Rendering unto Caesar: Fasces in Hand

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

"If the Creator had meant for people to be citizens of Rome, they'd be born with fasces in hand."

Once we come to see the Pontifex Maximus as the vicar of Caesar, it makes sense that Roman priests oppose birth control. After all, to control one's own ability to reproduce implies freedom from the fear of the blunt instrument of Roman rule. Caesar seeks to dominate all of his subjects to the point of manipulating their reproductive practice.

The other side of the revelation involves the freedom from imposing the Roman bludgeon on children. Parents who were raised in the Roman religion are wising up to the brutality of Roman rule. They don't want their children to be forced into reproducing by accident the way that they had been forced by a vicarious pseudo-father.

If you were a Catholic parent, would you obey the rules of Caesar by trying to beat your children into conformity with Roman social custom? Would you use the fasces of Caesar to bring your offspring into subjugation?

Comments

Far less...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... than I'd like to.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Don't give pot a bad name like that.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

If you were a Catholic parent, would you ... beat your children

Yes. Yes, I would.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Why do posts keep warranting this?! Srsly folks.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

ron needs some butter and real maple syrup.

Somehow, ...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... the flapjack makes him look a bit French.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

If we are to speak of Traditional Roman religion under the real Augusti of Rome, the practice was to expose unwanted children and murder children born deformed or otherwise likely to prove a burden. This leaves aside that the Roman Emperors were concerned about a declining birth rate among the Italian peoples under Roman authority and concerned that would lead to an expansion of the outside provinces against the other.

And imposing the Universal religion of Jupiter Capitolinus still goes on? I was under the impression that Emperor Theodosius had snuffed that business out?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And "Ave Augustus Domitius Ahenobarbus!".

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it took me a bit to get she was talking about post-Constantinian Rome...

The Eagle...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... soars!

Rome was founded by a pair of unwanted bambinos: the Cain and Abel of Seven Hills.

The Pope isn't amused.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Re: The Pope isn't amused.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

The Pope looks really amused, in a "my evil plans are coming to fruition" kind of way...

If he doesn't feast on the carcasses of babies...

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

(http://tinypic.com)

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

LMAO!

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would, it's the Catholic way. However, you seem to have missed the whole point of being Catholic; the guilt. Beating your children for Catholics is more of a hobby than a serious behavioural modification system. The real trick to Catholic parenting comes down to being able to fill you children with so much guilt that they are barely able to operate in the world under the enormous weight of their existential angst. This is something that only Catholics, and as I am learning, Jews, can truly understand.

Forgive me, father...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... for I have sinned: I have endured a guilt-free week.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I dunno... I'm still pissed that I had to eat those crummy fish sticks in elementary school on Fridays. Of course, that was in 1957.

Your age...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... is showing.

It's amazing what role the fisheries played in the colonization of America. Without that fishy practice, my ancestors may have remained on the side of the fishing pond. On the other hand, the search for an alternate route to the Spice Islands and a way to relieve merry old England of her excess population proved to be even stronger forces favoring colonization.

[lucazzo.livejournal.com]

The only thing that needs subjugation here is this topic.

Go...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... for it!

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

What are you drinking?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Priceless!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I especially enjoyed the scene in the Protestant home.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

My cat's feces bring me into subjugation whenever I change the box.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Feces in hand? Cry havoc! And let loose the poo of war!!!

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

It is best in the original Klingon.

[schquee.livejournal.com]

I think this is an unfair association with the Ancient Roman Caesar. Ancient Rome had birth control methods, and Caesar did not attempt to stop women from doing things such as jumping backwards seven times after sex to dislodge the sperm, or from wearing a cat's liver in a leather pouch around the left foot during sex.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing the basis for a new episode of Mythbusters here....

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

You appear to be confusing the modern Catholic position with the positions extant during the creation of the Christian faith.

That's because...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... Romans invented Christianity. You seem to confuse the Christian faith with a religion other than that of Caesar.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

After all, to control one's own ability to reproduce

Because there's no other way to prevent reproduction, like, oh I don't know, not having sex?

So, you support...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... the Lorena Bobbitt technique of birth control?