By BOB FLINT
1968 marked a turning point in the cultural and moral fabric of America and in Western Europe. The violence, demonstrations and demands of that year, especially by students, marked the beginning of the reversal of age old views of society, sex, morality, medical ethics and authority.
The world prior to 1968 had intact families, a restrained view of sex related to love, marriage and children, prohibition of abortion and respect and protection for the elderly. The changes in these critical areas of life and society were first promoted as toleration, not approval. In particular, no one would be required to be involuntarily involved in any action the person’s morals disapproved of. The proponents of Alaska’s legalized abortion in 1970 were particularly emphatic on that point.
There is a maxim that what was once proscribed is first tolerated and then required. A new cultural and moral view cannot be static. Toleration is not enough. It must be the norm.
In the 1850’s, slaveholders were not content with the toleration of slavery where it existed, so they enlisted the help of the Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sanford, to make slavery legal everywhere. The movement is from toleration to imposition. That is why we face today the issue of conscientious objectors, not as to war service, but as to the ordinary pursuits where all are required to conform to the new morality or forfeit the right to participate.
The new cultural trends have devastated individuals and society as a whole. The law imposed by the judiciary, some legislatures and some professional groups and institutions is beyond the phony claim of toleration. It seeks to squeeze the old morality out completely along with those who hold fast to it.
Those who seek to act on their consciences have come under increasing attack. Boston Catholic Charities was forced to cease placing children for adoption, after over a century of service, when the state required it to place children with homosexual couples. A young photographer in New Mexico was hauled before the human rights commission for refusing to accept the job of photographing homosexual weddings. The Anchorage Assembly voted for an ordinance that would prevent individuals and religious groups from refusing to discriminate against, not homosexuals, but homosexual behavior no matter what moral principles they followed.
A private hospital in the Valley was forced to perform second trimester abortions by then Superior Court Judge Dana Fabe, the Roger Taney of Alaska. The Supreme Court upheld Fabe’s order and signaled that even religious hospitals were at risk for the same coercion.
Pharmacists can be faced with providing birth control and abortion and assisted suicide drugs against their will.
Emergency room nurses can be called on to assist in abortions or risk their jobs.
Catholic institutions in some states are required to provide birth control, sterilizations and even abortion health coverage.
In many cases, individuals and institutions have to face the burden of defending themselves alone against the power of the courts, legislatures, bureaucracies, and powerful well-healed interest groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. It doesn’t have to be that way. The Anchorage same sex ordinance, that would have denied conscience rights to so many, was defeated by large protests organized by the Alaska Family Council (I am a board member). Catholic and non-Catholic nurses can join the National Association of Catholic Nurses, which tripled its membership last year. The NACN is a collective support and voice for nurses who would otherwise be alone fighting the demands on them made by the new moral order. These and many other organizations and public officials are vital to a battle that cannot be waged alone. It is incumbent on all of us to support them.
The writer is an attorney and founding member of the St. Thomas More Society in Anchorage.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Catholic Anchor Online: Alaskan attorney sees conscience rights threatened in an age of ‘tolerance’
