By ‘culture’ we
mean the attitudes of a given society as expressed in and fostered by its
politics, education, social care, arts, media etc. By ‘death’ in this context
we mean anti-life practices. A society
that utilises anti-life acts or the actual taking of life is a society which cannot
be anything but a society which has espoused the Culture of Death. ‘Life
cultures’ seek to help persons;
‘anti-life’ cultures eliminate
persons. Whenever we see anti-life practices proposed or enshrined as the
answer to life’s problems we know we are living in The Culture of Death, and it
is the Culture of Death which is currently pervading Western society.
As Pope St. John
Paul II stated: “it is true that we are confronted by an even larger reality,
which can be described as a veritable structure of sin. This reality is
characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many
cases takes the form of a veritable "culture of death". “While it is
true that the taking of life not yet born or in its final stages is sometimes
marked by a mistaken sense of altruism and human compassion, it cannot be
denied that such a culture of death, taken as a whole, betrays a completely
individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of
"the strong" against the weak who have no choice but to submit.
“We have to go to the heart of the tragedy
being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man...Those
who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate easily fall into a sad
vicious circle: when the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose
the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn, the systematic
violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for
human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the
capacity to discern God's living and saving presence.
“This situation,
with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all fully aware that we are facing
an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the
"culture of death" and the "culture of life". We find
ourselves not only "faced with" but necessarily "in the midst
of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with the
inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.
“Walk as
children of light ... and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no
part in the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph 5:8, 10-11). In our present
social context, marked by a dramatic struggle between the "culture of
life" and the "culture of death", there is need to develop a
deep critical sense, capable of discerning true values and authentic needs.” (cf. Evangelium Vitae)
Many fail to see
the reality of the Death Culture because we cultivated it piece by piece over
several decades. The approval of artificial contraception by the Anglican
Communion (the ‘Church of England’) in 1930 was the first erosion of traditional
morality in the minds of the populace, and it influenced many to accept the
Culture of Death, leaving the Catholic Church the only voice upholding the
Culture of Life (though many of her pastors and people also became blind to the
Culture of Death; some –Bishops included- even advocate its acceptance as a
‘pastoral practice’).
Today, most people
have come to see ‘anti-life’ acts as the answer to human problems, thereby
espousing the Culture of Death. How did this happen? There are basically two
precursors at the core of the Culture of Death being tolerated and promoted
today.
The first precursor
to the Culture of Death, which facilitated the blindness in man to the reality
of that Culture, is the kind of person-centred psychology promoted by
Carl Rogers. Rogers believed that at the core, all people are good, and that helped
to find their ‘own solutions’ will always make a morally good choice. His
fellow person-centred psychologist Abraham Maslow took Rogers to task for
failing to recognise that iniquity also dwells at man’s core; that there is a fundamental
flaw at man’s centre from which the individual's malevolent inclinations and actions arise.
The second
precursor to the Culture of Death is the social engineering enacted by protagonists
of the death culture. These changed the language we use; softening-down the
stark reality of the acts in question: infanticide became ‘abortion’ and
‘termination of pregnancy’; killing the sick became ‘euthanasia’ or
‘mercy-killing’; sodomy/buggery became ‘man-man sex/love’. This language was then
promoted through the media (films, TV, magazines etc) until protagonists of the
Culture of Death had gained enough credibility and influence to lobby for a
change in the law and gain legal accommodation of these anti-life acts and
behaviours. Bit by bit people got used to the new ways of speaking and thinking,
and changed their behaviours accordingly, coming to live by the Culture of
Death rather than the Culture of Life. This process of social engineering was
akin to a frog in a pan of cold water brought slowly to the boil: unlike a
second frog placed directly into hot water, the first frog does not jump out;
it constantly adapts to the change of temperature as the water comes to the
boil -which ultimately proves fatal.
Aspects of the
Culture of Death which we can criticise for their harm to human persons and
society are the following.
Artificial
Contraception,
since it acts against life, is thus part of the culture of death. Indeed
artificial contraception is the foundation stone of the Culture of Death since
it allows the act geared toward one unique gaol -the procreation of the
species- into an act of mere recreation free from the propagation of life. Bonding
of the couple, often used as a reason for non-productive sex, can be achieved
in other ways so it is not intrinsically linked to sex, but the propagation of the
species is possible only via sex, so
claiming sex is necessary for bonding is a false argument. Synthetic hormones
in the pill, patch, injection, implant, are all chemical contraception, and are
the only drugs prescribed by a doctor to disrupt healthy functioning, which
means the woman who uses them is engaging in chemical warfare against her own
body. Barrier methods (condom and cap) spread disease since they do not
prevent STD’s which spread by skin contact and not by penetration. Thus, these
methods too are part of the Culture of Death. Tubal ties and vasectomy permanently eliminate (kill-off) the
life-giving powers of the person and as such they too are part of the Culture
of Death. The IUD or Coil, though
often called contraception, is in fact an
abortion device, preventing implantation of a conceived embryo which passes
through the womb and dies in menstruation. As such, the IUD too is part of the
culture of death.
Abortion
and euthanasia
literally take human life. Any ideology which says we can kill the person to
end their suffering would also allow us to kill the poor to alleviate the
suffering of poverty. Abortion and euthanasia are therefore intrinsically part
of the Culture of Death, annihilating persons rather than the person’s problems.
Serial
sex partnerships
(sexual liberation) make human persons ‘disposable’ to one another, and
increase sexually transmitted disease throughout society, some of these are
fatal.. As such, serial sex partnerships too are part of the Culture of Death.
IVF
(‘test-tube baby’ techniques)
annihilates several embryos in each treatment cycle, killing around eight to
ten blossoming human lives to achieve one healthy delivery. As a destroyer of
individual human lives. IVF tis part of the Culture of Death.
Embryonic
and foetal research
all include the destruction of human embryos; of these individual human lives,.
Thus, like IVF, they are part of the
Culture of Death. (People may be blind to the fact that IVF and embryonic
research are part of the Culture of Death in that the aim is to bring about new
and healthy lives, but we cannot engage in the destruction of ten children so
that one may live, or engage in human experimentation so that we can eradicate
disease. Medical science does not need human experimentation in order to
progress. That tactic was used by the Nazi’s and condemned the world over.
Homosexual
acts use the
life-transmitting act in ways that cannot generate life; ways which,
additionally, bring STD’s and physical damage (i.e., ano-rectal tears/trauma),
so these too are part of the Culture of Death.
Transgender
surgery aims
to eliminate (kill-off) one’s birth sex. Indeed, it is a lie tod to society and
individuals since we are always our birth sex in our DNA. The most that can be
achieved by plastic surgery is a mimicking/impersonation of, the opposite sex.
As an eradication of life-giving powers and a mutilation of the body, Transgender
surgery is part of the Culture of Death.
Intoxication by drug & alcohol abuse
renders one more liable to accident and attack, risking life and limb. As such
it too is part of the Culture of Death. One does not ‘get a life’ by
endangering one’s life.
Violence which is not undertaken in
immediate self-defence is always an attack upon a person’s physical safety and
as such, part of the Culture of Death. Sexual
violence (rape) is of the same order: it is an attack upon the physical
safety of the victim. Such violence has the added evil of being a violation of
the victim’s self-experienced integrity as a person.
Where does the
Culture of Life differ from the Culture of Death? The Culture of Life requires
that we (and the law) recognise the intrinsic equal value of every human life,
male or female, young or old, black or white, sick or well, born or unborn, so
as to provide help in a person’s social needs and healing in their illness. In
the Culture of Life, abortion and IVF are
replaced by adoption, which upholds the life of every child and provides
parenthood to husbands and wives. In the Culture of Life, stability of family life replaces
temporary relationships and the family chaos that ensues with successive living
arrangements. In the Culture of Life, friendship
replaces aberrant homosexual acts
which bring disease. In family planning, artificial
contraception is replaced by natural family planning as provided by
naprotechnology. Developed by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, MD, naprotechnology works
with the woman’s body, allowing a couple to space out their children naturally
and in many cases, restore health where there is infertility, endometriosis,
polycystic ovaries and ovulation failure. Successful pregnancies after
successive miscarriages have also been achieved by naprotechnology, even in
cases where IVF has failed. It is a natural, healthy process of both
contraception and conception.
Is not the Culture of Life not
a healthier culture than the killing of unborn babies and of the sick? A
healthier culture than one in which friendship and mutual respect replaces
damaging sex acts? A healthier culture than one which spreads disease and
abandonment of spouses and children by serial cohabitation and serial sexual
experience? A healthier culture than one which encourages self-mutilation? And
while we know marriages also break down, this has increased not simply because
of easier divorce laws but because we have made persons and relationships
disposable by promoting sexual liberty. In that sex is now a recreational
experience and can be engaged in with reduced likelihood of pregnancy,
infidelity has increased, with all the pain and family break-down that
brings. Logically, there can be nothing
‘healthy’ in a Culture of Death, since health and death are clearly opposites.
The Culture of Life is the only one that can produce a healthy, stable society
with persons valued at all stages -and in all conditions- of life. All the
culture of death offers is the elimination of persons.
