When the Saskatoon Mayor recently decided not to be present at the Gay Pride Parade he faced a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” decision. Choice in the matter was really an illusion, a gray area.
I’m reminded of Larson’s Far Side cartoon where a man who has just arrived in hell faces two doors. One says "Damned if you do", the other states "Damned if you don't". So which one should he choose? Would it make more sense if there was only one door with both expressions on it? Either way, he’s still in hell.
Perhaps, as one on-line reader suggests, “The joke is that he's being given the illusion of choice, while not having any choice at all.” ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Saskatoon’s Mayor Atchison was going to run afoul of public opinion whatever choice he made regarding the Gay Pride Parade.
I’m reminded of situations we face frequently where moral choices are involved. Can I support Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party along with his pro-abortion stand? Can we support the whole while excluding parts?
One week after Bruce Jenner declared that he is a woman Pope Francis denounced gender ideology (one can choose to be male or female despite physical and biological attributes) as an aberration. The gender differences in God’s creation are for communion and procreation, he stated. In God’s creation male and female complement each other.
Pope Francis explained that while contemporary culture has opened new opportunities for understanding the sexual difference, it has also introduced “many doubts and much scepticism” (Diane Montagna, Aleteia).
Another recent example of a gray area choice comes from Oklahoma where the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa resigned its membership in the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice after the OCCJ took part in the Tulsa Pride parade, one of the “longest-running gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender festivals in Oklahoma.” How do you and I stand for values in the face of public opinion? How do we balance respect and justice for all while maintaining moral absolutes?
I recall the late Father Ogle was a Member of Parliament in Canada at a time when the Vatican forbade political involvement by clergy. At the same time Ogle was a member of the pro-abortion NDP Party. Yet there was never a doubt about what Father Bob Ogle stood for.
Being a Christian gives us some guidelines. Jesus always accepted the sinner and not the sin. He challenged sinners to follow the way and to “sin no more”. To the rich young man he said, “You are not far from the kingdom. If you would be perfect, sell all you have, give it to the poor, and come, follow me” (Mark 10:17-30).
If you and I would be perfect we need to make informed choices on moral questions. Public opinion may be heated on life and death issues such as abortion, capital punishment and mercy-killing. Whatever the issue, we need to make moral choices that will lead to the respect and understanding of all people.
We need to be in the world, but not of the world. And let us not be surprised by what the world throws at us. The devil is near. I am reminded of the new-comer in hell who is served a cup of coffee. It is cold. He remarks, “They think of everything here.”
