With Good Reason When it is Reasonable to Say “No" to Unreason

Mar 18, 2008

Last week I began a two-part column exploring and critiquing some of the postulates of the emerging field of 'neuromorality.'  I will get back to that after Easter. I felt compelled to interrupt that topic, however, because I was so disturbed to hear that The Vagina Monologues would once again be presented (for a sixth year, in fact) at Notre Dame University.  [I wish to note, however, that this is not altogether unrelated to the topic of how brain relates to morality.]

 

First of all, and for the record, here are some facts as I understand them from a friend who teaches at N.D.  University president Fr. John Jenkins has set the following conditions for presentation of the play: 

• The play may only be presented if sponsored by an academic department. This year's presentation is sponsored by the departments of sociology and anthropology; last year, no department sponsored it, so it had to be presented off campus.
• The presentations may only be done in an academic setting, (a classroom, not a theater);
• Immediately following each of the six scheduled presentations, there will be a mandatory panel discussion during which Catholic doctrine will be clearly expounded on the issues raised by the play;
• The presentations shall not be aimed at fundraising for any purpose.

While noting that Fr. Jenkins would clearly be in his right, as president, simply to disallow the play, I also recognize that he has his own prudential reasons for allowing it. I also hasten to add that this six-year old saga should not be construed as a bad reflection on Notre Dame as a whole. I lectured at the Law School there in January and I have friends on the faculty. I must say I was delighted with what I saw and experienced on campus: wonderful things are happening at Notre Dame.

 

That said, when I first heard news late last week about this year's presentations of the Monologues on campus, I was immediately reminded of that wonderful quote from G.K. Chesterton:

 

The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad.

 

Now, President Jenkins was quoted as saying, in support of his decision to allow the play on campus again this year, that:

 

It is an indispensable part of the mission of a Catholic university to provide a forum in which multiple viewpoints are debated in reasoned and respectful exchange - always in dialogue with faith and the Catholic tradition - even around highly controversial topics.

 

Well, amen to that.

 

But here, is it not the case that the virtue, if you will, of 'reasoned and respectful exchange' has gone a little mad? I don't deny, of course, that it's possible to have a reasonable discussion even about different forms of moral depravity. But no matter what the topic, reasonable exchange of thought presupposes many things, among them a prudent setting, and a morally inoffensive presentation of the facts. Fr. Jenkins has made an effort to supply the former in requiring that the play be presented in an academic setting, but the latter condition remains unmet.

 

Now, how would we conduct a reasonable dialogue, say, of the exploitation of women through pornography? By gathering faculty and students together in a classroom to view and discuss blowups of Playboy centerfolds?  Without having viewed the Monologues myself, I know enough about it to know that it is crudely offensive in a similar way and renders the very idea of a substantive, genuinely reasoned discussion preposterous.

 

It is therefore a striking instance of serendipity that not three weeks after the presentation of the Monologues on the Notre Dame Campus, Pope Benedict will be meeting (as reported last Friday by The Washington Post) with more than 200 top Catholic school officials from across the country.  

 

What can we expect the Pope will say at the meeting? I expect his remarks will echo much of the substance of his papal address at the University of Regensburg (about which I've written in previous columns). Which is to say, Pope Benedict will likely make affirmations to the effect-and to echo the words of Fr. Jenkins-that "an indispensable part of the mission of a Catholic university is to provide a forum for reasoned and respectful exchange of ideas."  And no matter what else he might say, we have here the very reason why any institute of higher learning should refrain from making a mockery of reasoned discourse, and refuse demands for anti-cultural trash such as the Monologues.

 

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To be sure, sponsorship of the Monologues is not by a long shot the only or even most egregious instance of unreasonable nonsense being passed off as culture at Catholic or secular universities. Nonetheless, it is central to the mission of intellectual stewardship that faculty and administrators at institutes of higher learning muster the backbone  to say 'no' to unreason, and to say 'no' when necessary to very vocal minorities or majorities, no matter how vocal or how vicious.

 

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And turning now to a superlatively more worthwhile topic, to all those taking the time to read this column today, I want to extend my warmest best wishes and the assurance of my prayers for a very blessed Holy Week and celebration of Easter.

 

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