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Counterpoint: history is largely a one-way conversation of destroying traditions in favor of such progress. Preserving tradition is a balancing act for the more necessary goal of maintaining the the systems and institutions which beget the traditions. Its 60% compromise.
I don't think the Catholic Church is at a point where blessing gay unions is necessary to optimize the institution, but it's clearly now in their Overton window.
I don't see how that's a counter.
... and you seem to be saying "it's not necessarily bad to destroy traditions, we have always done it". Even if, that seems to be neither here nor there.
But to address your point - not only do I not see how it would "optimize" the Church, I am yet to see one of these "we must make a fundamental change to [institution] to appeal to more prograssive audiences, and grow our membership" scenarios play out in a non-destructive way,
Except that LGBTQ+ doesn't seem to grow membership.
In formerly most Catholic part of the world one fifth of Catholics left the Church at historically unprecedented speed. Not left as stopped attending Catholic churches, but left as started attending evangelical churches.
And not rainbow flag adorned LGBTQ+ affirming churches, but bible believing (and full of Israeli flags) churches.
This is one of world's important trends that is rarely grasped outside the region, popular image of Latin America is still of traditional 99,9% Catholic continent.
If Catholic Church was about saving souls, it would drive it into panic, it would desperately try to do something to stop this hemorrhage.
The Church seems unperturbed. As if the power and influence of the Church came from property and real estate worth trillions all over the world and possession of world's preeminent money laundering machine, not from masses of peons in the pews, and as if keeping this power required staying in good grace of world's elite human capital.
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The Church has changed traditions over time in order to maintain itself, increase its robustness, promote antifragility, etc. As an institution, the Catholic Church probably isn't amenable to rapid, radical change. (hence the slow move away from a Latin mass, the gradual lack of condemnation for charging interest on loans (Islam has created a bizarre, less efficient workaround which probably cost them economically), and the explicit condemnation of slavery being late to the party). Dozens more I think, but I know very little about the history of religion.
At some point, it may be optimal for the continuance of the Church to bless gay unions. In a few decades to a few hundred years. But also maybe it will never be optimal. However, imagine a contemporary Church that continued to argue, as I think Acquanias did (and I'm not sure if he was Catholic, but just as an example), that owning people as slaves was fine so long as you treated them well. That would be bad for the institution today. I'm not chiding the Church for being "late to the party". It's the kind of institution that should change slowly, cautiously, and with much debate.
Why its relevant: As I said, I'm pretty ignorant of the history of religion (its by far my worst Jeopardy! category). Therefore, I don't know how democratic religious have fared compared to more top-down structures, and I can't analyze the causal factors in a religions outcomes as institutions (for example, Buddhism and Hinduism are about twice as old as Christianity, but I don't know their institutional structures).
My view is that this debate is the long arc of history: how much progress, and how fast? A balance must be stuck according the function of the institution. The US got rid of slavery, let women vote, allowed for constitutional review by SCOTUS, etc. Perhaps its not as robust as everyone would like, but it has worked out pretty well by historical standards. Companies can change faster than governmental bodies, which can change faster than spiritual institutions. Change too fast, you blow it up. Change too slowly, society moves on.
But that doesn't imply anything and everything should be subject to change as long as it promotes it's robustness, or you'll reach "make killing legal to solve murder" territory.
Well, just as a quick sanity check, which sects of Christianity are flying the rainbow flag right now?
My view is that this leaves out the important question of "progress towards what?". Not all changes are good just because they're changes, and while making some changes in order to increase your chances for survival might be fine, a fundamental enough change is indistinguishable from death. Should Christianity endorse Satan worship, if it increased it's chances for survival? Should progressives endorse white supremacy?
Everything is on the table for change, but its not equally wise or good to change any aspect. The US nearly wrecked itself to get rid of slavery. Legal slavery in perpetuity probably wasn't a stable solution, and the US paid dearly to change a fundamental aspect of its operation, deleting the 3/5 compromise and adding new lines to its "code". The Catholic Church moved away from Latin mass because that was probably a sub-optimal configuration. If, in the year 2300, society has determined that being anti gay is as bad as being pro slavery, I'd bet that the Catholic church will bless gay unions, or something similar (its unlikely, but possible). Solutions like "making killing legal to solve murder" are generally unstable solutions to law and order institutions.
Oh, I have no idea. I wasn't raised with a religion, and haven't really chosen one.
Kurt Vonnegut would sarcastically argue its to make more plastic. Ellul would argue 'technique' is progressing to separate us from nature for its own ends. Dawkins would argue for the successful propagation of replicators. Steven Pinker would argue its a move towards less violence and loger, healthier lifespans. I'm closest to the latter arguments.
Agreed! Chesterton is a very wise part of the conversation. The pride-flying sects are either blowing themselves up, or evolving to a more stable structure. I think the latter, but who knows. The ACLU is blowing itself up imo, but FIRE is filling the void. The reactionary and unwise BLM movement is blowing up racial progress imo, but they seem to be cashing out. There may or may not be some wise findings in the debris (for example, I'm in favor of skepticism to police power, training standards, and attitudes, and I hope these change at the institutional level).
This sounds like should X become not X to survive. Not sure it fits. But say in the rubble of WW3 might progressives become totalitarian to put society back together. Yeah, but they won't claim to be progressives anymore. Have to run, getting increasingly less thoughtful.
I disagree, and I think you do too, since later you say:
Yes, that's exactly what I'm driving at. Whether or not it fits is another question, but I think this does show "Everything is on the table for change, the long arc of history, how much progress, and how fast" does not cover everything.
But what if they do though? What if in some years, without any WW3 mediated collapse of society, someone says "You know what would be really progressive? A literal racial caste system with white people on top!"? What exactly could be said to dismiss their idea?
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