Michael Pakaluk is professor of ethics and social philosophy in the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.
By Michael Pakaluk, EWTN News, 11/21/19
It’s all about finding the determining principles, St. Thomas Aquinas would say. In practical matters, you must be familiar with the right principles and recognize when they apply.
Here is an important principle for Catholics, which will likely become more important in the coming years: We have no obligation to seek martyrdom. Actually, it works the other way. We have an obligation to avoid being martyred, if we can. If and when we are martyred, it should only be because there was no alternative but to sin. The silence of St. Thomas More teaches us very clearly how we should hold ourselves out when martyrdom threatens.
The same holds for persecution. “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11), indeed. But being reviled is not good. We should avoid it if we can. It would be wrong to court it.
Chick-fil-A is getting castigated by conservatives on social media because it announced that it would no longer give charitably to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes but instead give to local food banks and homeless shelters.
Critics say they have capitulated to angry “LGTBQ” activists instead of holding their ground. These angry activists were upset that executives of Chick-fil-A spoke out in favor of marriage as solely between a man and a woman. Using their typical method of guilt by association, they said that Chick-fil-A was wrong for giving money to the Salvation Army, which, they claimed, was not friendly to the LGTBQ cause. ….