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Protestant & Catholic Understandings of "Law"

I'm always intrigued when I see an article by John Allen Jr., correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and the guy everybody seems to turn to when they want to understand the Vatican.  I was intrigued by his commentary today in the NY Times regarding the Vatican's decision to prohibit any gays from becoming priests even if they are celibate.  Of course, I think this ruling is awful, but Allen's commentary reveals a lot of gray where I thought there was none. 

He draws a distinction between on the one hand, law in the "Anglo-Saxon world" (I guess America, Britain, etc.) where law is based upon Protestantism and practical reason and is meant to dictate what people "should actually do," and law in countries influenced by Roman Catholicism where law is an "ideal" to shoot for with lots of exceptions in this "fallen world."  He gives the example of Italian traffic behavior as an illustration of the latter understanding.  So too, in the Vatican, law is "the way things would work if men were angels."  In relation to the case of gays in the priesthood, Allen writes that there will be less gays than before but lots of exceptions to the rule. 

I'm so confused by this point of view that I don't know what to do with it.  Certainly, Protestantism's emphasis upon absolutes could use a lot of loosening up.  This also helps explain a bit why American Catholics and the Vatican so often seem to be talking past each other.  I'll have to ponder this one.

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Scapegoats

Today we saw Michael Brown, former head of FEMA and expert on Arabian horses, testify before Congress and do his best to deflect the blame for the government's horrible response to hurricane Katrina away from himself and to Louisiana politicians.  We also saw the sentencing of Lynndie England, everybody's favorite Abu Ghraib pin-up girl. 

What do these two people have in common?

They're both scapegoats.  Sure, both deserve blame and punishment, but there's a whole lot of blame to pass around in both cases.  I wonder why our culture seems to like scapegoating so much--it certainly is easier.  Blaming one person is a whole lot easier than looking at systematic problems of cronyism in the federal government or interrogation methodology.  I wonder why the media doesn't ask the harder questions of who else is involved and what is the real problem? 

Does anybody really think that if there hadn't been a picture of Lynndie England with that dog leash that she would have been convicted?  Has there been anyone convicted in the prison abuse scandal who wasn't dumb enough to pose for a digital camera?  We know there were more pictures and more people who didn't make it onto memory cards.  What about them? 

We also know that many more people at FEMA who hold top jobs and are charged with helping us during disasters were political cronies.  What about them?  What about the practice of rewarding people with government jobs they have no qualifications for--which is done by both parties, Republican and Democrat?  Doesn't Congress have oversight of these nominations?  Shouldn't somebody in the media be looking at this?

On days like this, I think of sin and how little personal responsibility people in our culture actually take for their own damaging actions.  (Myself included.)

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Merton's Prayer for Faith

I shared this prayer recently with one of our youth.  It's worth sharing here.  I cherish it, because I think it expresses the grace of God so eloquently.

From Thoughts on Solitude by Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Peace,

Chase

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There are many reasons why Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U2, is my hero.  Currently, as I look up from my computer monitor, Bono looks back at me from three different U2 posters scattered around my office.  One of the main reasons, I admire Bono so much is his determined optimism when it comes to dealing with the really big problems of the world, an optimism matched by work on the ground by him to deal with these problems.

Sunday's NY Times Magazine had Bono on the cover and a very long, nicely written article about Bono's efforts at lobbying the leaders of the G-8 nations to help Africa by reducing the debt owed by the poorest nations, fighting AIDS and other communicable diseases, and working to provide clean water and access to health care. 

What amazes me is not just Bono's tireless work meeting with world leaders while managing to front one of the world's biggest rock bands, but his ability to see the best in people and to trust them even if they are politicians that operate from an ideological perspective different from his own.  The article describes Bono's strength as not just believing strongly in an issue but believing strongly in people.  Whether he's reducing Jesse Helms to tears or prodding neo-liberals to act, Bono's lobbying efforts have changed the flow of billions of dollars towards the world's neediest people.

Furthermore, Bono the rock star and lobbyist finds the inspiration and the grounds for all of his work in his faith.  His faith is not some New Age egocentric nebulosity but plain old Christianity. 

I hope you'll read the article and maybe be inspired too.

Find out more about Bono's lobbying efforts by checking out the One Campaign.

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Speaking of the Sunday Times, I read with interest the article in the NY Times Book Review by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. about Reinhold Neibuhr, whom I've mentioned before on this blog.  Here's a brief excerpt that I found meaningful:

Why, in an age of religiosity, has Niebuhr, the supreme American theologian of the 20th century, dropped out of 21st-century religious discourse? Maybe issues have taken more urgent forms since Niebuhr's death - terrorism, torture, abortion, same-sex marriage, Genesis versus Darwin, embryonic stem-cell research. But maybe Niebuhr has fallen out of fashion because 9/11 has revived the myth of our national innocence. Lamentations about "the end of innocence" became favorite clichés at the time.

Niebuhr was a critic of national innocence, which he regarded as a delusion. After all, whites coming to these shores were reared in the Calvinist doctrine of sinful humanity, and they killed red men, enslaved black men and later on imported yellow men for peon labor - not much of a background for national innocence. "Nations, as individuals, who are completely innocent in their own esteem," Niebuhr wrote, "are insufferable in their human contacts." The self-righteous delusion of innocence encouraged a kind of Manichaeism dividing the world between good (us) and evil (our critics).

Read the article.

Peace,

Chase

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Call me cynical, but I have my doubts about the president declaring that today should be a national day of prayer for those affected by hurricane Katrina.  Don't get me wrong, I believe in prayer, but I believe prayer is just as much if not more for the purpose of changing the one praying rather than making God do what we want.  How about if we make our prayers actions rather than words that will make the life of someone better--someone who does not have the same blessings and benefits that we do?  It doesn't even have to be someone on the Gulf Coast.  It could be someone right near to us.

As far as the politicians who gathered in the Washington Cathedral today to hear T. D. Jakes preach, I would have rather had them back at their desks rooting out cronies who are working at FEMA--people that are supposed to be helping us when disaster strikes. 

I'd rather have them back at the Capital Building examining the pork-filled transportation bill that politicians of both parties passed through in order to please lobbyists and to build unnecessary pet projects of rich donors and after their examination wondering if that money could have been better spent on something that actually could help us the next time a disaster strikes. 

I would rather have these people that are supposed to be looking out for our interests stuck face to face with the poor black people of New Orleans whose lives were washed away and then try to justify why they wished to cut programs like Medicare, student loans and food stamps. 

Oh, and by the way, if I couldn't have these wishes granted, then I wish that they'd heard a preacher today that actually said some of this stuff to them and then reminded them that Jesus was a heck of a lot more concerned about people in power helping the poor than politicians legislating particular so-called sins. 

I heard Martin Walker, editor of UPI, on the radio today and he mentioned the quote by Michael Harrington, "Poverty is invisible, that's one of the reasons we don't deal with it."  Walker felt like the poverty in America was visible for only about 72 hours thanks to hurricane Katrina and it quickly became invisible again.  I agree with Walker.  It seems like the national attention is already turning towards Brittany Spears' new baby.

Peace,

Chase

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Out of the reading I've done recently about the issues of poverty and justice raised by the destruction of hurricane Katrina, here is one of the best editorials I've come across.  It's by William Rasberry in the Washington Post.  He teaches at Duke and asks some great questions about when basic survival trumps normal laws (e.g. looting food when you're stuck in a flooded New Orleans without help) and when they do not (e.g. looting wide-screen TVs when you're stuck in a flooded New Orleans without help).  He then goes on to ask if our nation's policies towards the poor push them towards having to choose between basic survival and obeying the law in every day circumstances.

Here are some other good articles I've come across:

• Scarcely Heard Questions: How Could God Have Allowed
  Catastrophe to Occur?--Peter Steinfels in the NY Times
• Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush--
  Michael Fletcher in the Washington Post

Don't feel like reading?  Here's a good audio commentary by writer Leon Wynter who takes issue with the way the poor black people of New Orleans have been portrayed in the media. 

Why am I still spending time focusing on the aftermath of Katrina when the world has begun to move on to the Roberts nomination, the next celebrity marriage/break up, etc?  Because it still matters.  The ugly underbelly of our nation was exposed by the hurricane and the way our nation ignores the needs of the poor has been unavoidable--at least for a few days.  I think we're already on the way to avoiding it all again.

As Christians we have a duty to keep our eyes open to the needs of the people that our society would rather ignore and to do all we can to not just help them through charity but to eliminate the conditions that keep them impoverished.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at what Jesus said about the duty of believers in Matthew 25.  It's not pretty nor for the timid.

Peace,

Chase

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Well the news coverage is turning away from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the deep questions it raises toward the Roberts hearings and other issues and trivialities.  Before Katrina is just a blur of mediocre news coverage that exists only in our memories (at least for the many of us lucky not to have been directly affected by it), here's a reflection on the tragedy of New Orleans worth reading.

Lamentations is a book of the Bible that expresses in poetic form the grief of its author over the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE by the Babylonians.  The laments express grief, anger, confusion and even the small possibility of hope in a time of catastrophe.  A number of our church folks wrote laments in response to the events of September 11.  I think it's appropriate to write laments today over the destruction of New Orleans.   

This lamentation arrived in my inbox today, and it is written by Clyde Fant, a former seminary professor and now the recently retired chaplain of Stetson University.  He is known by a number of minister friends of mine.  Here's what he wrote:

As most of you know, I am from Louisiana. In the last days, grief and outrage have held a contest inside me. So I'm writing this. Because I have to.

Lamentation

How like a widow sits the city once so beautiful!
She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks,
Because there is none to comfort her.
She stretched forth her hands, but none came to her;
They heard how she was groaning, but none came unto her.
In her streets the flood bereaves;
In the sodden houses it is like death.
The leaders and elders of the city have fled, but the poor are trapped
within her levees.

Her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
Those who promised to help are worse than her enemies.
When she cried aloud, none came;
Smooth words promised much,
But they were empty rhetoric, wells without water, phantom bread.
Shame! Shame upon us all.

Who would have believed it!
She who sang even when she mourned,
The people who danced even in their want--
Now they are dying.
Their colorful robes are stained with mud;
They are gray, all gray, the pallor of the dead.

Weep, weep for the great city!
Orators of platitudes, politicians of promises, it is you who betrayed her!
You took from her her safety; you neglected her when she reached out to you.
You channeled her rivers and harnessed her waters--but for yourselves! For the profits of your friends!
You caused her marshes to dry and her wilderness to recede; you brought the might of the waves and the winds to her very doors.
The poor, those who dwelt in the lowest places, who lived in miserable shanties of wood, termite-ridden and forlorn,
Where none but the hopeless would dwell:
You have murdered them, and their corpses drift in the brackish floods,
But their cries have gone up to God!

Woe to you, Republicans!
For you pumped wealth from their lands and sent their sons to die in your wars,
But they are as nothing to you.
"Who is my neighbor?" You do not know yet the answer to this ancient question.
Your only neighbors are your friends in the country clubs or the "good old boys" in the redneck bars.
Your grandfathers set the slaves free, and you return them to a worse bondage of perpetual poverty!
Your fathers segregated them, but you ghettoize them;
Then you redistrict them to take away the few voices they have,
But God will cause the ruined city to cry on their behalf!
Shame! Shame for your hypocritical use of my name to lure the unwary.

Woe to you also, Democrats!
You were the fathers of slavery, first sons of the South!
You damned the poor to generations of ignorance and want.
You fathers segregated them, and you promised to bring them into your family.
But where were you when they needed you?
For you lack the courage of your convictions! You curry the favor of the enemies of your own people!
You have become impotent by your timidity.
You endorsed the wars.
You approved the miserable crumbs for education and employment.
You courted the indifferent, smug suburbs--may you live among them eternally, bored forever by their white sameness!
Shame! Shame for your graft in the statehouses,
Your selfishness that has turned your people from you in disgust.

Woe to you Christians who pride yourselves in the name Conservative,
Who call all generous spirits and inclusive hearts liberals,
Who see wars as strength and peace as weakness!
The Prince of Peace rebuke you!

Woe to you also, Liberal Christians!
You scorn the common and cause the simple to feel inferior in your midst.
Your hearts are ever open, but your pocketbooks are always closed!
He who lived among the poor rebuke you!

Woe to you, television preachers and megachurch pastors! False prophets!
You deceive the people with your bleats of piety while you endorse wars and favor your rich benefactors.
Your prophecies of end times have come true--in your own generation!
Look upon the city! Look upon hell on earth!
See what your leaders have wrought, the shame of the earth!
All mock us and call us fools,
We who send armies across oceans but cannot cross the Mississippi to help
our own!
Shame, shame upon you!

I hate, I despise your solemn assemblies,
The self-hypnotic repetitions of your pagan praise-hymns are a scandal in my ears.
Come before me no more lifting up unholy hands,
Do not use my name to grow your personal kingdoms,
Or to bless your political ambitions.
What do you think I desire? Barrels of oil from Iraq?
Herds of sacred cows from Texas?
Go now and learn what this means:
I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
Lovingkindness, not benign neglect.

Weep, weep for my city,
For my people,
For my children.
For they are dead.

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On a different note, as we consider our next chief justice of the Supreme Court, it's worth remembering our last one, William Rehnquist.  I was surprised this week to read that he was a member of our denomination, The United Church of Christ.  Read more.

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Peace,

Chase

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Well, we're getting things back up and running around here for the new church year that runs from September through June.  I guess it's time to get the CONGOblog up and running again too.

Today, the Senate began its confirmation hearings from John Roberts.  Just a thought: the definition of "activist judges" is whatever judges rule in a manner you don't like no matter your political party.  If I hear anyone use this rhetorical catchphrase again, I'm going to hurl all over my Supreme Count trading cards. 

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One thing about having your thoughts out there on the internet for everyone to see and respond to is that you do get the occasional weird responses.  In response to the 8.31.05 post, I got an e-mail from "revelationken."  That's not a clever nickname I came up with but rather Ken's own choice of moniker.  Revelationken previously sent me an e-mail when I reviewed the NBC mini-series Revelations.   (Perhaps Ken is the president of the mini-series fan club.)  In that e-mail, he mentioned something about the lost tribes of Israel, the Great Pyramid in Gaza and I think Nostradamus.  I don't remember the specifics.  I chose not to respond to his e-mail.  However, I guess in response to my thoughts on Hurricane Katrina, Ken felt inspired.  (BTW to my knowledge Ken is just a traveler on the information highway and not a church member.)

Here is the content of Revelationken's e-mail to me:

WWJD

I can only suppose that Ken was using the trendy evangelical acronym for "What Would Jesus Do?"  That's a good question to ask in the wake of Katrina.  Would Jesus have sought attention for himself and gone to New Orleans a la Sean Penn?  Would Jesus have pushed aid workers out of the way to get a better camera shot of victims a la Geraldo Rivera?  Would Jesus have said its "sort of scary" that New Orleans residents were coming to his home town and would he have noted that since they were all poor "things were working very well for them" a la Barbara Bush?  Would he have chosen Trent Lott's house to illustrate the government's rebuilding priorities a la George W. Bush?  Would he have chosen to show more footage of looters in New Orleans than images of the dead and dying a la the cable news channels?  What would Jesus have done over the past two weeks?

But perhaps, I have misunderstood Revelationken's simple e-mail to me.  Maybe the acronym WWJD actually meant something else.  I've been thinking about a few other options.

What Would Jimmy Do?--I often ask myself what would our senior minister do.

Who Wants Jack Daniels?--After Katrina, don't we all (provided we're of age and not in recovery) need a stiff drink?

Who Wants Jimmy Dean?--I bet most people in LA would like some good sausage (provided they're not vegetarians).

Women Wanted James Dean?--True, but I'm not sure how relevant this is.

I welcome Revelationken's explanation of his e-mail or any other CONGOblog readers' thoughts for what these four letters mean.

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Ah, there's much more to say about Katrina and it's aftermath in terms of what it shows us about the haves and have nots in our society.  That will have to wait for another day.

Peace,

Chase

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