Harrison Butker’s Thoughts

Like Harrison Butker, the embattled kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, I was once a brash 28-year old, working in an industry that supports sole breadwinners, and attending a Catholic parish that adhered to the Missal of 1962- the Traditional Latin Mass. Nostalgia for Catholic Integralism of mid-century Spain, Italy, and big-city America; and Christian Democracy of France and Germany, ran strong. Yes, I was 28 when I lauded the Dobbs decision as a harbinger of a New Deal for families. (For the one-year anniversary of the decision, I issued a Mea Culpa on this blog, as I did not then realize the lack of compassion of many so-called “pro-life” legislators in the South). What is so appealing about fighting the “diabolical lie”, which to Butker is concept that career comes before family? For many middle-class families- especially those without a four-year degree, the single income family is still an ideal. For those with masters and doctorate degrees, this concept is an anathema. Thinking as a neoliberal, one must be a reactionary- a neanderthal- to be willing to shrink the GDP. Would such a focus on the family be “turning back the clock”? In the United States, dual income households had been on the rise since 1940, despite some retrenchment at the end of World War Two. With this option came an increase of living standards, followed by an ever-consuming increase of living costs. In Promised Land, an economics book I recently read, David Stebenne explains that this switch between freedom and necessity of a second income happened around the 1958 recession, earlier than the peak era of second-wave feminism. During the 1950's, investment in business development had lagged, in favor of high wages for the working class. It was not sustainable. The single wage earner never completely disappeared, at least for the part of the middle class that obtained special skills and education at reasonable cost. In fact, such a concept proves to be an unbreachable wage floor during labor negotiations. The appeal for motherhood and domesticity; in contrast to harsh, male-dominated industrial environments, provides the rallying cry for better contracts. Maybe in the future, emotional appeals will be gender-blind, but for now, Butker’s ideas buttress the middle class way of life.

Saving the Traditional Latin Mass

 

I have had time to think over Pope Francis’ changes to the use of the Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, the 1962 Missal, or the Extraordinary Form. I find the reasoning to be generally good: Latin Mass devotees, typically blessed with cultural and economic abundance, must not isolate, but share their talent and resources as one church community. The execution of this motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, at least at the Vatican’s level, is not pastoral. Some bishops, notably in Costa Rica and Arkansas, received the motu proprio on Friday, and cancelled masses scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. How does that serve the faithful? Other bishops have been more tactful: In Washington, DC, a Solemn High Mass in Latin planned to be held and televised at the National Basilica was cancelled, but Latin masses in the parishes would continue against the Vatican’s advice.  

First, let’s address the elephant in the room: This motu proprio only applies to law-abiding Catholics. Schismatic groups like SSPX will continue to say the Tridentine Mass, under the 1962 or earlier missals. As the good shepherd left the flock to find one lost sheep, Pope John Paul II in the 1980s permitted both forms of the mass to bring Catholics “attached” to the old form back into full communion. Stripped of its steam, SSPX must now peddle sedevacantist theories, that the papacy has been vacant since Pope Pius XXII’s death in 1958, to fringe groups. Weakening support for the Traditional Latin Mass by the Vatican or American bishops will give SSPX new energy.

What if the Traditional Latin Mass of the 1962 missal is ultimately suppressed? The ordinary traditional Catholic would be satisfied by a devoutly orchestrated Mass of 1970 sung in Latin, with the priest facing the altar (the Novus Ordo in Latin). This mass incorporates the reverence seen at Justice Antonin Scalia’s Requiem Mass at the National Basilica, with further nods to traditional practice. The Novus Ordo in Latin was commonplace before the widespread return of the 1962 missal in Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum of 2007. This mass is ideal for smaller traditional-practicing communities, as it requires little additional training for altar servers who serve at regular masses said in the vernacular.

The Traditional Latin Mass is an effective vehicle for conversions and returns to the faith. Each pierced and tattooed young person dressed club clothes, but sitting in a Latin Mass pew, is a victory for the greater Catholic community. Indeed, the Latin Mass community has simply outgrown the Novus Ordo in Latin, and now has its own altar servers, priests, and even seminaries at full capacity dedicated to the Tridentine Mass of 1962. The Traditional Latin Mass (or a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin) is Catholic Church’s unique product; a clear differentiator from Protestant Establishment and Evangelical churches. It is possible to receive converts who are moved by Catholic theology, but the unique liturgy is the most outward form of parish life.  The Traditional Latin Mass fills pews, funds Catholic education and ministry, and energizes a church community to fulfill charitable works. This small but vigorous revival of Catholic faith and institutions in America ebbs an attrition that has occurred since the 1950s. Why cut down the healthy tree for a handful of bad apples?

Are you looking to scorn “rigid” traditionalists? Go to any upper-income Catholic church, and you will find a group of them, regardless of whether the parish offers Latin mass or not. Undeniably, attitudes of clericalism and self-righteousness exist. The source of these attitudes is not the parishes, but the multitude of unvetted right-wing media outlets that fancy themselves as Catholic authorities. (Here’s a litmus test: is your “catholic” programming sponsoring anti-vax opinions? If so, change the channel).

Some parishioners insist that the 1962 missal is immutable. Yet careful evolution has been a part of the mass since Pope Gregory’s times. Then-recent additions to the Mass were excised in 1958; the Latin Mass’ Good Friday prayers were revised in good faith to the Jews in 1955, and again in 2008. If there is a place for reform of the 1962 missal, it would be to emphasize liturgical readings in the vernacular. There are not enough years in a lifespan to fully absorb the scripture in Latin, as the readings and gospel rotate, in the traditional mass, on an annual schedule.

Strictly speaking, the Mass of 1970 in Latin could have become the primary representation of the Ordinary Form of the Eucharist. If this motu proprio proves to be lasting, it could be the future format of Latin mass performed within church structures. However, faithfulness to clerical hierarchy in the 1970’s led to some of the more bizarre changes instituted at behest of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In this came renewal for the sake of renewal, claimed to be “in the spirit” of Vatican II. In clear contradiction to the reverence found towards Catholic art and music in the Vatican II documents, the USCCB criticized traditional music and church statuary (1). In areas where the Catholic Church held influence, historic preservation authorities allowed radical reconstruction of old church interiors without room for public debate.   

A certain generation embraced the “opening up of the church” with new forms of expression such as folk mass with guitars; and found spiritual fulfilment in it. However, younger generations who might have been attracted to that form of spiritual practice found satisfaction outside the church. When I attended grade school in the 1990’s, this language of “renewal” was still in use, the felt banners hanging on the wall, and folk masses being sung (2). In a short-lived reversal of history, I grew up believing that incense and candlesticks belonged to Protestantism, and plain churches belonged to the Catholic Church. The excesses of the “Spirit of Vatican II” in America perhaps led to a recursion for traditional practice. Our nation is home to the vast majority of Tridentine masses performed worldwide.

What is disconcerting about Pope Francis’ motu proprio is the feeling that the Catholic church had reached an equilibrium in America that, in everyday practice, satisfied a supermajority of Catholics. The dark, destabilizing effects of sex scandals and pederasty were atoned for, financially and spiritually.  When new parishes are built in the American South, there will inevitably be an altar rail and high altar to facilitate traditional masses alongside vernacular masses. When parishes are renovated in old Catholic cities, architects will invariably consult historic photographs and drawings to create a continuity of time and space.

In these times, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s opinions should hold exceptional weight. As a young theologian, he actively participated in the Second Vatican Council, and was known at the time to be a liturgical progressive. He was, and still is, supportive of the Council itself, but had clearly stated reservation about certain expressions of the “Spirit of Vatican II”, whether it be on clapping in the mass, interior design of churches, or on pastoral counseling. Perhaps wisely, he has not yet offered a point of view on the latest motu proprio of Pope Francis. With the retired pontiff at 94 years of age, now is the last chance to set the record straight on the objectives and fulfilment of Vatican II.

(1)   Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, USCCB. 1977.

(2)   “How Felt Banners and Altar Girls Arose form a False Sense of ‘Participation’ in Liturgy”, Life Site News, 2/28/2019

 

Two Slaveries and the Church

 

Waging the long spiritual fight against communism in Eastern Europe and Greater China left little room for self-reflection, which has now come to the forefront of Catholic consciousness. If the Church had the power to initiate an orderly transition from communism to democracy in Eastern Europe, what power did it have, and did not use, to end human slavery? From today’s lenses, the Catholic Churches’ role in 1800’s slavery appears to be participation and implicit approval. This must be reconciled.

Looking back to the 1890s, in the same papacy of Pope Leo XIII, the Church made a switch from being soft on chattel slavery to being tough on the mental slavery of Marxist communism. By this time, the Church had been stripped of its earthly powers, particularly the papal holdings in Italy (prompting the Leonine Prayers in the Traditional Latin Mass). The world changed greatly at the dawn of the 20^th century. France underwent secularization around 1905. Hereditary monarchy was discredited after WWI. For centuries and millennia, monarchs held a special place in state religions, setting the ‘tone’ for the population, and occasionally practicing intolerance towards religious minorities in their realm. For the Church, there was a real threat that monarchy across Europe would be replaced by communism, as happened in Russia. If monarchy was obsolete, and communism intolerable; then democracy, or transitional autocracy (as in Portugal, Spain or the Republic of China), had to be embraced. Unlike most events in world history, the people would decide, through ballot box or popular uprising, their self-determination.  

 In previous generations, the Church’s worldly concerns as landlord and investor had created a close intertwining of Church and the Spanish and French colonies, where chattel slavery was a common practice.  In theory, slaves in French and Spanish colonies had more rights than slaves in English and Islamic areas. In French practice, mixed-race children were born free; while this was not the case in the American South at large. In practice, life was harsh for all agricultural slaves. Work in the Caribbean sugar plantations was known to be a virtual death sentence. Would the Church have placated itself on false platitudes? Emphasis on pastoral care emerged in the late 1800s, with focus on various groups such as immigrants, Black Americans, and Pacific Islanders. In this context, a focus on human liberation became a natural outcrop of charitable work to feed, educate, and care for the disadvantaged. Leo XIII’s successor, the pauper-born Pope Pius X, would understand that proclamations of human dignity had to be backed by action.

Beggars in the Kingdom

“I was born poor, I lived poor, I will die poor”, wrote Pope Pius X in 1914. This was a man who donned the Papal Tiara, rode atop a Sedia, and wore full regalia at the altar. As the Vicar of Christ, he owned none of these emblems, and had no blood heirs to this inheritance.

“The poor will always be with you”, taught Jesus Christ in the lesson of the widow’s mite. In this lesson, Jesus (see Mark 14:7 or Matthew 26:11) demonstrates that we should give our best to higher purposes, even as we rightly turn our hearts to charity. Critics of church wealth forget humble Jesus’ admonishment against his disciples, who instinctively criticized the woman from Bethany who anointed Jesus with precious perfume. This instinct towards modesty in faith is natural, and is ingrained in Buddhist and Hindu teachings, and within my own family. Critics of the Tridentine Rite conjure up imagery of medieval times. They bring up the chasm between wealthy church and insular clergy; against poor, illiterate peasants separated by an altar rail; and whose attention is garnished with bells, gold chalices and royal vestments. They contrast the stone facades of Vatican City to poverty in Africa, wondering how wealth can be transferred. To these critics, church finery represent the trappings of royalty; instead of a sense of transcendence and permanence.  I deject, the Church is:

Patron of artistry and craftsmanship- gifts to the Church are made by artists sponsored by wealthy patrons, or even the joint contribution of parishioners.

Protector of heritage- monasteries maintained ancient libraries through the Dark Ages.

A commonwealth- In contrast to the jewels of private citizens, church splendor- beautiful objects- can be shared by parishioners. Furthermore, precious metals such as gold and silver historically served as an emblem of sovereign strength without the need for bloodshed. Look at Switzerland’s enviable position as an example.

One to draw attention to the altar and the priest. Pope Benedict XVI’s vestments (and Pope Francis’ simple garb) draws the attention of media and its millions of viewers. This coverage might otherwise be given to the Queen of England.

Can the Church do better to help the less fortunate? It is true that the Vatican Bank has large investments in London real estate and Beretta firearms. To help further the Church’s recent push towards environmental justice, I would suggest that the Vatican expanding its holdings to include acres of threatened, unique forest preserves in places like the Amazon and Southeast Asia.

Three Biggies: Self-Defense, War and Death Penalty

Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, acknowledged in General Principles that “There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty”. Even between catechisms, there are differing opinions on these two issues.

Pope John Paul II promulgated the now-famous Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992. In contrast to previous teaching on the issue, capital punishment was legitimized (however narrowly) under self-defense doctrine. This, according to scholars Feser and Bessette, contrasted to historical treatment of the issue as a matter of asset forfeiture: losing one’s most precious asset, human life, in expiation for a crime. Pope Pius XII in 1952 noted that a convicted murderer "has dispossessed himself of the right to live".

Cardinal Bernadin put forth the Seamless Garment in 1983, following Eileen Egan’s 1970’s teachings on the consistent ethic of life. This ethic opposes willful abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and, note the qualification, unjust war. This concept spread through the American seminaries, and no one was surprised when Cardinal Sean O’Malley criticized the issuance of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. The former noted, in line with the John Paul II Catechism, that the threat had already been “neutralized” by Tsarnaev’s imprisonment before trial.  Indeed, Tsarnaev claimed his death sentence was an injustice- after killing 3, maiming 16, and terrorizing a nation. Pope Francis’ recent revision of the 1992 Catechism declares capital punishment “inadmissible”, commenting that previous teachings on the subject were more legalistic than pastoral in nature.

Lesson 33 of The Baltimore Catechism, the American Bishops’ official catechism until last decade, identifies three circumstances when human life may be lawfully taken:

1.       In self-defense

2.       In a just war

3.       By the lawful execution of a criminal.

In practice, public enthusiasm to carry out just rewards- to be “tough on crime” or to “Bomb Agrabah” is tempered by involved parties with respect for human life and recognition of moral culpability. These involved parties are police officers, homeowners, military officers, and trial judges, who direct and carry out the lawful taking of life. For example, no serious politician or official wants to legislate Genesis 9:6 into law. As seen in public discourse, the highest value of human life is assigned to those accused of a capital offense, where one wrongful execution is a moral outrage; and lowest for innocents in a war zone, in which a thousand foreign casualties does not churn the stomach. As an example of this ethic, then-Governor Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign-stop execution of mentally-incompetent Ricky Ray Rector in Arkansas is still discussed today. If this was not a lawful execution per-se, then was it willful murder committed by a future president? (3) Historical statistics likewise demonstrate that the perceived moral hazard of taking an innocent life is greatest with capital punishment, and lowest in war.

·         Self-Defense: 149 unarmed Americans died during an encounter with law enforcement in 2017 alone. (1). This figure does not include accidental deaths under Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground laws.

·         Just War: According to the National Geographic, 500,000 Iraqi civilians have died in conflict since 2003.

·         Forfeiture: Since the 1970’s, 1 possible execution of an innocent person in America. This case was Cameron Willingham, found guilty of arson and executed in 2004. Governor Rick Perry of Texas was informed that trial evidence used outdated fire science, but he chose not to issue clemency to Mr. Willingham. (2)

In matters of human dignity, all these innocent lives should be weighed equally. In practice, they are most certainly not. Our nation spends millions on a single capital appeals, and not enough to provide clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan. There is no absolute truth or fallacy when commeasuring these issues: self-defense, just war and capital punishment. Personally, I feel that the ultimate punishment should be reserved for exceptional cases like Tsarnaev's. The key takeaway is to stay informed.

 Source: (1) https://policeviolencereport.org/

                 (2) Identified by Edward Feser and Jospeh Bessette in By Man His Blood Be Shed

 (3)  https://jacobinmag.com/2016/11/bill-clinton-rickey-rector-death-penalty-execution-crime-racism

                Agrabah is a fictional Middle-Eastern city created by the Walt Disney Company.

Fruits of Vatican II

A Roman Catholic priest in a small Greek parish stood at the altar. His colorful vestment read “Jubilee 2000”.  What a figurative flash to the past! Folk mass, felt banners and banal vestments represented the short-lived embracing of faddish cultural trends. This was part of an unwritten zeitgeist summed up as the “Spirit of Vatican II”, or “change for change’s sake”, which claimed dozens of priceless high altars in its wake. 

During this era, say from the 1970’s to the 1990’s, vocations to the priesthood or sisterhood plummeted. From a practical perspective, young people taking vocations become tied to the institution they served. They need a sense of stability, whether the vocation is in the Church or the Military. I saw this in friends who resigned from NROTC during the transformational tenure of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. Seminary attendance had stabilized under Pope Benedict XVI, who pontificated on subjects as mundane as clapping at mass, calling the specter “religious titillation”. Young revolutionaries today work outside the Church, and the seminaries attract a more philosophically and spiritually mature candidate.

The Vatican has long been a powerbroker among the royalty of Europe, and a temporary retreat in the late 19^th century was an aberration to norms. The First Vatican Council (1870-1871) can be seen as an ecclesiastical retreat from the world at a time when Italy and Germany had just been unified. This council reinforced the authority of the Pope Pius IX, urging the faithful to look to him as an empirical bedrock of stability in a changing Europe. Piety and transcendentalism, Archangels and Demons, dominated Catholic spiritual life.  This era gave birth to parish churches with astonishing high altars and stained-glass windows; many of which in America can be seen around large-city downtowns today.

 The Church did not wait until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s to reengage the world. Instead, it was drawn back into contemporary affairs not long after it had retreated:

Pope Leo XIII expressing concern about the dignity of the working man and his family in the age of industrialization;

Pope Pius X ensuring charitable assistance to American immigrants arriving from Southern Europe;

Pope Benedict XV and Emperor Charles of Austria working to limit the devastation of the   First World War;

Pope Pius XII asserting Vatican authority over Mussolini’s fascist rule in Italy, on issues such as protection of Jews.

“Opening up the church” is a common catchphrase about Vatican II. Indeed, Italian clerics dominated the Papacy and other key Vatican offices. In the United States, Irish-Americans dominated the priesthood. To the chagrin of Southern European newcomers, these Irish clerics retained the mark of WASP oppression, preferring the Low Mass, and remaining reserved from parishioner’s daily lives.  Some describe the intellectual environment of the priesthood and Catholic scholarship as rigid and stultifying.

If anything, Vatican II gave a long-awaited green light empowering the faithful to use their talents to further their understanding. This in turn has refreshed philosophical debate within members of the Church, especially concerning the interface with political governance. As far as lay leadership is concerned, cracks in a hierarchical veneer emerged by the 1930’s. After receiving threats from the Ku Klux Klan, Father Charles Coughlin took to the radio with messages in favor of Christian social democracy, and against “the international money-changers in the temple”. Bishop Fulton Sheen also took to the radio, but worked from official Church teachings. Dorothy Day, a laywoman, started the Catholic Worker Movement. She printed a newspaper, advocated for labor rights, and provided relief for the poor. The internet today provides a platform for Catholic-focused websites such as EWTN, Church Militant, and One Peter Five.

The New Saint Basil’s Hymnal, printed in 1958 and still used in traditional parishes, excised “good old hymns” of the Victorian Era on the grounds that they contained lackluster theology and doctrine. In the same decade, Pope Pius XII removed redundancies from the Tridentine Missal. Recognizing that centuries of add-ons had complicated religious observance, the Church simplified rules on fasting and prayer routines in the 1950’s. 

 “Vatican II opened the church, and the people left”: Yes, the Catholic Church has attrition issues. But think of the many Christmas-and-Easter Catholics, who are peripherally attached to the Church. The decline of Mainline Protestantism serves as a cautionary story. For the Greatest Generation, attending mass on Sundays was a social obligation. When asked, many couldn’t elucidate on tenets of the faith, or on personal spiritual beliefs. Later generations did not feel a need to attend mass or even affiliate with the church. For an increasingly sophisticated and middle-class audience of Cultural Catholics, self-discovery is real learning, and pastors should guide with a fusion of approachablility and moral certitude is required: a “no judgement zone” policy has decimated the stature of once-solid institutions like the Episcopal Church; and too much “judgment day” talk- think the Mormon faith- deters wandering souls.

Importantly, Vatican II encouraged dialogue between neighbors, statesmen, and global citizens of different faiths. This is essential in an increasingly connected world, but was discouraged in a different time, lest the faithful be drawn to heresy. Father John Main, a Benedictine Monk, developed Christian meditations from his travels to Southeast Asia. Politically, social tensions have emerged in the Muslim world, especially in places like Indonesia, where limited ecological resources pit neighbor against neighbor. Today, snippets of Catholic teaching float around the halls of Congress, and into the courtroom; under the mantle of Natural Law. Catholicism, like Judaism, is not merely a religion, but also the basis of philosophical and moral codes. 

Notre Dame: Culture Worth Saving

“Britain is losing its culture”, cried no less than a few provocateurs. A necessarily open-ended statement, it leaves much to the individual imagination. I pondered this on the verge of Brexit- Britain leaving the European Union and going its own way, turning its collective psyche back to the 1970s, or earlier. Is it regret for relinquishing imperial units (miles, feet, pints and pounds), or the pre-decimal monetary units of shilling and pence? Is it the loss of pub culture that is being mourned? That’s a loaded theme: you could point to gentrification and rising rents, workaholism cutting into pub time, the prevalence of Continental wines, or abstemious immigrants moving into traditionally working class neighborhoods. Does one, rather, miss national solidarity and the stiff upper lip of surviving Nazi bombers during the Second World War?

During that trying time, Westminster and Saint Paul’s Cathedral stood as defiant symbols of national resolve. Even as surrounding central London was bombed flat, these national symbols had to be defended, at any cost. During air raids, Architecture students manned bucket brigades in the highest crevices of Saint Paul’s to preemptively extinguish incendiary flares dropped from the sky. One large bomb did drop into the Cathedral’s nave: miraculously, it was a dud.

This week in France, sorrow and resolve,  not apathy, came out of the conflagration at the 850-year old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. In a secularizing Europe, Notre Dame held firm as a national symbol. The heart of France, as described by some journalists, in a nation that has long celebrated a hard separation of Church and State. Dominique Venner, then a 78-year old historian and reactionary, took his own life at the altar of Notre Dame in 2013, in a protest against same-sex marriage and other cultural changes. Notre Dame was front-and-center in the 1944 liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation. Notre Dame was present, and suffered some damage, in the 1790’s French Revolution. The damage from this week’s fire is still being totalized, but it includes the central spire and several rose windows dating to the 13th century. In America, Notre Dame Cathedral features prominently in Western Heritage and History courses- especially in Catholic school. Paris, namely its most famous Cathedral, is a must-see on most every college graduate’s list.

All Are Welcome, Really

One article headline caught my attention several months ago in the Christian Science Monitor: "Church revival? More liberals are filling Protestant pews". It was a jarring headline because it countered what everyone knew: Mainline Protestant Churches like the Episcopal and the Presbyterians were once associated with the Protestant Work Ethic, the Republican Party at Prayer, and the WASP establishment. After the 1970's, those churches took a leftward turn in theology and outreach, religious non-affiliation increased, and church membership declined.

Coincidentally, church-goers were returning to tradition: Jews turning to orthodoxy, Evangelicals embracing sacraments, and Catholics saying old prayers. Church attendance has become correlated with conservative views, a Pew Research poll will tell you. This may be a result of decades of culture wars, with Evangelicalism as the loudspeaker and Catholicism as the library; the pastoral aspects of Christian life, though always present, falling to the background. Talk Radio and ballot boxes made being a "good" Christian easy; Pope Francis made a few Catholics uncomfortable when he reminded us about the importance of charitable work. It was not specifically a call to increase the 2.5% quarter-tithe American citizens give to charity, on average; but a call to open one's heart, showing a bit more compassion in the ruthless world.

So what is the appeal of a progressive, liberal church to the "Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving"(1)  demographic? You may have heard of the "Third Place" idea; a place you spend time away from home and work. Starbucks wants you to make their stores your "Third Place" and many people do.
But people need a sense of community in addition to a sense of belonging in a "Third Place", and this community is what draws some people to those churches that hang rainbow flags and "Black Lives Matter" signs.

While traditional churches tended to focus on spiritual matters over earthly ones; progressive churches talk to issues that matter to progressives. With the new administration in the White House, some fear a return to the politically alienating days of corporate welfare and moral Pharisees. There is a bit of racial strife, and this year there are geopolitical crises that force people out of effete complacency. North Korea's nuclear missile program. Human rights violations in Syria.
Inclement weather from fires in the Western States to hurricane flooding in the tax havens of Texas and Florida. The need for a feeling of togetherness in these times might compel some progressives to take their Sunday morning coffee in the parish hall instead of Starbucks.


(1) Credits to Geoffrey Nunberg

Merry Christmas, but you can wish me a Happy Hanukkah too.

     The Christmas season is a great time to visit Manhattan, especially if you have the privilege of not having to pay for a hotel room during the “most wonderful time of year”. While I attended the US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), the Long Island Railroad, a commuter system, is the connection to the excitement, and getting from Kings Point to the train station mean hopping on the county bus or catch a ride with a senior. 

     From the waspy, Gatsby-esque village of Kings Point, one rides down Middle Neck Road, the main drag of the Great Neck peninsula, you might suspect that Great Neck is a devoutly Jewish town. Indeed, most local businesses are closed on Saturdays, the liberty day for freshmen at the USMMA. Italian and Asian restaurants, Baker Hill Tavern, gas stations, and several convenience stores are the only stores open on the Sabbath. Many nationalities of Jews are represented by the synagogues of Great Neck, including Iranian Jews, Greek Jews, Armenian Jews, among others. Catholics at St. Aloysius and parishioners at the local Episcopal and AME parishes were in the Christian minority. During December, menorahs and bunting line shops’ windowsills. So I was kind of disappointed that the town’s signs read “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings”. Even though I should’ve felt included as a gentile, something was missing. It was not the lack of “Merry Christmas”, but the absence of tradition. Modernity and secularism won over the devoutly Jewish town.

Great Neck did not launch a ‘war on Christmas’, but chose to use generic greetings as sterile as ultra-pasteurized milk. Sterile is safe, but lacks flavor and the conviction of accepted risk. Instead of the ideal of inclusive multiculturalism, we got homogeny. One other way modernity obscured intercultural understanding is in the Catholic mass: This year, I attended a Christmas Eve service in Korea, where the pastor recited an age-old Eucharistic prayer, brought back by Pope Benedict XVI, which invoked ancient Jewish leaders Melchisedech and Abraham. Ironically, the prayer had been suppressed during Vatican II, when dialogue with other faiths was encouraged.  

     Sometimes modernity eats its own. Increasing materialism of the Christmas season, since the late 19^th century, when Pepsi gave Santa a red coat, created secular symbols associated with Christmas. So why the offense when Christmas is no longer primarily focused on the Nativity scene? Secular Christmas shopping, an offspring from the religiously-motivated charitable acts of Dickensian days, is the cultural norm. To name such behavior “holiday shopping” for “holiday gifts” seems to give a line-item corporate focus, rather than an individual focus, to the shopping season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. What “happy holidays” speaks to me is the thought that, no matter your culture, “people ought to spend and benefit corporate bottom lines”. To embrace Christmas, Hanukkah, or both, is to take back the season from retailers and bring it back to the people. 

     Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!