Probably few Catholics think about it, but professing Southern Baptists today are in major positions of influence in this country. For instance, in politics, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-L.A., Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., and other movers and shakers in forming national policy are Baptists.
So are the chief of all chaplains of the U. S. Air Force, star entertainers and athletes, leaders in business and scientists. Millions of Americans regularly attend Baptist churches, forming the second largest religious group in the country.
Historically, Baptists affected the way Americans think and behave, much more than Catholics.
The denomination presently has a big problem: sexual abuse of the vulnerable by its personnel.
While a similar problem in Catholic circles comes to mind, differences pertain. Catholic clergy accused of such abuse are never married. Almost all Baptist leaders accused of sexually abusing others are spouses in religious marriages, most with children.
Catholic parishes answer to diocesan bishops, and bishops answer to Rome. Each Southern Baptist congregation stands alone, making a unified and effective Baptist response to sexual abuse difficult to create.
The link among cases of sexual abuse
Sexual abuse of youth and of the vulnerable in general is a serious problem, presenting itself in many contexts. Maybe a link exists among all cases and among related social concerns: this generation’s “anything goes” philosophy regarding intimacy and relationships.
Look at the overall situation. Intimacy has become almost trivial. Self-satisfaction, self-interest, and living for the moment drive it. Look at the number of intimate relationships outside marriage.
In Western society, “living together” has become a way of life that is accepted, tolerated, even expected, and never considered in any moral, certainly in no religious, terms.
True, make no mistake, an adult’s sexual attraction to children has its own special definition. It is not psychologically healthy, all moral considerations aside. It has uniquely evil results.
While long hidden and ignored, pedophilia is likely nothing new in human behavior. Now, it is openly discussed and addressed, albeit imperfectly at times, but the wider problem is overlooked. And this is itself a problem.
Birth control devalues relationships
In 1968, Pope St. Paul VI published an encyclical, Humanae Vitae, stating Catholic principles regarding artificial birth control. Birth control was nothing new, but science had found easier ways to prevent conception, precisely by medication, popularly called “the pill.”
Furthermore, birth control was difficult in this country until 1965, when the United States Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law that disallowed the sale of items for the purpose of contraception. What had been at least an inconvenience in America became commonplace.
St. Paul VI’s encyclical is remembered for its rejection of artificial birth control, but unfortunately what has been lost is its warning to Catholics and to all others about where the culture seemed to be going.
St. Paul VI died in 1978. The first sentence in recollections of him should be, “He warned us.” He frankly predicted that if humanity did not return to listening to God, and to living by what it heard from God, the consequences would be bad.
Modern society, by falling into what he forecast, is reaping the whirlwind. He was right. He saw artificial birth control as indicating something broader and deeper. People are losing sight of the correct purpose of intimacy. Relationships now are seen as impermanent, self-centered, transitory, no longer as truly profound, genuinely committed communions between a man and a woman, solidified by a sense of God and intended by each to endure for life, for a holy purpose.
Not surprisingly, the modern situation of marriage is a disaster. Divorce is routine. Heartbreak accompanies most breakups. So many unions are “marriages” in name only, stagnant, burdensome. Abortion, universally abhorred in 1968, is legal in about half the states, demanded in the others. Many endure the effects of sexual abuse. Violence, exploitation, unfaithfulness, and abandonment in relationships are everywhere.
