In my Spanish societry class today, we went over the last century of Spanish history in 1:20. But what really struck me was our discussion of Franco's dictatorship. I hadn't realized the Church's role in those 40 years of Spanish history.
So, Franco allied himself with the Vatican, with the result that, in exchange for being officially recognized by the Church, Spain would be a completely catholic country.
This puts me in an awkward situation when trying to study this period of history. As we discussed in class the opressions of the dictatorial period, a good number of them were moral rules imposed by the Church. I found it very hard to view these restrictions (for example, on abortion, contraception, and homosexuality) as bad things. All my life, I've lived with the Church's worldview - These aren't restrictions, so much as a way to live God's law. Yes, I realize that free will is important, and I'm trying to wrap my mind around the view of freedom of religion from the other side. It's just sad to realize that Spain is a catholic country only in the way that Russia is an atheist country.
And the other thing that seems so wrong is the way the world views these libreral movements. Everything I've been fighting against on moral grounds my whole life seems, in the world's eyes, so simply be the natural progression of things. The legalization of gay marriage, by this reasoning, is as just and inevitable as women's sufferage. So many people apparently have no sense of the moral differences between different movements. All they want it change. But I'm not ready to blog about Obama right now. It's just something to think about.
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