A Return to Another Theology of the Body, Part 2--Families and Idolatry
1. Let's talk about family. I am the oldest of four children. Both of my parents are alive and still married to each other. In terms of the nuclear, biological family, I have as close to the ideal as can reasonably be imagined. My parents love us, and us children love them back. We are, by most standards, very close. I saw my sister this weekend in New York City, and I will see her, my other sister, and her husband and children in a couple of weeks. It is customary to describe one's-self as "fortunate" with regard to having a happy family, and there is a way in which that is true. No individual has control over who the other people are that inhabit your family of origin, and so there is an important sense in which the nature and state of one's original family is outside of your individual control. But some people describe themselves as "fortunate" to have a happy family in a way which suggests that the state of any family is wholly outside...