The Ark and The Dove

Even with a Concession

I was thinking earlier today that even if the atheists were right and Jesus Christ were either merely a legend or even an entirely fictional character, he's still probably the best thing that Western Literature, if not world literature ever produced.

Odysseus? A violent, bloody-minded, two-timing jerk. About the only thing he gets right is that he always worships the gods who favor him.

Jason (of Golden Fleece fame), betrays his wife whom he mostly just exploited anyway.

Hercules...a pretty good guy all around, until he goes crazy and murders his family...and you also have to overlook his kinky sexual escapades when he was a cross-dressed slave.

Pretty much any god or goddess in the Greco-Roman or Norse pantheon is self-serving, fickle, and cruel...and more often than not, they turn out to be rapists.

And even the Bible itself offers few characters that can compare with the holiness, sanctity, or perfection of Christ (excepting perhaps Mary). You have to look hard to find an Old Testament hero who is flawless. All of the major names have huge blemishes to their reputation. Moses was a cowardly murderer. David was an adulterer and murderer. Solomon's weakness for women reduced him to literal idolatry despite his wisdom. Noah was a the most faithful of men in his day, but also a drunkard.

Even if Jesus was fictional (which I am not saying he was), he stands apart for his perfection.

I'd wager that it would even be hard to find a figure equal to his perfection in non-Western mythologies. Krishna seems great, but I can't say I feel entirely comfortable with some of his coeducational activities. Mohamed has garnered quite a following, but Islamic texts also describe some sexual awkwardness in his history too.

The Buddha's natural rejection for materialism puts him in pretty good stead, but even he had to achieve Enlightenment after some notoriously failed attempts. Jesus might have fasted for forty days, but he did so as a means of prayer--not to try to jumpstart perfection through excessive asceticism.

I hope this doesn't sound horrible anti-ecumenical. I'm certainly not trying to knock anyone else's religion. I'm just trying to juxtapose the narrative of Christ's life with other classical texts.

And, of course, things don't get all that much better with modern literature. I don't really see anyone imagining a character who is more perfect than the Gospel accounts of Christ...and those that come closest are usually Christian allegories or parody.

I suppose this goes back to certain philosophical defenses for Christianity or at least Theism.

Perhaps it is owing to a life steeped in Christian literature and imagery--perhaps I have just been ideologically programmed from birth--but I find it impossible to imagine a character more perfect than Christ. He has the super powers of Dr. Manhattan, the self-sacrificing nature of Optimus Prime, the gentle sternness of Atticus Finch, the courage of Luke Skywalker, the moral conviction of Batman, and the heart-warming, undaunted, innocent affection of Charlie Brown.

Don't Teach the Children whose Legal Guardians are Gay?

FoxNews is running an article about a kindergarten student who was disinvited from enrolling in first grade at a Catholic school on the basis that the student has two co-habitating mommies.

I'm struggling with this one.

Archbishop Chaput's defense of the school's action-- as quoted in the article -- is about the best I can imagine at the moment:

"To allow children in these circumstances to continue in our school would be a cause of confusion for the student, in that what they are being taught in school conflicts with what they experience in the home," he wrote on the church Web site.

I see how this is valid. Why would an openly gay parent want to send their child to a school that would teach them that their household was inherently immoral?

But I do see two problems with this.

First, does the school apply the same argument to every student living with heterosexual couples who are cohabitating outside of marriage?

For a moment, I thought that the same might apply if the parents were simply non-Catholic, but I think that's a rather different matter. Worshiping God the wrong way seems less objectionable than publicly advocating an inherently immoral lifestyle. But what if the parents were both public supporters of abortion? What if one of them was a pro-choice congressman? How consistently is this applied?

Second, isn't a child in such a household in even more need of formation?

It's similar to the long-standing tradition where girls would have to leave Catholic high school if they got pregnant. I've always been uncomfortable with that policy. It seems like it would be more pro-life to teach mercy and find ways of keeping the girls in school.

With the issue of homosexuality, however, the school's position might actually be more tolerant than not. While, on the one hand, the school looks like it is being intolerant of the homosexuality, on the other hand, the school is respecting the parents' rights to raise their child as they see fit. Chaput's argument is that we can't possibly help you raise the child in accordance with your wishes. He is arguing that the Catholic school would by necessity have to teach the child in a way that was divisive from the parents...which would be disrespectful to the parents. But the school cannot not teach the child otherwise without disrespecting the wishes of the rest of the parents.

Chaput is admitting that the purpose of Catholic education is to teach doctrine -- to, by definition, indoctrinate. He is saying that the lesbian couple is asking the Church to indoctrinate their child in a way antithetical to the beliefs of the parent--which also seems to go against the Church's belief in parental rights. In a way, he's conceding the parental rights of the lesbian couple more by not allowing them to enroll their child than if he did enroll the child.

I can also see how it might be better to address the problem sooner than later. If the student is admitted, it would create quite the tangled web. Not only will the student be confused over sexual teachings down the line, but the student will also have to encounter all the Church teachings on fatherhood. What's going to happen around Father's Day? Is there a Father/Daughter dance? Granted, children in divorced families or children who have lost parents deal with these issues as well, but for very different reasons.

It seems like it would be potentially disruptive for other children's learning experiences as well. Parents, assumably, want their children to go to school at a safe environment where they can grow in their faith until they are old enough to confront such challenges to their morality. If the lesbians decide to closet themselves, they wouldn't be honest to themselves. If they don't closet themselves, they will be disrupting everyone else's experience.

In this regard it is also like the debate over special education. Does introducing special-needs students into mainstream classrooms really help students, or do the obstacles create a net loss in education? In a way, the child of a gay couple is very likely to be a morally-challenged student...unless that student has the clarity to see that his or her parents are living an immoral lifestyle. 

It's a hard call.

Thoughts?

Bad Day to be a Catholic Reader

Drudge's top headline: "Chief Exorcist: 'Devil at Work in Vatican.'"

Unfortunately, Drudge has this headline beneath an image of Pope Benedict. There have been some scandalous reports coming out of the Vatican of late...but I can't say that the article to which Drudge links puts Fr. Amorth in the best light. It features a goofy picture and makes him sound rather paranoid.

And Mike S. Adams over at Townhall.com chides Notre Dame's student newspaper for censoring a pro-life professor with a long history of writing for the paper.

Notre Dame kind of had it coming.

Chick Comics Gets Pastor in Trouble

FoxNews has an article up about a Tennessee pastor who was distributing the infamous "The Death Cookie."

He later apologized after a rebuke from the local priest and has promised to push the anti-Catholic bigotry no more.

Ah, Chick comics...how many hours amusement you've bestowed upon me...

Geeks and Godlessness

A lot of my friends are geeks.

Sorry, friends.

It's true though.

But because of the social circles I'm in, they are geeks who are also religious.

Yet when I'm outside my social circle, it seems like the geeks I encounter often tend towards atheism.

This is, of course, anecdotal evidence. For larger scale proof, consider the atheism of Douglas Adams, the anti-religious humanism of Gene Roddenberry, and the coldness towards faith by someone like Stephen Hawkings.

This always strikes me as odd because the geek/nerd population is as likely to be interested in Star Wars and Tolkien, both of which rely heavily on anti-technological, pro-spirituality themes.

I don't think the reluctance to religion is necessarily because geeks come out of a technological or even scientific background. There are plenty of religious people there.

Perhaps science fiction figures into the wariness of religion and faith, it being a genre that tends towards humanism?

Autophobia Revisited

A few months ago, I posted about a rather silly problem I have developed regarding driving. I dubbed it "autophobia" because it involves an irrational and absurd fear about driving anyplace in a car.

I'm still dealing with it, and it's not limited to just driving. Like an 80-year-old great aunt, I now get nervous just being in a public space where I can't locate an available restroom.

But it looks like I'm not the only one with this problem. I stumbled upon two YouTube clips by user "rickvanman" that were uncanny for me to watch.

According to his video, his IBS had gotten so bad that it  "conditioned" him to be afraid to get in a car.

This really spoke to me because, although I've always had a weak stomach, I've never had such anxiety about it that I refused to do something or drive several hours. Heck, I used to volunteer to go on fourteen hour road trips for service projects during Spring break.

Now, however, I will find excuses just to avoid being in a car ten minutes to the grocery store. I've actually stopped going to Panera to do work because it occurred to me a few weeks ago that there is only one stall (this actually isn't so bad since it is saving us about ten dollars a week)...and I've started always sitting on the end of the pew at Mass, you know, just in case.

I don't know whether "rickvanman" is legit or not, but he perfectly describes what I've been going through this year.

His embarassment; his description of mapping out "safe zones" where he knows there are public restrooms--and his sense that any drive is a dash across the safe zone; his inability to accept invitations because he doesn't want to drive or even ride distances; his frustration that when he does accept invitations, his anxiety regarding IBS completely distracts him to the point where it disrupts his ability to socialize -- all of the problems he describes sound like they could have been cribbed out of my diary (if I had one...which I don't).

Three years ago, his jury-rigged solution was to buy a van and...he says...install a toilet in it. He claims that finally gave him the sense of security to drive places again. I'm assuming this is where the "vanman" part of his YouTube name comes from.

He never even uses his van's restroom, but it allays his fears just to know it is there...which gets back to my belief that I'm largely dealing with a psychological conflict rather than a gastroenterological one.

Anyway, if you want to know what it's like for me every time I get inside a car...or sometimes even think about travelling anywhere, you can listen to this guy:

Part One

Part Two

I suppose my case isn't quite as bad as his because I usually bite the bullet if I absolutely have to go someplace or out of a greater fear that I'll let Isabel down if I refuse. However, the chronic fear and anxiety pretty much spoils any fun I'll have until I'm seated near a bathroom. I honestly do credit my ability to slog through the anxiety to faith. As I said before, I pretty much count it a miracle being able to arrive anywhere without incident. I think faith also enables me to put the anxiety in perspective. It's not like it affects my relationship with God if I have to pull over. This enables me to realize that it's not that big of a deal.

It just feels like a big deal.