FULL DISCLOSURE: I’d never even heard an Adele song before yesterday. I listened to Hello and now I can’t get it out of my head. But I’m confused as to how Catholics can so consistently lose their minds with joy when someone says something vaguely family-friendly. From her interview in Vogue:
When I became a parent, I felt like I was truly living. I had a purpose, where before I didn’t.Motherhood is wonderful; it does give direction and purpose to a woman’s life. It should. It should change everything. This is chanted by all the Catholic women in response to Adele’s words, while the feminist secular media thinks it vaguely ridiculous. As Slate tweeted:
Uh oh: Adele tells Vogue motherhood gave her “purpose.”
But then out come the pictures of her son dressed as a Disney princess. Oh, oops. Maybe she’s not a spokesperson for the Christian community. She’s on the cover of Time magazine, and in her interview she also lets drop this incredible bit of traditional-family advocating while discussing her son:
He makes me so proud of myself, and he makes me like myself so much. And I’ve always liked myself. I’ve never not liked myself. I don’t have hangups like that. But I’m so proud of myself that I made him in my belly. Cooked him in my belly and then he came out of me! This human who’s suddenly walking around and doing his own thing. I can’t wait to know who his best friends are going to be, who his girlfriend or his boyfriend is going to be or what movies he likes… Whatever my kid wants to do or be I will always support him no matter what.
We’re so desperate for the slightest hint of Catholic values, for someone to exalt the family, that we fall for anything. And we do it over and over again. Just because someone grasps a bit of natural law doesn’t mean that we should fall all over ourselves for gay fashion designers or unhealthy chips. We have the standard: The Holy Family, Theology of the Body, 2000 years of Church teaching. Yet we fall for every random crumb from a celebrity table.
Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves. Matthew 10:16.
