tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post3394593614859562560..comments2024-03-22T18:43:00.710-04:00Comments on Unam Sanctam Catholicam: Chesterton on...wife beating!?Bonifacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10672810254075072214noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-2526351814399856782020-07-24T07:56:53.134-04:002020-07-24T07:56:53.134-04:00He is not condoning wife-hitting or beating or any...He is not condoning wife-hitting or beating or any such thing. He is standing up for the institution of marriage. It appears that he is arguing against a very specific trend of some sort where marriages are being dissolved because of this sort of one-off incident. He does not discuss the merits of divorce due to habitual wife-beating. Not having the type of incident in front of us to see his argument against it in its proper place, the best thing we can take from it, I believe, would be that you shouldn't throw away your life for a single crime. You shouldn't throw away your marriage because of one crime. Marriage, as he understood it, was the path of a married person to sanctity and Heaven. It's dissolution should not be taken lightly to the police. (again, he may have felt differently for habitual, regular wife-beating. He doesn't address that. I think that point is important)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04653037118935544450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-44492470477834469412011-01-27T10:27:40.028-05:002011-01-27T10:27:40.028-05:00Well, I know that one thing we SHOULDN'T do is...Well, I know that one thing we SHOULDN'T do is call Chesterton a child of his time. And I very much believe he is right that it was and is something confined to the poor. Does it go up to the top levels? Sure, but then it is truly misogynist, and not as you interpret, an outlet because man is confined and cannot get out his anger in other ways.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-43042378006426660442010-06-12T12:54:17.336-04:002010-06-12T12:54:17.336-04:00Don't make to much of this comment.
It is no...Don't make to much of this comment. <br /><br />It is not always wrong to hit your wife, which is what Chesterton was saying, anymore then it is always wrong to slam the door or beat up a kid on the playground. 'The poor wife, like the schoolboy, judges him as a bully by whether he is a bully. She knows that while wife-beating really may be a crime, wife-hitting is sometimes very like just self-defense.'<br /><br />You may need to hit her to calm her or to get her mind straight in a crisis. Or if she were to come at you with a weapon in blind rage then it is perfectly just to defend yourself. Or if she were to harm or threaten to harm the children then stopping her by any means necessary is justified.<br /><br />Chesterton is not arguing in favor of wife beating which he calls a crime: 'wife-beating really may be a crime'. But he is saying that in some cases wife hitting is justified in the same way that child hitting is justified. <br /><br />He is arguing that you can not permit divorce mearly because of 'wife hitting' any more then you can permit child removal just because of 'child hitting'.<br /><br />The question of social factors require a greater context not found in this piece so I can't comment on that.<br /><br />That's my take on the issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6086833995941525990.post-17690786457188462842010-06-11T19:03:48.657-04:002010-06-11T19:03:48.657-04:00That is a very disturbing passage! Chesterton...That is a very disturbing passage! Chesterton's comment about door slamming seems so quaint and Victorian... Back then domestic abuse in the upper and middle classes was kept hidden away and it is possible that Chesterton honestly thought it was a problem confined to the poor. I think that we should probably skim over this passage and chalk it up to Chesterton simply being a man of his age. I imagine some of our attitudes will seem pretty odd in 95 years too.Catholic Tidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08154128486585894489noreply@blogger.com