An AP story tells us that “Benedict has made the defense of traditional family values a major goal of his papacy, speaking out often on the issue.”
“Defending family values” is such a common phrase that it is now cliche; however, we should stop using this term because it distorts what is really happening.
In “defending” these “traditional family values”, the Pope is trying to make it illegal for other people to have an abortion and for other people to marry. How is this defensive? If the state was trying to force someone to have an abortion, and the Pope was campaigning against it, then he would be defending against abortion.
The problem here is that he Pope is trying to force other people to follow his ethics. If they resist his attempts, then they are defending against his attempts to control their lives.
More accurate phrases:
- Benedict has made the enforcement of the Catholic Church’s definition of traditional family values a major goal of his papacy, speaking out often on the issue.
- . . . mandatory adherence to Church Law a major goal . . .
- . . . removing statutes that recognize diversity . . .
Warren Jeffs feels that polygamy is a traditional family value from the Bible; the State of Utah disagrees and is prosecuting him for this actions. He ran away and has tried to defend his actions. This is a legitimate example where the state disagrees with a religious definition of traditional family values and the religion is forced to defend itself.
We must stop allowing religious zealots to force their views on us while calling it “defending” their religion. No one is attacking their religion; it is they who are attacking our definitions of acceptable behaviour.
