That’s just one of so many things they just don’t understand. Canadians are aging. Elderly persons are heavy consumers of health care. In the past 30 years, we have aborted 2.5 million children, some of whom could have been doctors by now. Will “they” ever see the connection?
It was recently reported that in a very few years, the majority of Canadians will be new immigrants. We have to rely on immigration to bolster our shrinking population. Does anyone acknowledge that our country is dying from self-inflicted wounds? In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, parents and some school boards are fighting to restrain the teaching of appallingly explicit sex education at ever-earlier ages, entirely devoid of moral content and guidelines. “They” ridicule those efforts. Then, there is dismay that young people are engaging in casual sex earlier and earlier. Even the media are shocked to learn that 12-year-old girls engaging in casual oral sex with high school teens, saying it’s not “a big deal.” Still, they say there is no connection. Pre-marital sexual abstinence and marital fidelity can virtually eliminate STDs, including AIDS, but cynics are convinced that people – the young in particular – have unbridled passions and appetites. They scoff at the notion of promoting chastity, pre-marital abstinence and marital fidelity as health measures. They just don’t get it. So they teach the young how to be unchaste, and then peddle condoms, despite evidence that they don’t completely prevent AIDS, STDs or pregnancy.
In our sex-saturated culture, young men are expected – some say encouraged – to be prematurely sexually active. Normally, male fertility lasts a lifetime. Yet, judging by the proliferation of those vulgar Viagra ads on TV, men are experiencing an epidemic of “erectile dysfunction.” Is this simply one of nature’s cruel jokes or is there a lesson?
There was a time when our culture accepted the reality of sin and temptation, when it was understood that there could be “occasions of sin” (situations that were likely to become sinful). Such as “just taking a look” at a pornographic website or magazine. Because experience shows that “taking a look” can stir up an appetite that can be insatiable, the prescription of the time was to exert self-discipline and flee the occasion.
It was understood that some situations involve “necessary risks.” Doctors have to perform intimate examinations on patients of the opposite gender. Police must check pornographic materials in the line of duty. There was a time when it was recognized that such situations could be risky, for human weakness is a reality. In spite of good intentions, even professionals can develop an appetite for something very wrong. So they were encouraged to be virtuous and were taught spiritual ways to protect themselves and others. It helped.
In our time, every other kind of insurance is encouraged, but this. Today, individuals enter unprotected into areas more risky than ever. Is it really a surprise that sometimes, to their own horror and to the shock of their family and friends, they end up where they never really intended to go? Like getting involved in sexual misconduct with patients or students, or obsessively amassing pornographic images or deeply implicated in child porn. The fallout for everyone involved is horrendous. The evil multiplies. The remedies proposed are seldom the right ones, because so often the wrong lessons are learned.
There are so many important lessons. In Terri Schiavo’s sad story. In the demand for an “equality” that would radically change the understanding of marriage. In the folly of divorcing our heads from our hearts, so as to live always in the realm of “if it feels good, do it.” In so many other situations.
