The Galli Report: 12.04.20

Motherhood is hard--so? Judge sometimes. Sayers and Lewis, pen pals. What did Mary know, and when did she know it?

Motherhood Is Hard. So?
Here is a feisty apology by a mother of eight who rebels against the unquestioned reign of contraception. 

Contraception, abortion, and childcare are no three-legged stool of female liberation. Contraception is the absolute monarch. When contraception becomes available, people use it, no matter what their resources or culture. In fact, contraception becomes the culture. With a NuvaRing, I could—dare I say it?—rule the world! Unless, of course, everyone has a NuvaRing. Then the feminine plight reforms and resumes. All women but the richest are compelled to live in a certain way. Now it is the contraception way: one or two children, and a job where one’s real worth lies.

And it’s clear she doesn’t live in a fantasy land of blissful family life:

I am a living specimen of a history most in our culture believe they understand, as they work diligently to wipe it out. It stands to reason that I could offer some insight valuable to the righteous cause of relieving female pain.

My testimony is this: it is hard. Everyone is right about that. It is hard receiving the children nature is divinely designed to give, and I have received them in a committed and affectionate marriage.

The hard reality of motherhood and how that shaped her forms the bulk of the essay—which means even if you disagree with her about contraception, you might appreciate this aspect of her argument.

Judge Not—Except Sometimes
If I were to add a sub-title to “Why We Judge People Based on Their Relatives” it would be “And why that’s not always wrong.”  The article is about what behavioral genetics reveals about old questions:

For most characteristics, it looks like genetics are much more important than parenting. One large study found that, for adopted children, their rate of criminality was 12 percent if their biological parents were criminals but their adopted parents were not criminals—but just 6 percent if their adoptive parents were criminals and their biological parents were not. When both sets of parents, biological and adoptive, were criminals, the rate of criminality shot up to 40 percent. There is a similar pattern when it comes to drug and alcohol abuse….

I’ll call this judgement we make about others, on the basis of their relatives, “intuitive behavioral genetics.” Research has shown that people aren’t bad at guessing how heritable certain human traits are ….

Inkling Pen Pals
C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers were good friends, though it’s unlikely they ever met in person.  But they wrote a lot of letters to each other the last 15 years of Sayers’ life, and those letters give us a deeper understanding and appreciation of each of them. That’s the theme of a recent book and a glowing review of that book. Full disclosure: the author of the book, Gina Dalfonzo, was an associate editor at Christianity Today while I worked there. So maybe I’m biased. Then again, the very fact that she worked at CT might suggest she’s a good writer.

What Did Mary Know? And When Did She Know It?
One way to appreciate the wonder of the Christmas story, especially the role of Mary, is to ponder the song, “Mary, Did You Know?”  I had never listened closely to the words until I heard this rendition by Pentatonix.  Another miracle to ponder is how such a rich sound can come from a group that sings acappella.

Grace and peace,

Mark Galli
markgalli.com