This Guy Says "The Idea of Sexual Orientation... Inhibits Christian Witness"
02-27-2014, 12:39 AM
Really interesting and thought provoking piece. Its long and draws on a lot of academic theory, not to mention being intentionally provocative so its not surprising its going over peoples heads.
I don't know who Michael Hannon is but he cites Alasdair MacIntyre right at the very beginning and that pretty much gives it away. MacIntyre is a famous Scottish Catholic moral philosopher. Given the traditionalist and classicist inclinations you so often see in RoK articles and manosphere blogs I think a lot of you guys would like his work if you took a crack at it. MacIntyre abandoned the trendy Marxism of academia around 1980 and converted to Catholicism. His entire philosophical project has been to engage with all of western ethical and political thought since the Enlightenment on its own terms and rigorously demonstrate its shortcomings. What he proposes is nothing less than a return to the classical European tradition in philosophy which is rooted in the thought of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. He argues that the Enlightenment position of radical individualism is a slippery slope that leads ultimately to postmodern consumerism/Marxism.
So in that context citing radical postmodern queer theorists to demonstrate how liberal social values eventually end up consuming themselves makes perfect sense. The author is clear to point out that he thinks they are disgusting nihilists etc. It's kind of a devil's advocate sort of thing. He thinks we should base our morality on Christian tradition instead, which in fact doesn't rely on any notion of sexual orientation at all. It just lists homosexual acts among a whole list of behaviors that are immoral for everyone regardless of their natural or socially conditioned feelings.
I'm not necessarily so keen on the Bible but it's definitely an intriguing argument.
I don't know who Michael Hannon is but he cites Alasdair MacIntyre right at the very beginning and that pretty much gives it away. MacIntyre is a famous Scottish Catholic moral philosopher. Given the traditionalist and classicist inclinations you so often see in RoK articles and manosphere blogs I think a lot of you guys would like his work if you took a crack at it. MacIntyre abandoned the trendy Marxism of academia around 1980 and converted to Catholicism. His entire philosophical project has been to engage with all of western ethical and political thought since the Enlightenment on its own terms and rigorously demonstrate its shortcomings. What he proposes is nothing less than a return to the classical European tradition in philosophy which is rooted in the thought of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. He argues that the Enlightenment position of radical individualism is a slippery slope that leads ultimately to postmodern consumerism/Marxism.
So in that context citing radical postmodern queer theorists to demonstrate how liberal social values eventually end up consuming themselves makes perfect sense. The author is clear to point out that he thinks they are disgusting nihilists etc. It's kind of a devil's advocate sort of thing. He thinks we should base our morality on Christian tradition instead, which in fact doesn't rely on any notion of sexual orientation at all. It just lists homosexual acts among a whole list of behaviors that are immoral for everyone regardless of their natural or socially conditioned feelings.
I'm not necessarily so keen on the Bible but it's definitely an intriguing argument.