"censoring of the scope of desire"

In the annual Spiritual Exercises of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, Fr. Julián Carrón stated that "the sign par excellence of the marginalization of Christ from life is the shriveling of the dimensions proper to humanity, a reduced understanding of one's own humanity, of one's perception of self, a reductive use of reason, affection, and freedom, a censoring of the scope of desire" (Can a Man Be Born Again, Once He Is Old?, pg 7). One manifestation of this is what is best described as the pathologizing of behavior, which means applying the disease model to everything and referring to every deviation from political correctness as a "phobia," an irrational fear, something that requires treatment, re-education. In this it is easy to discern the seeds of a new totalitarianism.

To shift gears, because we're now all about sex all the time, even to the point of asserting that our sexual preferences are the basis for rights, and the fact that from time-to-time I engage on the subject of sex in a straightforward way, it seems opportune to point out that the "censoring of the scope desire," by which I mean reducing desire to sexual desire, as if sexual desire itself is an end, not a means to our end, which celibacy for the sake of the kingdom seeks to embody in the here and now, was summed up well by Allan Bloom in an article he wrote for National Review back in 1982: "There is nothing wild, Dionysian, searching, in our promiscuity. It has a dull, sterilized, scientific character." An example of this leads me to make a guilty admission.

Years ago my wife and I, when we were up late, used to periodically watch the show Blind Date. The show would arrange a blind date for two people. The date always included limousine service, which would pick up the man first before swinging by to pick up his date. It always included supper and an activity, bowling, mini-golf, bungee jumping, what have you. Sometimes it led to dropping the lady off at her doorstep and culminating with a friendly peck on the cheek and a clear determination no follow-on date would ensue. Other times, it led to more. The couple was always debriefed after the date during which they were asked whether they would like to date the each other again. More often than not, either one or both of the people did not want to date the person again. One such episode sticks in my mind. After supper and the scheduled activity, the couple wound up getting in a hot tub and went "all the way." During the debriefing, the woman was adamant that she would not date the guy again. When the show’s host said something like, “But you had sex with him,” to which she replied, "I was bored." Boring, indeed