Friday 10 October 2014

Reservation(i)

We don't always tell everyone everything every time, do we?
We reserve the right, for example, about how much information we share with children about intimate sexual relationships.
I felt, as a parent who had been told virtually nothing about male sexuality by my father...a book was left on my bed when I was about 11.. ,  that I should be more open with my children. My impression is that my kids knew enough, and didn't particularly want to talk about it with me and indeed used to get annoyed with me because I was so open....hope I still am!

You know the joke:
"Dad, where did I come from?" asks the 10-years-old. 
The dad was shocked that a 10 year old would be asking a question like that. He was hoping to wait a few more years before he would have to explain the facts of life, but he figured it was better a few years early than a few days too late, so, for the next two hours he explained everything to his son. 
When he finished, he asked his son what prompted his question to which his son replied, "I was talking to the new boy and he said he came from Port Augusta
It is not always necessary, to tell everyone everything every time! We reserve the right to pick the time, and, perhaps,  to limit the information.
There is a continuing case which has come before the courts (see here) in which a minister of another church talks about one of the Roman Catholic 'dogmas' of "reservation". The practice of, seemingly, saying one thing whilst knowing another...the specific dialogue in the court went as follows:
Yesterday, Fr X agreed under cross-examination that it was not a sin for a Catholic to lie in order to protect another person from harm or for another “proper purpose”.
He said he was familiar with that Catholic doctrine, known as wide and strict mental reservation.
Asked whether he had created such a mental reservation for himself when swearing, on The Bible, to tell the truth in court, he replied: “I can’t answer that question.”
Asked whether that answer itself was a form of mental reservation, he replied: “Not as I understand it as part of my duties.”
I will leave it up to you, dear reader,  to make what you can of this 'mental reservation'
The lawyer at least questioned this
Mr Harris asked whether holding such views would make Fr X “a hypocrite”, in the event the allegations in the newspaper reports were true.
“Very likely, many people would conclude that, also that this is a weak person who has behaved at odds with his professed or stated views,” Fr X said.
Again, I leave it to you, dear reader to draw your own conclusions about...appropriate reservation, hypocrisy, truth, ethics and morality.


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