Another Orson Scott Card essay

[gray_ghost]

Someone is taking Star Wars a little too seriously

On a more serious note, it's weird because I was listening to Fresh Air and this journalist for the National Catholic Reporter was pushing a book he had written on the new pope, and discussing some of his views. Well the main thing Pope Ratzinger is concerned with is the rise of moral relativism within Western culture (which is the same exact thing Orson Scott Card is yammering about and keeps coming back to in his essays). And the focus of his papacy is going to be on advocating a return to moral absolutism (with of course the Catholic church leading the way). Ratzinger believes that the Western world has fallen into a spiritual/intellectual decline over the past 400 years and the fault lies with the philosophy behind moral relativism.

Among the Protestant denominations there is also a lot of angst about this conflict because the Episcopalian church ordained a gay bishop, and it might tear the church in two. Some of the Protestant faiths are incredibly liberal, and having much greater success in converting people to their cause than the Catholics in places like Africa and South America.

But it isn't as if there isn't a long and noble history of denominations being split asunder by something like this. Now it involves a persons' sexuality. Around the time of the Civil War a lot of churches were split in two over what the Bible said about slavery. What's the problem?

So is that what the whole culture war thing is about: absolutism vs relativism? Because if it is I'm not entirely certain how the debate is going to resolve itself. What it feels like is that the Catholic Church is feeling nostalgic for the old days when there was only one church in the West and they did not have to compete against other religions. It's easy to set absolutes for everyone to follow if you're the only faith around, and anyone who is not of your faith is shunned into exile or killed. But if you're a gay person and you are told you are going to burn in hell if you don't change your ways, than jumping ship to another religion where you are accepted would seem to me to be a fairly healthy choice. At least it is in a modern western state. Or if your're a woman and you feel compelled to become a minister but are Catholic, then why not join one of the Protestant denominations that allows women ministers? I suppose that a moral absolutist would say that an individual does not have the spiritual insight to determine what there own morality is - and thus needs to respect church doctrine which has been around for thousands of years.