• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

Discerning the spirits

September 28, 2017
By Richard Doerflinger
Filed Under: A More Human Society, Commentary

 

Given a tough question, St. Thomas Aquinas sometimes declined to give a simple yes or no answer. Instead he began with: “distinguo.” The question can be taken different ways; we must “distinguish” these to get a valid answer.

I’m pondering this in connection with a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear next term. A baker is charged with illegally discriminating against two men because he declined to decorate a custom wedding cake for them. Is the charge valid?

In our rights-oriented society, “discrimination” is the worst accusation we can bring against someone. So it is important to explain what we mean by it. Let me distinguish.

In Scenario No. 1, I treat someone as lacking the same human dignity or fundamental human rights as myself because that person is of a different age, sex, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, etc. This is invidious discrimination, and Catholic teaching condemns it.

Publicly promoting such an attitude is “hate speech.” Whatever our differences, we are all beloved children of God, and we are called to love each other the way God loves us.

In Scenario No. 2, I treat that person differently because I assume that people like him or her behave badly. This stereotyping or profiling, based on membership in a particular class, fulfills the root meaning of “prejudice” — “prejudging” behavior or personality without learning about this unique individual. This is not as fundamentally evil as Scenario No. 1, but it is unfair and judgmental.

Some people develop such prejudice based on bad experiences with other people in that class — so they need to expand their horizon and get to know more people. None of us should be identified, or identify ourselves, exclusively as members of a faction or class.

In Scenario No. 3, I discriminate between good and bad actions or between various ways people relate to one another. Such judgments need not be “judgmental” in the sense of Scenario No. 2, unless they are used to demean the people involved. Christians speak of “hating the sin but loving the sinner”; it is even better to hate the sin because I love the sinner.

Even in condemning grave evils like abortion, euthanasia, torture and slavery, the Second Vatican Council said in “Gaudium et Spes” that these “do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury” (No. 27). I may oppose them because they prevent the agent from living up to his or her God-given potential.

In Scenario No. 4, I disagree with the decision-maker in Scenario No. 3, so I want to force that person to think or speak as I do. I may assume this person is really engaging in one of the first two scenarios. But then I am practicing those forms of discrimination myself. I deny this person the same fundamental freedom of thought and speech as I have; or I assume unworthy motives because he belongs to a class of people I distrust.

In the case mentioned, the baker says he has no animus against people with same-sex attraction and is very willing to sell them other baked goods. But he is a devout Christian who lives his faith through his work, and he cannot proclaim a message contradicting his belief that marriage is a special relationship between one man and one woman.

In that case, doesn’t the government practice invidious discrimination by forcing him to say things he believes are false — something it does not do to those of the opposite view?

We must wait to see what becomes of this legal dispute. But I wonder how many divisions in our society would be less intractable if we learned to discriminate among different kinds of discriminating.

Copyright ©2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Richard Doerflinger

Richard Doerflinger, who worked for 36 years in the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, writes the "A More Human Society" column for Catholic News Service. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Analysis: Is the U.S. church’s Hispanic Catholic hope slipping away?

Chance encounter showed Brooks Robinson’s Catholic spirit

That Time We Met Brooks Robinson

Celebrating 19 years of marriage

How can I help?

| Recent Local News |

‘The most equitable path for all victim-survivors’ – Archdiocese of Baltimore files for Chapter 11 reorganization

Mount Calvary parishioners combines music, farming and family

New chief advancement officer for Archdiocese of Baltimore sees role as support for ministry

Archbishop Lori will ordain 14 permanent deacons Sept. 30

PIE Back to School Breakfast aims for $200,000 for scholarships

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Aliens, demons or PSYOPS? Catholics study, debate UFO allegations
  • ‘Not soldiers but knights’: Catholic mother mourns son and ‘brilliant’ generation slain in Ukraine
  • New cardinals have great hopes for synod on synodality
  • Sen. Dianne Feinstein, remembered for ‘extraordinary’ legacy and Barrett controversy, dies at 90
  • ‘The most equitable path for all victim-survivors’ – Archdiocese of Baltimore files for Chapter 11 reorganization
  • New cardinals say building church unity is urgent need
  • New cardinals bring experience of ‘peripheries’ to universal church
  • Movie Review: ‘Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie’
  • Cupich: Embracing ‘integral ethic of solidarity’ key to living the Gospel in polarized times

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED