Positively beastly! 

Lock the Barn Door

The Washington Times - February 11, 2001


Recently I emailed a friend about how proud I was of my little kitty cat after she ran off a big possum who came snooping around my front door. Later she emailed me that Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University ́s Center for Human Values, a longtime advocate of infanticide and euthanasia, has taken another bold step forward by penning a favorable review of a book celebrating bestiality.


Curious, I read Mr. Singer ́s review of Dutch biologist Mida Dekker ́s book, "Dearest Pet: On Bestiality" at Nerve.com, titled "Heavy Petting." Mr. Singer says, "Not so long ago, any form of sexuality not leading to the conception of children was seen as, at best, wanton lust, or worse, a perversion. One by one, the taboos have fallen. The idea that it could be wrong to use contraception in order to separate sex from reproduction is now merely quaint." He follows this logic to question the taboo on sex with animals.


This reminded me of a story a friend told me about one of his theology professors, (one of the noble few), who teaches the Catholic Church ́s reasoning and warnings contained in Pope Paul VI ́s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) restating the church ́s teaching against contraception. This professor, known for his salty language, explained, "Once you separate sex from procreation any hole will do."


Of course, Catholic teaching does not require every marital act to result in pregnancy, merely be open to it. As quaint as it may seem, there are those who don ́t see sex as a game and the human body—or whatever—as a toy with which it is played. And they don ́t see their fellow creatures as a mere collection of orifices.


I replied to my friend ́s email, regarding Mr. Singer, "Well, this is the next logical step to everything 

else that ́s going on." Actually, many of the things Pope Paul predicted would happen if contraception became widespread have come to pass. By creating a false security, it led to the sexual revolution, which led to the acceptance of abortion and produced the culture of death, to use Pope John Paul II ́s words. Now Mr. Singer is upping the ante. So I thanked my friend for the heads-up and told her if I saw Peter Singer coming down the walk I ́d bring Kitty inside.


Things have come to a bad end when you have to warn your pets not to speak to strangers or get into cars with strange ethicists. What if he tries to show my kitty pictures of other cats in lewd poses? Kitty porn?


If someone attempts to actually explain the logic (and beauty) of the Catholic Church ́s opposition to contraception he or she will be greeted by hoots of ridicule and accusations of oppressing women. But when Peter Singer makes statements on behalf of bestiality, one imagines a rapt and reverent audience nodding at his "brave" remarks in anticipation of a new day of liberation dawning. In the progressive spirit, he uses the "F" word, the "C" word and, the "BJ" word. And the rest of us peasants have been worried about foot and mouth disease.


Radical non-governmental organizations at the United Nations, who know they could never accomplish their agenda by the democratic process, will no longer be satisfied with bullying perplexed G-77 delegates into "consensus" on sexual rights for 10-year-olds, and the suggestion of extending them down to 6-year-olds, as one European Union official did a few years ago. No, now we ́ll hear about sexual and reproductive rights for human-alpaca unions.


The open-ended term "gender" could then be extended from its current inclusion of seven or so categories to include what? Cross-species heterosexual, cross-species homosexual, cross-species bisexual and transgendered folks, and so on. The sky ́s the limit. We can expect a whole new agenda of sexual rights. Thanks to the cutting edge ideas of Mr. Singer, we can expect to see International Planned Parenthood Federation paying the way (plus $450 per diem) for delegates of poor countries to lobby for "post-natal choice" for women subjected to the outrage of enforced child rearing, empowering them to abort their child after it is born. (Oh. I forgot. We ́re doing that already.) They will say, "We avoid the term 'infanticide. ́ It ́s too negative. We prefer to view it as empowering women to take control over the quality of their own lives, and not be shackled by patriarchal constructs like motherhood, used for millennia to subjugate women."


"Catholics for a Free Choice" can put out a scholarly position paper funded by Playboy and available for $10 on their web site titled, "Who are a Bunch of Old Men in Skirts in the Vatican to Tell You What to Love?" 


Deconstructionist English professors will tell their students the book Aldous Huxley and George Orwell really meant to write was "Brave New Farm."


Meanwhile, if you ́re not one of those progressive types like Peter Singer, lock the barn door.

——

John Mallon is contributing editor to Inside the Vatican magazine and an editorial consultant and contributor to The Daily Oklahoman editorial page.