4.06.2009

A Lutheran Family Road Trip - From Darwin to the Pill

Here's a little something I wrote for my column (I Desire Mercy, Not Sarcasm...) over on the Brothers of John the Steadfast site: A Lutheran Family Road Trip.

The response was great, but the best response came from a commenter named Jonesy

"One connection Mr. Townsend didn’t draw directly between Darwinism and the Pill is eugenics. Darwinism begets “survival of the fittest”, which in turn begets Social Darwinism, which, when it has matured, begets eugenics. Then, along comes a sweet old lady named Margaret Sanger who happens to be a fierce defender of both Darwinism and eugenics. Ms. Sanger, being in possession of a small fortune, decides the best way to promote her cause is to throw her money and time into financing the development of (gasp) the Pill. Oh, she also pays a good piece of the legal bill to get contraceptives legalized in the U.S. just to make sure everyone, but mostly “dysgenic groups”, can go ahead and stop reproducing all those “unfit” babies. Yet we think we can go ahead and use this glorious invention without participating in its racist, Darwinist, eugenic past?
I’m sure it’s all just coincidence."


This is the point that I didn't make, but Jonesy took the ball and hit it out of the park.....

2 comments:

Dawn said...

Book, recommended: War Against the Weak, by Edwin Black. Though not conclusive, it was eye opening regarding the American eugenics movement.

Joshua Palmer said...

Happy you liked the comment. I look forward to perusing you blog here. Walter Maier's book "For Better Not For Worse" has an interesting chapter on contraception you may find worthy of a read.

--Jonesy