I haven't written about it much, but for some time, I've been of the opinion, contrary to that of most of those with whom I work, that the first disaster was not the legalisation of abortion, nor the invention and promulgation of artificial birth control, but divorce.
I realise that no one thinks about it much, no one is campaigning against it and very few are willing to talk about it, but the divorce wave that hit us in the 60s, and that had been building up offshore since the middle of the 19th century, was the first shock that weakened everything else.
And swept a lot of us away with it, making the rest of the sexual revolution more or less of an afterthought.
6 comments:
Of course, you are right. First the supernatural reign of Christ the King was rejected throughout Europe, never having been established, (outside of Quebec) in North America. But the West, on both sides of the Atlantic, still had its heritage of the natural law.
Divorce was the first direct in-your-face defiance of a primary precept of the natural law, that mariage is for life. (Of course, without the grace coming from the acceptance by individuals and the state as such, of Christ's reign, one couldn't keep the natural law for very long.)
So, yes, divorce is the first thing in the current decadence. There is some small resistance (Molly Galagher, et al) but almost all of us have thrown in the towel on this one long ago.
But for us to accept in principal that divorce is OK is to undermine all our other struggles.
Fr. Paul McDonald
the first disaster was not the legalisation of abortion, nor the invention and promulgation of artificial birth control, but divorce.
Totally.
The first disaster was Women's Suffrage.
There is still obviously *some* feeling that marriage makes a life-bond otherwise we would not be imposing alimony after divorce. (Imagine the squawking were one to suggest ending the system of years of alimony payments in favour of a one-shot cash settlement payable upon signing the divorce papers then you're on your own.)
Most jurisdictions no longer have lifetime alimony, Helen. It's called spousal support in most places now too. - Karen
And what led to divorce?
The rejection of consecrated virginity by the Protestants.
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