tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708139263643046536.post2384133387955412849..comments2024-03-14T03:19:44.337-04:00Comments on Kresta In The Afternoon: Today on Kresta - July 7, 2009Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7708139263643046536.post-3639870967252012622009-07-09T14:12:12.245-04:002009-07-09T14:12:12.245-04:00"What's the purpose of marriage? Children..."What's the purpose of marriage? Children." So concludes the TIME magazine article on marriage, according to Al Kresta as he wrapped up his interview with Danielle Bean. <br /><br />Not quite. The <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1908243,00.html" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">article</a> in TIME, written by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitlin_Flanagan" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">Caitlin Flanagan</a>, concerned parents, married or unmarried, who don't do right by their children. Mrs. Flanagan's well written article shows that both the father and the mother need to be there for the kids, otherwise dire consequences are likely. <br /><br />Flanagan advocates traditional stay-at-home motherhood. She does her writing at home, so she's a stay-at-home mom. Sort of. Salon's Joan Walsh, in a 2006 review of Flanagan's book "To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife," wrote: "She readily confesses that although she's an at-home mother (more on her hair-splitting definition of same later), the 'home' part of the equation doesn't get much attention; she's not much for cooking or housekeeping or bleaching or mending, or any wifely duties, really, except (we're supposed to infer from a chapter about how feminists won't give their husbands sex) sex. She's had a full-time nanny, housecleaning help, a 'household organizer,' and now that the kids are in school, no nanny, but a baby sitter." <br /><br />I wonder if any of the people Flanagan hired to do those traditional stay-at-home motherly chores were themselves mothers with kids. Anyway, I like the TIME article and I agree with Flanagan, but I really want to address Al's assertion that the purpose of marriage is children. <br /><br />What should us misanthropes do who are not on board with God's human project? I knew early on in my Catholic upbringing (I'm the oldest of five) that I was not going to follow my parent's example. I don't have the proper disposition for raising children. That's a thing I know. Also, I find the cruelty and suffering in this world upon all sentient life atrocious and unacceptable. I can't help it. Unlike most people, I'm cursed with an abundance of empathy. It's much better to be callous, insensitive, even narcissistic: that's the ticket for this world. <br /><br />God looked at HIs creation and found it very good. (Genesis 1:31). God was badly mistaken; we humans have been nothing but trouble for Him ever since. <br /><br />Humans are wicked. This is biblical: "When the LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, He regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was grieved." (That's Genesis 6:5-6. Read the next verse too. Fun stuff!). <br /><br />Note that God's very first commandment, to be fertile and multiply, came before the Fall (Genesis 1:28). That God repeated this command to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1) after He just wiped out almost all life on the planet can only mean He was out of His mind. <br /><br />As a result of wickedness, both human and angelic, we have Hell. One might describe Hell as infinite justice, but I consider it infinite evil. God's attempt to keep us out of that unimaginable place largely fails, His sacrifice on the cross being no match for our wickedness. Jesus says in Matthew 22:14: "Many are invited, but few are chosen." Everybody knows what this means; the vast majority of us will experience unending torture. Jesus saves, but only a relative few. <br /><br />Propagating wickedness; condemning more and more of your children to unending torture: that's just messed up. I'll pass on it. <br /><br />By the way, my wife and I have been married for over 32 years. Neither one of us had been married before and there have been no extra-marital affairs. Call it unfruitful and unproductive. We don't care.maumanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250198272377329639noreply@blogger.com