I’m baffled by how so many otherwise functional and even bright people can be taken in to make a vapid line from smarmy pop songs replace any ethical (or even aesthetic) standards. Of course I’m speaking of “It can’t be wrong when it feels so right”.

In everything I’ve seen from Andrew Sullivan regarding religion, that’s the dominant attitude. It’s really the rationale for most of the voluptuaries of the sexual revolution. It’s naturally enough behind the movement (that the illustrious Mark Shea has astutely observed) to “de-stigmatize” sex between adults and children.

News flash, folks: the whole point of moral theology is that many things that FEEL right are actually wrong. There have been times I thought it might feel very good to wring someone’s neck. It would not have been right to do so, though. (I’m quite glad my conscience let me know that it still could be wrong!) Some might find a free new car (simply liberated from the lot) to feel good. Still wouldn’t be right. So why should it be different if the desire is sexual in nature?

The first objection that would likely be raised is “but sex doesn’t hurt anyone”. Hmmmm. . . . unless you count fatherless children; single mothers; children killed before birth; women who have abortions and later realize what they’ve done; people who contract STDs; people who bounce from one sexual encounter to the next without ever finding the elusive ‘meaningful relationship’ . . . . .

So why are we as Catholics so timid about proclaiming the truth?