Shownotes Transcript
In this episode of Life Matters, Commissioner Johnston continues in his incisive examination of the creep of relativism into the pro-life movement.
In an earlier episode Brian explained how the social teachings of the Seamless Garment, a common Roman Catholic misunderstanding of the place of the abortion issue, has led to great confusion and destruction. While many seamless garment advocates suggest that they will elevate abortion as a dominant topic of all the social issues, it in fact makes the Right To Life issue and the subject of abortion a relativistic portion of a confused moral morass of issues. It is not, in fact, the actual teaching of the Catholic Catechism.
In ignoring the actual teachings of natural law and of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which clearly states that society has an intrinsic duty to protect innocent lives, and that this issue of legal protection of the innocent is a foundational element of society, the seamless garment has weakened many in their understanding. In particular, the many so-called Roman Catholic leaders of the pro-abortion movement who simultaneously claim that they are good Catholics as they lead the advocacy of the culture of Death!
While this grouping of the right to life with issues of the Left clearly minimizes its true significance as an essential premise for all society, it is also being done on the Right.
There are many who consider the abortion issue part of a constellation or a group of social issues - issues of great moral, ethical, and legal concern, like pornography, homosexuality, teaching of trans rights, etc. These moral advocates on the Right will make the same assertion as seamless garment advocates on the Left: “We will join in the fight and we will consider abortion the big one of all the issues.” This generic and confused use of “set theory” is a deep error.
Brian examines the mathematical logic of set theory and why it actually is a false logic and even if well intentioned, is a confused thinking to apply to the abortion issue.
Once again, Brian reminds people that Lincoln clearly demonstrated the moral truth regarding the evil of slavery only when he could demonstrate the facts of mathematically and logically describing what a moral truth is. Whereas all of his opponents were also claiming to be moral and ethical in declaring that the ownership of slave was legally permissible and ethical.
Lincoln’s open demand that the logic of Euclid’s proofs - QED “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” (That which has been demonstrated) is the only permissible use of asserting that a conclusion is indeed demonstrably true and a valid point to build upon. Lawyers routinely make statements that are emotionally charged but full of deceit and have no truth in them. They are merely assertions and the speaker expects them to be treated as facts. An assertion is not a fact. Lincoln understood that and Lincoln understood that facts must be demonstrable before they can allow to be continued to be considered as valid.
Brian explains how many people, even some conservative Christians, will group abortion as part of a set of moral issues. There is much passionate feelings in Christians. But as it says in Hebrews, they must mature and be able to reason. Feelings are not enough.
In the Scriptures, God invites Christians to leave behind their own mindsets to engage in reason.
And like a child’s math class that groups coins together and each coin has value and significance but they may insist the largest is clearly the silver dollar: they will declare abortion is the “biggest” of the many social issues.
Such a grouping is a great disservice if one does not understand that abortion is not merely a big issue among many. It is transcendent. It is comparable to a gold bar itself. While also metal and also of value, it is of transcendent worth in contrast to the relativity meager social issues- the coins. Even calling the silver dollar the biggest, or also calling abortion issue the biggest, does not recognize the overarching transcendent quality of what the right to life actually is. It is the gold of the gold standard. It is of transcendent nature and significance.
This program also introduces a new sponsor who has been persecuted for his pro-life commitments, Mike Lindell’s My Pillow. Purchasers of My Pillow products that use the discount code: “LIFE”, will get the deepest of discounts and that’s very exciting indeed!