The Atlantic Report: The Catholic Church Explains Sexual Mores—With Economics

One of the earliest turning points in my adult life of thought happened because of Harper's. I was deep in my policy magazine days, reading "thought-provoking" articles with an eye a bit less jaundiced than today.

I don't remember the article but I clearly remember thinking that I agreed with the left that all this stuff--celebrity culture, sports, and other media events--were distractions.

But what was it that was important and being obscured?

The left's answer was politics.

It's enough to make one nauseous. In the broad scheme of the world and human life, the most important element is skirmishing over laws and administration?

That's it? Their answer was completely unsatisfying. If that is all there is, then life is a lot less than it's been made out to be.

This is why Emma Green's article, "The Catholic Church Explains Sexual Mores—With Economics," has a large picture of Marx attached to it. In a politicized world, individuals are reduced to economic actors, just the way ol' Karl thought about them.

Green does have some insight:

It's ironic that Vatican is being cheered for softening its stance on homosexuality and premarital sex by advocates of personal sexual freedom, yet this shift has nothing to do with endorsing individualism—it's more of a recognition that sometimes, people don't have the ability to make the sexual choices the Church wants them to.

In true critical theory fashion, Green makes several references to Pope Francis' opposition to the "free market" and "capitalism." "Critical theory" because the assumption is that the opposite of capitalism is Marxism.

Green points out that the mid-synod report differs from the pre-synod agenda only in language:

The pre-synod document relies on the straightforward language of right and wrong, not references to structural market forces that affect people's behavior in ways they can't control; economic logic shifts the responsibility for traditionally "immoral" acts away from people and onto the economic system they live in.

It appears that Green's position is that the Church is cloaking its moral judgments in economic terms in order to appeal to modern progressives. A moral wolf in "objective" sheep's clothing, so to speak.

I'm Catholic because the vision it promotes is more accurate, more positive and all-around better than that provided by kitchen-sink modernism. Responding to the charges of the sexual revolutionaries seems to be the wrong tactic. If they're thinking about branding, a good slogan would be, "A Life with Meaning Starts Here."