We sadly have the tendency to look at all issues in life from a absolutist stance. In a serious study of history, Absolutism has led to incredible tragedy in the course of human life. For centuries, Religions, especially Catholicism, believed in Absolute Monarchies, believing that no matter how despicable a king or queen might be, no matter how ruthless or how immoral a monarch’s behavior, that monarch was ordained by God to rule. We now know how baseless that absolute belief was. On the other side, world governments, from the time of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror in France to the Communist revolutions saw all religions as an absolute evil and were ruthless in their persecution of religions. Absolutism serves no one. Absolutism does not build up the human community but rather tears apart the fabric of human life.
Today we have absolutists on both sides of the political divide that has led to a strangulation of the United States government, with the common good suffering as a result of the resolve on the part of the absolutists. We tend to lump organizations into all or nothing categories. Planned Parenthood is a good example of this. Moral absolutists condemn Planned Parenthood for the abortion services it offers women. What the moral absolutists refuse to acknowledge is that Planned Parenthood is not just an abortion mill. Planned Parenthood offers low income women, at little to no cost, many needed gynecological services that low income women cannot afford, especially in States that provide little to no medical aid to the poor. While I am vehemently opposed to the abortion services, I just as strongly support all the other important services Planned Parenthood provides low income women. Were we to apply the same standards to our religious and political institutions, they would quickly be ended and dissolved.
Absolutism totally abandons the teachings of Jesus who taught by word and example that one must learn to sift that which is valuable from that which is not. Jesus taught that because there may be weeds growing in a field of wheat, you don’t burn down the wheat to rid the field of weeds. It is important to harvest the crop and sift the weeds from the wheat. As Christians living in a pluralistic world, we must learn to do the same if we are to be faithful disciples of Jesus.
