Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A biting attack on mid-20th century Church policy, March 18, 2005
I picked this up without knowing anything about the book or the author. The tone set in the opening chapters led me to believe that this would be a fair discussion of the relationship between American Society and the Roman Catholic Church. The copious source notes indicate show the extent of the author's research into the subject matter, and an unbiased presentation of the facts would have been quite useful as a basis for discussion and debate. Unfortunately, the author describes his finding in an extremely cynical fashion, and makes his opinions of the goals of the Church hierarchy quite plain, which detracts from the books impact. Had the author simply presented the facts, and allowed the reader to reach his or her own conclusions, this book would have been an important tool in assessing the role of the Church in America.
Published in 1949, there is much about this book that is out of date. The reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960's has greatly changed the Catholic Church, though the author's points regarding medicine and sex remain largely valid. American society has changed as well, with the cultural upheaval of the 1960's and tremendous changes in technology. Finally, the world has changed...facism and communism have both largely disappeared, and the Church's influence in Europe had waned considerably.
This book represents an attack by the author on Church policies from a half-century ago, and in that sense it has lost its relevance. To the extent that religious conservatives are still trying to co-opt public policy, there are still point in here to ponder.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Blanshard & Liberalism's long love-affair with Eugenics, May 24, 2004
By A Customer
Paul Blanshard's classic is an excellent illustration of why liberals are disturbed by politically active Catholicism. Check the references for "Eugenics" in his index and you'll find that in his eyes one of Catholicism's great crimes was its opposition to eugenics--the idea that the government should classify people into two categories, the fit and the unfit and not permit the latter to have children. According to Blanshard, "Recent studies, in fact, have indicated that, with modern techniques for saving the unfit, there is an average decline of intelligence (I.Q.) of two or three points in each generation."You'll find similar remarks if you check out index entries on birth control and forced sterilization. Blanshard is horror stuck that Catholicism would urge Catholic judges to a "Flat Defiance of an existing law" in 27 states that forced men and women to be sterilized against their will. Recall that the next time you hear liberals claim to champion "reproductive freedom" against a terrible Catholic hierarchy. If you'd like to read what Blanshard was supporting, consult one of Margaret Sanger's still-in-print books for a eugenic point of view and G. K. Chesterton's Eugenics and Other Evils for the contrary (and Catholic) point of view. Fortunately for all of us, Blanshard, Sanger and liberalism in general were not successful with their scheme to radically curtain the birth rates of allegedly inferior immigrants from Italy (Catholic) and Eastern Europe (Jewish). And both groups have demonstrated through their children that Blanshard's once politically correct beliefs about their 'unfitness' and IQ decline were nonsense. In short, though I disagreed with Blanshard, his book is interesting for the historical perspective it lends to current debates.
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Paul Blanshard is not anti-Catholic; He is PRO-FREEDOM!, February 14, 2004
Paul Blanshard was never an "anti-Catholic bigot." On the contrary, he was one of America's foremost advocates of true religious liberty maintained through strict separation of church and state! His writings only opposed the reactionary pre-Vatican 2 policies of the Roman Catholic hierarchy of his day. He never attacked Catholics as human beings or loyal Americans in any of his books.In fact, his writings today are still timely when we are facing the same threats from the evangelical, fundamentalist Protestant Religious Right, which seeks to destroy separation of church and state through the current Bush administration's so-called "faith-based initiative." The Religious Right's current playbook is almost identical to the Catholic hierarchy Paul Blanshard so roundly criticized in his day. With the acquiescence of all too many politicians in both parties, the Religious Right is eating away at our religious freedom through its incremental and cynical manipulation of the First Amendment by insisting that tax support for "faith-based" education and social services guarantee their free excercise of religion. This stands religious freedom on its head! Public funds are for secular education and social services only! Private funds are for religious schools and faith based social services. AMERICA, WAKE UP! If Paul Blanshard were alive today, he would be screaming out at the top of his lungs at what is happening in our country today.
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by Leon J. Podles
