Keeping the First Commandment First

In the Gospel of Matthew (22:36-40), Jesus says that the “greatest and first commandment,” is to “love the Lord your God” with one’s whole heart, soul and mind, and that the second is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  “On these two commandments the whole law is based…”  In other words, love God and love your neighbor, in that order. If we don’t get the order right, or omit the first completely, we very likely won’t get the second right either.

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), the founder of Planned Parenthood, wanted a better world. Her intentions were good. But she put love of neighbor before love of God. She believed that if there were more intelligent and healthy people in the world, the world would be a better place. She believed that if she could help prevent the “unfit” ---those with hereditary physical or mental defects--- from transmitting their disabilities to another generation, all would benefit. Consider these proposals from her article “A Plan for Peace,” in the April, 1932 Birth Control Review:

• apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.

•  insure the country against future burdens of maintenance for numerous offspring as may be born of feebleminded parents, by pensioning all persons with transmissible disease who voluntarily consent to sterilization.

• give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.

• apportion farm lands and homesteads for these segregated persons where they would be taught to work under competent instructors for the period of their entire lives.

• The first step would thus be to control the intake and output of morons, mental defectives, epileptics.

• The second step would be to take an inventory of the secondary group such as illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, dope-fiends; classify them in special departments under government medical protection, and segregate them on farms and open spaces as long as necessary for the strengthening and development of moral conduct.

• Having corralled this enormous part of our population and placed it on a basis of health instead of punishment, it is safe to say that fifteen or twenty millions of our population would then be organized into soldiers of defense---defending the unborn against their own disabilities.

Upon reading this, one might think of Margaret Sanger as a monster. But this was not the case. A friend of mine, who was a young teenage neighbor of Sanger in Tucson, said that Margaret gave her a key to her house, so that whenever she wanted to play her grand piano, she could do so. She said Sanger bought costumes in countries she had visited and invited the neighborhood children to don them, and directed them in little plays for their parents. She was very generous at Halloween. As a result, my friend, and probably others who were once children in Sanger’s neighborhood, harbors no hatred toward her; Nor should we, who are admonished to “hate the sin and love the sinner.”

At present, we have many politicians, friends, and even Catholic religious, who, like Sanger, are misguided, because they put the “social gospel,” the second great commandment, before the first. As a result, they believe they show “love of neighbor” by tolerating and approving sinful behavior and unjust laws. But it is not charitable or loving to confirm someone in sin. The greatest commandment is love of God. How do we show love of God? Jesus tells us, in John 14-15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” What is right or wrong is what God says is right or wrong, no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court, our private consciences, or an overwhelming majority says. These commandments are not restrictive, but protective, like guardrails on a mountain road. To dismiss them is to invite chaos and anarchy. Neither we as individuals, nor we as a society, can violate these protective commandments and not suffer the consequences. Social order follows from moral order.

These words from Katharine Bates’ poem America the Beautiful come to mind:

America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

The “law” to which she refers is Divine law. It’s worth recalling the words of Bishop Sheen: “It is our solemn duty as Catholics to be conscious of our duty to America, and to preserve its freedom by preserving its faith in God…” 

Please help your station, as we seek to show that adherence to the teachings of the Prince of Peace is a precondition for peace. You may do this by telling others and encouraging them to watch the station, by placing program guides in your parish’s information rack, through prayer, and a financial contribution if possible.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam