Where morality is concerned, your feelings don't matter.

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

This quote that allegedly originated from Abraham Lincoln is frequently brandished as a credo for the irreligious. I'm just going to come out and say that I think it is the most asinine and, dare I say, immoral point of view for a person to hold to. It's  relativistic and yet still manages to be presumptuous of its own moral superiority.

Murder is wrong. Theft is wrong. Cheating on your spouse is wrong. These are things that are near-universally agreed upon as moral absolutes, yet there are people who hold these views and still have no convictions when they participate in these very same sins. More still, they may even believe they are being wronged when they fall victim themselves! You can't rely on your feelings to dictate morality. Emotions are fleeting and are no substitute for absolutes like truth or morality.

That isn't to say that conscience doesn't come into play. Conviction is an important component in our relationship to both God and our fellow man. The problem is when conviction takes a backseat to desire, which happens all too often. We have only Christ as both an ideal example of moral character and the teacher of said morality.

We rely far too often on our emotions to justify behavior. An unfaithful spouse says, "It just happened. I wasn't planning on falling in love with someone else." Abortion proponents talk about how choosing to terminate a pregnancy is a "difficult decision". Hogwash. When you choose to engage in an extramarital affair, you're doing wrong. When you choose to take an innocent life, you're doing wrong. No amount of emotional gymnastics makes it otherwise. A man is more than his emotions. He's the result of his life's decisions. In the words of Ben Shapiro, "Facts don't care about your feelings."

-L. Travis Hoffman

8/24/2016

The Double-Standard with Promiscuity (and How to Stop It)

You hear it frequently from women. Why is it socially acceptable for men to sleep around but women are floozies when they do the same thing? A reasonable question, to be sure. Heck, even our president mentioned it in a piece he recently wrote for Glamour. When the leader of the free world is bringing it up then you know it's got people's goat.

Well, I have great news for you ladies. I have a solution to this problem, and the best part is that you don't have to do anything! It's all up to us men.

It's very simple, gentlemen. We need only do two things:

1. Don't sleep around.
2. Stop glorifying people that do.

That's it. When we, the culture, diagnose promiscuity as a social ill, it no longer becomes acceptable behavior. When it's no longer acceptable behavior, it ceases to be a problem.

I remember my 9th or 10th grade year in high school there was a guy named David Spears who was obsessed with getting me a girlfriend. Being the lonely, ugly fellow that I'd been, I was down for it. But the more I spent that brief time around him, the more nauseous he made me with his disgusting sexism. His regard for women became crystallized for me when he wanted me to repeat after him that "Redford girls are no-good panty-droppers". Suffice it to say that I never spoke to him again.  I wanted a girlfriend so bad, but I wasn't about to demean myself or the fairer sex to reach that end. He was an awful human being that I promised myself never to become. I sincerely hope that he's changed.

I'd argue that the worst thing to come from the Baby Boomer generation is the Free Love movement. With it came abortion, teen pregnancy, STDs, a 50% percent divorce rate, and an epidemic of single-parent families. It all comes back to what we, as a culture and society, choose to have as values. When you value freedom without responsibility of consequence, you get these social ills. It can't be fixed by law. It starts at home and with the Church. Don't be like that slime bag from high school. Value sex as a marital gift and respect womanhood.

-L. Travis Hoffman

8/8/2016