The Church's stand on birth control is the most absolutely spiritual of all her stands and with all of us being materialists at heart, there is little wonder that it causes unease. I wish various fathers would quit trying to defend it by saying that the world can support 40 billion. I will rejoice the day when they say: This is right whether we all rot on top of each other or not, dear children, as we certainly may. Either practice restraint or be prepared for crowding.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the tension between spiritual beliefs and material realities regarding population and resources.
Flannery O'Connor's quote addresses the conflict between the Church's spiritual stance on birth control and the materialist tendencies of humanity. She expresses concern over the arguments made in defense of a population that could theoretically be sustained, emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility and restraint over blind faith in potential resources. O'Connor critiques the unrealistic hopes tied to overpopulation and urges a focus on moral choices rather than just quantity of life.
In practice
In a discussion about ethical responsibilities regarding population growth.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.
It's not about 'what can I accomplish?' but 'what do I want to accomplish?' Paradigm shift.
There's something tragic about you. Your feeling for the absolute. You were made to believe in God and spend your life in a convent.' There are too many with that vocation. God would have had to love only me.
You are being suffocated by tradition... Why don't you say, 'I am going to build a life for myself, for my time, and make it a work of art'? Your life isn't a work of art ---it's a thirdhand Victorian whatnot shelf, complete with someone else's collection of seashells and hand-carved elephants.
Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.
Bliss is a thing which is always there and is not something which comes and goes. That which comes and goes is a creation of the mind.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.