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From Scott P. Richert,
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The Last Acceptable Prejudice
With over one billion adherents worldwide, the Catholic Church hardly seems
like the most likely target for abuse, yet every day, a surprising number of
news stories reveal that anti-Catholicism is alive and well. In a world
where tolerance is the supreme (and perhaps only) virtue, the one thing that
cannot be tolerated is an institution that claims not only to know the
truth, but to know that "the Truth will set you free."
The latest example of what Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of
History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University and an
Episcopalian, has called "the last acceptable prejudice" can be found in the
May 28, 2008, issue of the New Republic. Steven Pinker, in an article ("The
Stupidity of Dignity") ostensibly on the problems raised by taking into
account human dignity when discussing bioethical questions, keeps returning
to the insidious role that the Catholic Church has apparently played in
stifling scientific research.
Pinker is worried about a report, Human Dignity and Bioethics, recently
released by the President's Council on Bioethics. He takes for granted that
all reasonably intelligent people have no qualms about "biomedical
innovation, including drugs that would enhance cognition, genetic
manipulation of animals or humans, therapies that could extend the lifespan,
and embryonic stem cells and so-called 'therapeutic cloning' that could
furnish replacements for diseased tissue and organs."
The authors of the report, however, beg to disagree, and Pinker thinks that
he knows why: "eleven work for Christian institutions (all but two of the
institutions Catholic)." The first chairman of the Council on Bioethics,
Leon Kass, "packed it with conservative scholars and pundits, advocates of
religious (particularly Catholic) principles in the public sphere . . . "
Pinker finds that "the pervasive Catholic flavoring of the Council,
particularly its Dignity report, is at first glance puzzling." He concedes
that the Catholic Church has a "long tradition of scholarship and . . .
rock-solid moral precepts," but it's not clear that he regards this as good.
In fact, Pinker suggests that the Catholic Church is opposed to such modern
innovations as embryonic stem-cell research, in vitro fertilization, and
assisted suicide because they threaten "the Church's franchise to guide
people in the most profound events of their lives--birth, death, and
reproduction." That, he argues, is why "'dignity' is a recurring theme in
Catholic doctrine: The word appears more than 100 times in the 1997 edition
of the Catechism and is a leitmotif in the Vatican's recent pronouncements
on biomedicine." The possibility that the Church regards human dignity as an
essential part of the Christian message seems never to cross his mind.
Instead, it's all part and parcel of "imposing a Catholic agenda on a
secular democracy and using 'dignity' to condemn anything that gives someone
the creeps."
While Orthodox Judaism and Islam hold similar views on bioethical questions,
it's hard to imagine Steven Pinker writing an article expressing similar
views about either of those religions, or the New Republic running such an
article. And if they did, the outcry would be intense. But in Pinker's
version of a "free society," individuals are free to live their lives as
they wish--just so long as they don't stand up for the truth as taught by
the Catholic Church.
Related Resources:
The Catholic Church's Teaching on Stem-Cell Research
Philip Jenkins, The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice
(compare prices)
Human Dignity and Bioethics: Essays Commissioned by the President's Council
on Bioethics (compare prices
Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
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