Christopher Hitchens and I don’t agree on a great deal. Â He has written a number of books, God is not Great, Why Orwell Matters, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, among many others. Â I like his writing style but I disagree with almost every position he takes. Â But I saw an article he wrote on Slate, and have to say that I agree with an awful lot of it. Â He is dealing with the repeated reports of covering up child sex abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. Â If you haven’t read Hitchens before, you will notice his characteristic overstatements, but, his argument is a very fair one. Â Let me know what you think. Â Is he being fair or not?
franklin harrison said...
1i definitely agree with his main argument. if we desire to be people that follow after the heart of God, then seeking and advocating justice for victims of abuse must be a natural extension of that heart posture. the men who inflicted this harm upon the children whose spiritual upbringing they were responsible for cannot go ignored, and they must be held accountable and face the consequences for their crimes in the court of law. the fact that the spiritual leadership of the catholic church seems to be supressing the facts and sweeping the crimes under the rug is malicious and disturbing. i agree that they are culpable in this travesty and that they too must be held responsible for their own crimes.
the only claim that he made that i think is a bit of an exaggeration was this one:
“…here is an ancient Christian church that deals in awful certainties when it comes to outright condemnation of sins like divorce, abortion, contraception, and homosexuality between consenting adults. For these offenses there is no forgiveness, and moral absolutism is invoked.”
i think the “there is no forgiveness” statement was a bit of an exaggeration. in a lot of Christian circles, there is a broadening realization that in a lot of the issues that mr. hitchens names, there is a definite case sensitivity and addressing of the individual situation that trumps the sense of ‘moral absolutism’ that hitchens condemns. and even if that is something that is still in its infancy within church circles, the greater church body has embraced the fact that there is most DEFINITELY forgiveness that is offered through Jesus.
03/25/10 3:27 PM | Comment Link