Good stuff

Good stuff April 29, 2009

Some thought-provoking posts from other blogs. First, this from Dawn Eden:

For Valenti, the idea that virginity even exists is “a lie.” She came to that realization after her first sexual experience at age 14 left her feeling unchanged, as she writes in Chapter 1: “I fail to see how anything that lasts less than five minutes can have such an indelible ethical impact.” (Now, there’s a proposition for moral theologians to consider: One could theoretically break all ten commandments with no permanent ethical consequences, provided one did so in less than five minutes. Kids, don’t try this at home.) With her book, the author intends to “outline a new way for us to think about young women as moral actors, one that doesn’t include their bodies.”

The author’s certainty that “healthy” sexual conduct flows naturally from the absence of moral guidelines recalls the experiments performed by a 16th-century Indian emperor. He isolated babies with a mute nurse to see what would be their “natural” language. Lacking an example, the children grew up unable to speak.

Be sure to check out the comments box on that post for a discussion on modern body-soul dualism.

Then check out this painfully honest post from Catholic blogger extraordinaire, the recently widowed Amy Welborn, on the resurrection of the body:

It has always confused me and caused me to wonder and even doubt the sense of all that I say I believe. I believe in the resurrection of the body…but the body is still here, the body disintegrates, so when….at the end of time?

This question really came to the fore pretty dramatically for me when we visited the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. I wasn’t grossed out, but I was…startled. Even though, intellectually, I knew that cemeteries were full of bodies still on earth in varying states of decay, walking down the hall of that series of rooms brought my questions into stark relief: But where are they now? Has heaven even started yet? (No, I’m not that stupid – but it sort of captures the essence of my confusion.)

And then I think…well, there is no time in God. In God, all of this is done and finished – including your life, Amy – and…

…my brain explodes.

Do read the rest to see where she ends up with this.


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