "anti-life" propagandists over at City Hall and various reproductive health centres, let me offer Their Excellencies some pieces of advice:
1. Stop confusing the laity by abortion-baiting (i.e., lumping contraception and abortion in the hope of transferring the distaste for the latter towards the former). There is a clear line between contraception and abortion-- even abortifacient drugs don't blur this line-- and you know this. Abortion-baiting is dishonest and condescending, something I'm sure Your Excellencies don't want to be.
2. Avoid making medical claims because, however we look at it, DD does not equal MD. Also, if Your Excellencies will point out that some contraceptives can raise the risk of certain cancers, you will be hard pressed to explain away the fact that contraceptives can reduce the risk of some cancers, and sex without contraceptives raises the risk of other cancers.
3. Emulate the great apologists like Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons by avoiding name-calling and sloganeering. Do you think the Athenians would have listened to St. Justin if he called them "boy-lovers", Your Excellencies?
4. Do not use "freedom of conscience" in your argument if you are trying to stop the dissemination of certain, even destructive, information. Free will can only be directed towards God if the conscience is given complete information, Your Excellencies. How holy is choosing the strait and narrow if the wide and broad was never shown?
5. Drop the argument that a teacher should be allowed to choose what she teaches based on her conscience-- this is a very treacherous slope. What applies to the Catholic teacher will also apply to the Jehovah's Witness teacher and the Iglesia ni Cristo teacher. Think about it, Your Excellencies.
6. Do not oppose humane, non-judgemental counselling and health care for anyone, even those you consider automatically excommunicated. Being humane and non-judgemental are good things, Your Excellencies.
7. Stop telling the laity how to have sex, Your Excellencies. Celibate men do not exactly make the best sex therapists, just like Stephen Hawking doesn't make the best track coach.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
by the way, in a less direct manner, *not* having sex is a risk factor for some cancers as well.
hairy, ennit? hard enough for doctors to talk smart on the subject, and yet these bishops...
the only reason this is in the news is that people seem to believe that the church holds some kind of political power in elections. that can't be true anymore. i believe the clergy can say whatever it wants, and us believers make a choice on whether to follow. But their positions shouldn't be basis for public policy
Post a Comment