December 2007 Archives

The United States is arguably the most religious nation in the developed world, yet it is also the most religiously ignorant. Here are several statistics cited in a recent survey:

  • 10% of Americans polled believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife
  • Only one-half could name even one of the four Gospels
  • 1 in 3 knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount
  • Less than half could identify the first book of the Bible
  • 75% believe the bible teaches “God helps those who help themselves.” (Ben Franklin said it.)

One wonders how Catholic Christians might fare up against such statistics … ?

(Excerpted from a review of the book titled, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn’t, by Stephen Prothero. The review appeared in Biblical Archaeology Review, Sept/Oct 2007. The excerpt was shamelessly lifted from the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church [Shrewsbury, MA] e-bulletin.)

The pope is setting up to undertake a new exorcism campaign, calling for exorcists in every diocese in the world, according to the exorcist in the diocese of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth. (I actually thought every diocese had them, but maybe that was de facto, not de jure.) The Vatican, however, flatly denies it. Fr. Amorth also says that the St. Michael prayer will be restored to its place at the end of the liturgy. That's rather interesting too.

I would personally welcome an exorcism campaign. Demonic possession is real and too many people don't believe it exists. Of course it must be carefully distinguished from mental illness, but let us also not forget that psychiatrists are trained to diagnose everything unusual as mental illness, i.e., they exclude a priori demonic possession, so the exorcist has to be savvy enough to know when to trust the doctor.

Of course this opens up the question of what harm would it do to exorcise someone who is merely mentally ill? Obviously it won't harm the person; the harm comes to the public and the church as there is a danger of a spectacle being made that would not be conducive to faith and may reflect poorly on the church. Is there a way to do a simple test exorcism in private that might reveal whether the individual is truly possessed? That assumes though that you'll get obvious feedback if the person is possessed. That may not be so.

It used to be that the church did exorcisms during mundane events like baptisms. I think there still is a rite but I don't know how often it is used. I think the problem is that in being so restrictive about exorcisms we've made them seem like a big deal which has caused us to be more restrictive which makes them seem like an even bigger deal. If exorcisms were an everyday thing no one would care about them. But because they are so rare, they draw attention, and now that they have this cachet so to speak about them, it's hard to do them without drawing loads of unwanted attention. And here the ritualistic way it used to be done is a liability because it makes it seem more mysterious and interesting.

Protestants have it lucky. They just say, "In the name of Jesus I bind you Satan and set this person free (Hallelujah!)" and boom, it's done. Nobody particularly cares that they are doing it, because, well, they aren't Catholics (like I said we have this mystical aura about us when it comes to exorcisms), and they aren't as interesting when they do it. No one in the movies calls a Fundamentalist preacher to exorcise anyone. Thus they don't have to worry about drawing attention to themselves and causing a row, and hence can do it under mundane circumstances. A Catholic priest doing an exorcism, however, is like a four fire trucks, three cop cars, and two ambulances all along the side of a highway. It draws a lot of unwanted attention. So we don't do them as often as perhaps we should. (This is why diocesan exorcists are supposed to remain anonymous.)

Maybe if we kept a healthy number of exorcists and exorcisms, we'd remind people that Satan exists. That would be a good thing.

Merry Christmas to all!

Here is an interesting work. It's the Christmas song "It's About the Cross" by the band Go Fish (www.gofishguys.com) set to images from the Passion, the Jesus Film, the Gospel of John, The Nativity Story, It's a Wonderful Life, The Chronicles of Narnia, and other productions. The message is that Christmas is really ultimately about Jesus' death on the Cross. I suspect the piece is a gross violation of at least six or seven different copyrights but I'll close my eyes and chant "Fair Use!". (Thanks to Fr. Gregory at Koinonia.)


P5290022-1.JPGI realized something as I gazed today on a classical portrayal of St. Paul preaching yesterday or today or sometime, and that is that it seems to be the custom when religious art is drawn to portray saints without shoes (as this work portrayed St. Paul, and no, sorry, I do not have a link as I forgot where I saw it). Why is this I wonder? This is certainly the case for the icons at my church (although as I look at them, at least two of the full-size icons are not barefoot). Is it more holy to have bare feet? Is that how the people back then really walked? Seems unlikely to me; I thought they wore sandals.

Funny, today going barefoot except if you're going swimming is almost verboten. Certainly you'd never dare do it at an office — even if you could get away with a minimalistic sandal. Once I got a very kind and subtle rebuke (at least I interpreted it as such) for going about work in my socks. And here we are portraying saints in bare feet!

I wish I knew why this was ...


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Received this image today, which I've mercifully coded as a popup window (as opposed to an embedded image you'd have to look at whenever you come to the blog).

Clearly saccharine kitsch survives in any medium.


The jargon used by businesses today tends to refer to employees as "resources", hence "human resources" and talk of putting "three resources on this project" and "four resources on that project". I've always objected to this as dehumanizing, but I saw something today that positively sent chills up my spine in comparison.

It was a Christmas card from another company, and it identified them as "Consultants in the management of human capital".

Maybe I'm overreacting but to me this conjured up images of cattle cars. So impersonal, so clinical, so dehumanizing.

What I think is weird is that for the most part you could easily replace "human capital" with "employees" or "employees and contractors" and it would sound far warmer and less ominous. "Capital" lumps us in the same category as money and equipment. It reduces us to a means to produce an end (profit). It objectifies the employee (or contractor); rather than being treated as persons, they are treated -- well, like money and equipment.

I wonder if anyone's written a novel along these lines ... not quite "1984" but something like it.

Newsweek reports that the latest trend is selling holy water — in some cases selling water blessed by Catholic priests. Selling anything blessed is a form of simony and is strictly forbidden by the church, in addition to being repugnant to pious tastes. Bottles of one product are festooned with mawkish religious art. Some products are New Age in orientation (containing, for example, good "vibrations"). The product "Spiritual Water", made from purified municipal water (think Dasani or Aquafina) helps people to "stay focused, believe in yourself and believe in God" (in that order?), according to the founder.

Some religious people are objecting, although perhaps not on the basis you might expect. The Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minn., are quoted as objecting based on the idea that water is life, and is not a commodity to be bought. Not sure what she thinks of being charged for municipal water. They also object to the environmental disaster the bottles constitute; here I am sympathetic (they are selling coasters to promote the idea of using traditional glasses to drink water). It's not clear which product they're objecting to so I can't tell if I should be disturbed that they aren't scandalized as I am by the idea of selling holy water (only one company is clearly selling blessed water).

One company replies to the environmental objection that people are less likely to discard bottles with an image of Jesus or Mary on it, and will instead refill with other beverages. Touché, but you can only keep so many bottles for reuse; eventually they'll either stop buying them or discard them.

A representative of the National Association of Evangelicals hits closer to the mark when he correctly identifies it as an example of conspicuous consumption.

What's interesting is that this article would be published so close to the Feast of Theophany in the Byzantine churches (Jan 6th), which commemorates Jesus's baptism and where in one of the most important liturgies of the year, an abundance of water is blessed for the faithful to drink. To my knowledge there is no provision for drinking holy water in the Roman Rite, except for the trace amount mixed with the wine before Eucharistic consecration, though there is nothing to forbid it. I'm not sure I'd readily drink water out of the fonts it's held in though.

But you can be sure where there is profit to be made, someone will be there, whether it's dubious or not.

A British hotel chain is offering a free night's stay to couples named Joseph and Mary as part of a Christmas promotion. (With room for two kids.) What a charming way to honor the Holy Family and the Nativity. The special lasts from Christmas Eve through Twelfth Night (January 5th).

(Thanks to Caleb)

The Daily Mail reports that the pope has recently made a rather surprising statement on climate change, essentially casting doubt on the gloom and doom prophecies of global warming theory advocates. While he acknowledges that there is some truth in there, they say he thinks it's overhyped. I was kind of surprised to see the pope take a stand on this issue, but as it turns out, virtually none of this, as far as I can tell, is true.

I was tipped off by this column which while not entirely clear got me looking at the original text. The furthest the pope goes is when he says, "It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances." That cuts both ways, though admittedly in the present context, one might assume he means don't draw global warming conclusions too hastily. Still, even if he does, what they say about this is an exaggeration.

Just goes to show you: Whenever the media reports on the pope or the church, you have to check it out.


He also emphasized that ecology should put humans ahead of plants and animals. I am glad to hear him say that.

There is an unbelievable new Scripture tool that the Congregation for the Clergy (of all dicasteries) put together. I am annoyed though that they called it "Clergy Bible" (who says laypeople wouldn't find the resource beneficial?) The site design is a little rough but what do you expect from the Vatican. Here is Catholic Culture's description of the site:

This web site was launched by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy and allows researchers to access Bible verses with exegesis from doctors of the Church or cross reference liturgical texts with commentaries from Church Fathers. The site offers six categories in nine languages. It also gives the option of downloading the site's content.

The nine translations of the Bible, including Hebrew and Greek, can be read side-by-side, as can the Eastern and Latin Codes of Canon Law.

A Newsweek article has me really steamed. The headline is in 1 1/2 inch type, and says

A New American Holy War

emblazoned across two pages.

What is this holy war? Well it describes an interview with Mike Huckabee, now the front runner in the polls. (Yay, by the way.) The interviewer is trying to get Huckabee to say that Mormonism is a "heretical cult" but he refuses to answer, claiming, essentially, he gets into trouble everytime he says anything. The interviewer is happy to oblige; he presses him on the canon of Scripture. Huckabee carefully explains that he doesn't have any evidence that God has given us any new books since 325 A.D. when the Bible was canonized (ok his history is a bit off), and "I don't know that there's any other books." This is enough for the writer of the article to conclude, "So it has come to this: The 2008 Republican Iowa caucuses have descended into a kind of holy war."

Whaaaa....?

Huckabee very gently and politely says -- says what? Essentially, says he's not Mormon. (Of course he doesn't agree with their canon. If he did, he'd be Mormon.) And all of a sudden, BAM, we have a Holy War worth 1 1/2 inch type.

To be sure there are more battles to the war they describe than just Huckabee, but they did specifically identify his declination to accept Mormon scriptures as Holy War.

I fully intend to write them the following Letter to the Editor:

Dear Editor:

Shame, shame, shame on Jon Meacham and Newsweek ("A New American Holy War", December 17th). You blame Huckabee for a "Holy War" (in 1 1/2 inch type, no less). Your sole apparent evidence? He politely declined to agree with the Mormon canon of Scripture. (If he did, he'd be Mormon.) Just because he disagrees with Mormonism doesn't mean he's launching a Holy War against it. It is the height of irresponsible journalism to bait Huckabee (as Mr. Meacham did) into saying something you can distort into "damning" evidence of whatever preconceived crime you want to blame him for. Shame!


Pope Pius XII was the first pope both to use a telephone and to use an electric razor, according to Envoy Magazine — an excellent Catholic magazine of evangelization and apologetics published by apologist Patrick Madrid. (They have a deal where you can get a free issue and a free book if you wish.)

Pope Benedict met with a high-ranking official of the Russian Orthodox Church who had warm things to say about the meeting. Benedict is trying to elicit a meeting with the patriarch but he has been coy so far. So this is good for ecumenical relations.

China recently ordained two bishops approved by the pope. This follows the earlier move when the Pope approved Chinese-chosen bishops. This is a significant advance in Sino-Vatican relations. Let's hope it continues.

That's almost the headline in a recent Newsweek article and it was a refreshing one. The actual headline was "Reality Check on an Embryonic Debate: So skin cells can turn into stem cells. That doesn't mean cures are in sight." The article is about the embarrassing fact that stem cell research is not leading directly to cures, say by generating new cells that can be implanted to replace dead cells. Rather, it serves as "another laboratory tool to study different diseases, yielding insights that would launch the slow, years-long search for new therapies." What? Based on the hue and cry of its proponents, you'd think they were on the verge of curing cancer and achieving peace in the Middle East. In a telling nod to embryonic stem cell opponents, Newsweek quotes Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University and a Nobelist in medicine, "Creating cell lines for transplant is unlikely to come down the pike any time soon. Opponents [of embryonic stem cell research] recognize that this was an overselling of the technology." Nice to hear the media admit it.

A very ancient wall from the period of Nehemiah in the Old Testament was recently found by archaeologists. The wall had been long sought by archaeologists and was found accidentally during another dig. This find certainly gives a certain credence to the historical reliability of the Bible.