“Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
--John 2:16—
Every year when we study Confirmation and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, I tell my students about two classic psychological experiments in connection with right judgment.
In the Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment (conducted in the 1950s), the subject was led to believe that he was part of a group of similar subjects taking a vision test. In reality, however, he was the only subject, and everyone else in the group was a confederate in the experiment. A presenter would show the group a set of three lines of varying length and ask the group to determine among themselves which of the three lines was the same length as a fourth line. The presenter would leave the room, and the group members would begin talking.
The subject would always begin by identifying the line which obviously matched the fourth line in length, but the collaborators in the group would try to persuade the subject that he was wrong. You see that’s precisely what they had been told to do prior to the experiment. The subject would sometimes attempt to convince the other group members that they were in error, but when his efforts of persuasion failed, he usually (about 75% of the time) ended up by giving in to group pressure and changing his opinion, despite the fact that his senses told him otherwise.
The same experiment was repeated with different subjects and with varying numbers of group collaborators. Time and time again subjects would relinquish what they knew to be the truth just to be able to fit in with the rest of the group.
That was one experiment. The other experiment was somewhat simpler--the so-called “smoke-filled room study” of 1968. Researchers Latané and Darley would put people in a waiting room, and while the people waited, smoke was allowed to waft in through a vent in the door. The researchers discovered that the more people in the room when the smoke came in through the door, the less likely anyone was to investigate or go for help.
Both experiments show that it is extremely difficult for individuals to hold opinions that appear to run contrary to those of the group.
Right judgment, I tell my students, is that wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit that allows us to hold on to the truth, despite group pressure, even when everyone else around us says we are wrong.
In the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple (John 2), Our Lord gives us a perfect illustration of the gift of right judgment. He alone is willing to defend the sanctity of a sacred place even when everyone else around Him looks at the profanation of the Temple as business as usual. Jesus is willing to stand up for what is true and right and good and holy, despite the fact that everyone else around Him has acquiesced to what is false and wrong and bad and profane.
Here’s the question: Are we Catholics willing to defend our Catholic Faith in a world that increasingly regards all religion in general as irrelevant and Roman Catholicism in particular as downright wrong? I give you only one instance.
When the media tells the nation that the big to-do over President Obama’s Health and Human Services Mandate is all about the Church’s “out of step” position on artificial birth control, are you willing to stand up and be heard, in the workplace and in the marketplace, and assert that what’s really at stake is the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion? What’s really at issue here is not birth control but the government’s insistence on mind control. This is not about party politics but about infringement upon religious liberty guaranteed by our Constitution for more than two centuries.
Here is an analogy that is not mine, but it makes clear at least one aspect of the Health and Human Services Mandate.
Suppose the government mandated, on pain of a heavy fine, that all Jewish and Islamic schools serve pork in their cafeterias to those students and employees who demand it. The Jewish and Islamic people as well as all thinking Americans would be outraged, because it is not the place of the government to shove pork down anyone's throat in violation of his or her conscience. To be forced by the government either to violate one's conscience or to pay a stiff fine (or any fine) is unconstitutional, a violation of the First Amendment. In this hypothetical situation, the issue is not the merits of pork. The Jews and Moslems would not be demanding that pork be made illegal. The real issue, rather, is freedom of conscience.
That is precisely what is going on with the HHS Mandate, only we are not talking about Jews and Moslems but about Catholics, not about pork but about abortifacient drugs and birth control. The government is forcing Catholic institutions, on pain of heavy fines, to provide (either directly or indirectly) contraceptives and abortifacient drugs against their consciences. All informed Americans ought to be outraged because it is not the place or the right of the government to shove contraceptives down anyone's throat against his or her conscience.
Don't let the media hoodwink you into thinking that the Catholic Church wants to make birth control illegal. This is not about birth control but about freedom of conscience. How can any American take this lightly or remain silent? The freedom of us all is at stake.
Are we as Catholics courageous enough to stand up for the truth even if it means unpleasant consequences, even if it means that we are labeled “unable to accommodate” or “unwilling to be team players”? Such labels should cause us to take heart, for controversialists generally resort to name calling only when they sense their case is weak. As any philosopher will tell you, the argumentum ad hominem (argument aimed at the person rather than at the issue at hand) is totally devoid of logic.
If we don’t stand up for the truth now, the Church and all Americans are in big trouble. Ladies and gentlemen, the long and short of it is the smoke is coming in under the church door, and we need people to stand up and shout: Fire!
God, grant us right judgment. Amen.
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