The whole question of when life begins revolves around baptism. Originally the Church accepted I think Aristotle’s idea that a fetus was a plant, and that during pregnancy it evolved through each level of being until the end, when it was human.
Yes, fetal evolution!
I even remember a horror movie in the 50s that talked about this theory and the story line was about a duke who had been born a frog.
Later the Church adopted a Middle Ages philosopher’s idea that the embryo is as human as the baby.
This was critical, because the official dogma of the Catholic Church was then and is now that an unbaptized baby carries Original Sin to Judgment. The doctrine of Limbo was created to blunt the brutality of this, but few people know that official Church doctrine says that after the Day of Judgment there are only two destinations for the human soul, Heaven and Hell.
And, with apologies to Dante, Hell is not fair.
In the Middle Ages there was a device that looked like a grease can, with a long snout, which was used to baptize babies who were dying in the womb. It is still true that the Church considers babies who die in the womb to be damned, but it is beneath the dignity of a modern priest to do that and the law wouldn’t let them if they wanted to.
In Mexico many babies die unbaptized because they can’t pay the fee to the priest. They think their babies are damned. Actually, a parent or anybody else, male or female, Catholic or atheist, can baptize a child.
According to Church doctrine, every aborted fetus goes to Hell eventually.
In Calvinist doctrine the chosen few live a life that shows they are among the Chosen. All babies, regardless of baptism, go to Hell.
Today’s Pro-Life Movement takes none of this into account. For all its shrieks about religion, it is entirely secular. Catholic pro-Life forces, and they are by no means the entire movement, never mention baptism, because it would be beneath their dignity to admit they believe in things Mommy Professor would laugh at.
In Screwtape, CS Lewis did say the Devil was a liar. But the examples Screwtape gave, of a man who avoided evil company because he liked to eat rotting fish and went to Heaven, sound like the purely serendipitous way Judgment is decided.
There is simply no way for a person to say that he believes in Heaven and Hell and impress his suburban neighbor that he is logical, reasonable and beyond all respectable.
If you believe, there is no place for Pride, which is now called Respectability. It is a deadly sin, to the baby and to you, if you believe in the doctrine of the Church.
I do not believe the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Satan cannot build with something he does not have. But he has plenty of Pride.
#1 by BGLass on 11/23/2010 - 10:54 am
I do not believe the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Satan cannot build with something he does not have. But he has plenty of Pride.
In the same way, “naivete” is impossible to believe in, too–at least in people past the age of five. That and “lack of exposures,” another phrase for the same thing, is often used to excuse pride/ego/lack of humility.
But by five, everyone has been exposed to t.v. and they often come right out with things on t.v., if one is willing to acknowledge it. The problem isn’t the t.v., it’s the viewers (the judgement or lack of it that they make on what they see.) The world is full of Horatio Alger, self-righteous republicans–it worked for Hannity, therefore what the heck is wrong with others (whose reality was completely different…uh hello). Everybody in the world is exactly like me!—
Oh…they are different??? Well…If we just recreate my entire circumstances from scratch—then they will be exactly like me, and can become great like me (since I attribute going to school to making ME great, and they and may even be on t.v. like me, someday! It happened for Juan Williams, after all. Therefore we must offer more education b/c that’s what I think helped me be on t.v. or whatever! Pride is a sin BECAUSE it will come back to haunt— God wasn’t stupid when He tried to point that out.
#2 by Dave on 11/23/2010 - 11:01 am
Pride, jealousy, and hatred are a very reliable trinity, but you have to couple this with a whole slew of basic human wants to get a complete picture.
Personally I take great comfort in it.
So many whites are in denial of the heavy duty role jealously plays in the attitude nonwhites have toward them. Their jealously is HEAVY DUTY. There is a veritable agony of jealousy at play in the nonwhite world and one of the major functions of Political Correctness and Respectability is to put a veil over it.
Under Political Correctness it is MANDATORY that we PRETEND that nonwhites are not afflicted with painful and unremitting jealousy of the white world.
Among white people, all manner of pretenses and posturing are the norm. It is the old “I am more spiritual than you” self-deception, where we pretend that we rise above jealously and competition and the raw and base emotions that drive us because of our superior awareness.
I never cease to be astonished at how many white people are blind to what this superior attitude on the part of white people does to the hearts of nonwhites. From the nonwhite standpoint, it is adding painful and visceral insult to injury.
Interracially, we are not going to get along. IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. The nonwhite world can live with that. Why so many white people can’t live with it is puzzlement for the ages.
What the nonwhite world can’t live with is the reign of the RESPECTABLES who pretend that we are capable of overcoming this kind of thing. That is just too much to take.
Needless to say, Political Correctness can’t bear to acknowledge these truths. Instead, it must militantly ignore them.
#3 by Simmons on 11/23/2010 - 11:25 am
I doubt Militant PC will outlast its greatest threat, the whiny white woman.
Not trying to be a mysoginist but rumbling out there in a high pitch feverish tinged voice is the white woman being betrayed of her privilege.
Even sanctimonious PC is crafted to make a www seem the superior “spiritual” being, meaning that PC once it conflicts with the www and her privilege means a divorce.
Obama and Co. are cutting medicare bennies, now wait till you have to take your www to a doctor who in his head first calculates his reimbursement for said www then offers minimal treatment. Going thru that now with a hypochondriac mother in law with Greatest Generation privilege, 24/7 pull of gravity towards her health problems, nothing else exists, and why should it she and others have done so much for the world, especially for the darkies (she thought segregation so wrong).
I could take up this blog dealing with the www’s that I know of in my extended circle, reality is circling over head.
#4 by shari on 11/23/2010 - 11:46 am
It is impossible to maintain belief in a god who torments babies,even if people are tormented by that belief for a period of time. And, I think, only whites have been especially tormented. It’s also impossible to believe in a god who “loves” everybody,except white children, and cares not, if they are destroyed.
#5 by Mademoiselle White Rabbit on 11/24/2010 - 12:12 am
Well, to swallow my pride and post this even thought it will make me look stupid – or even worse, silly – Evangelical Christianity in its present form is a very odd mixture of Calvinism, Arminianism, and feel-goodism. The die-hard fundamentalists, as always, are a different story entirely.
So, while most of my church members will tell you that once being saved there is nothing you can do to become “unsaved”, many will also say that salvation is purely a matter of human free will. As for murdered babies (or, as I believe the commonly accepted phrase says, “potential lives”), I’ve had pastors point to David’s reaction when his child with Bathsheba died as proof that the unborn and the young do go to Heaven. There could also be an argument made that since the Old Covenant of the Jews had sacrifices for unintentional, forgotten, or otherwise unaddressed sins, and the death of Christ was a perfect sacrifice replacing all imperfect sacrifices, salvation covers those who cannot be brought to account for their actions – who that includes, of course, is a different discussion.
Thank you for making me squirm every time you bring up Christianity, Grandpa Bob. I feel like it makes me a more thoughtful Christian; let’s hope it also makes me a better pro-White.