Both Oars In Happiness is the Correct Choice

Feb 27, 2009

Since reading "No Choice," an article defending the right to single-sex marriage by a local physician named Dr. Bill Griffith, I have reflected quite often on his claim that a person "cannot override a biologic drive with a conscious decision and be truly happy." I disagree with this claim theologically, philosophically and practically. My faith, intellect and experience tell me exactly the opposite. I believe that we cannot be happy unless we are able to control our biologic urges and direct them toward good. To be a slave to our "biologic drives" means just that—to be a slave. And, freedom is an essential element in happiness.

I do agree with the good doctor’s point that there is no defense for prejudice. We must treat our fellow human beings with the respect they deserve as humans, regardless of how we feel about their actions. We are always more than the sum of our acts. Human dignity continues even when our behavior itself is not dignified or correct. There is never an excuse to persecute others or treat them with scorn or injustice.

We are fortunate to live in a country that recognizes this and defends human rights as inalienable. This, however, does not preclude society from correctly identifying certain behaviors as abnormal and even some, due to the threat they pose to the individual or society, as criminal or immoral.

I also agree with Dr. Griffith that "biologic drives" are natural and occur at a very deep level in our mental operation. In philosophy and theology, these drives are commonly called the passions. Simply put, passions are horsepower: steering and breaks are higher level functions. Passions are neither good nor bad. We are not responsible for these involuntary drives, but, rather, what we do with them.

Passions only take on a moral dimension when they are cultivated and directed to an end. In geometrical terms, passions—attraction, self-preservation, and procreation for example—would be best described as points. They are one dimensional. To move into the moral dimension, they must have a second point—an end or an object. To become fully developed as a three dimensional moral act, we must adjoin our will to the initial desire and pursue the end, knowingly desirous of its result. If the object itself or the manner it is pursued is disordered, the act in total is immoral.

I also agree with Dr. Griffith that happiness requires self-awareness. In fact, it is by truly understanding our "biologic drives" and where they are driving us that we begin to be able to move toward happiness. Our decisions to act or not to act and in what manner to act occur at the level of character—the development of which we can fully control. As rational, sentient beings capable of moral discernment, we do not merely react to our biologic urges. We decide what to do. Knowing our drives helps us to make good decisions and order our passion toward proper ends.

We are not helpless in these decisions. Thanks to God, we are not trapped in rote behavior or genetically programmed responses, we have free will. We have the mental capacity to develop virtuous behavior through careful discernment and proper decisions. Because of this, we are capable of delaying or avoiding all together what we desire at a basic level to achieve more sublime or distant goals.

Again, I agree with Dr. Griffith that passions do not go away. They continue to occur. I could not be a happily married man without the benefit of the passion of attraction; however, I will not be happily married if I act on every attraction. I do not deny that I find many women attractive, but I chose to act in a particular manner on the attraction I have felt for my wife from the first moment I saw her. I find my choice provides authentic happiness because I have chosen to pursue a good, not merely quench a thirst.

I firmly believe we are capable of self-mastery through the exercise of temperance, prudence and fortitude. From both study and practice, I have learned that virtuous behavior is not achieved by suppression, but discipline. My study of the saints has taught me that men and women of great virtue are neither in denial nor without passions. Their lives are struggles, but they are happy lives as well.

We need not look as high as the saints for proof of this. We can look at mere athletes. Without affirming the human ability to override biologic drives to obtain happiness, it is impossible to explain how Lance Armstrong can forgo comfort, shelter, water, and food to end up at a point merely differentiated from the one he left simply by the label "Finish." Obviously, he has developed the ability to forgo satisfying immediate urges to achieve a higher goal.

I believe much can be gained by taking a careful read of the Catholics Church’s teaching on the passions and virtues. I have adapted much I what I have said here from the Catholic Catechism on this topic, which states, "…either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy." The Catechism can be read online at http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/.

For good council on the specific topic Dr. Griffith addressed in his article, I suggest reading Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination, also accessible on the web at http://www.usccb.org/dpp/Ministry.pdf. By the title alone, it is clear that the Church respects the individual who struggles with this specific inclination as a person. The Church is adamant that no one be the object of malice in speech or act. However, in love and justice, the Church expects such a person to be no less capable of making good decisions or handling his or her passions properly.