Southern Harmony

In today's Mass, we sang a hymn called "How Wonderful the Three-in-One". Text by Brian Wren with the tune coming from the old hymnal "Southern Harmony".  Southern Harmony was an old Baptist hymnal from the 1800s and, to me at least, is best known as containing the haunting spiritual "Down in the River to Pray" which languished in obscurity until Allison Krauss popularized it in the film O Brother Where Art Thou?

However "Southern Harmony" has a much different connotation to me. It's also the title of the Black Crowes' second album.  When I was in college, The Black Crowes were my favorite band.  Their first album was good, with some notable hits like "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels" but their second album was a knock-out.  Avoiding the "sophmore curse" that many bands go suffer, Southern Harmony remains, to this day, their best album in my mind.

The Black Crowes had a southern gothic feel in those days.  Their songs were bleak and expressed the pain of lives with no goal and relationships with no foundation.  The cover of Southern Harmony expresses this with the band standing in a muddy trash-filled alley, barely even engaging the camera.  Prior to the release of Southern Harmony, there were occasional rumors about the band; that they were heavy drug users (true) and that the practiced voodoo (false).  The inside artwork of the album certainly did nothing to dispel those rumors, with a voodoo king holding court over an assembly of skeletons.  Or something. I never really understood it.  And I've never found out where the artwork actually came from.

Surely the choice of album title and artwork was an ironic and provocative way of pushing back against their critics.

The Black Crowes were at the top of their game when Southern Harmony came out, but their fame was coming to a close.  They decided to take on TicketMaster and the big concert promoters, like Pearl Jam had done, but they weren't Pearl Jam.  Sporadic tours combined with heavy drug use and subsequent squabbling in the group reduced The Black Crowes to a niche act now, unable even to sell-out the Choctaw Casino's ballroom in Durant OK where I saw them last year.  They are not the dark kings anymore, but the supplicants.  The Worship of God raises one to God's throne.  Evil does not brook competition.

All this went through my head during Mass.  Not a very positive meditation for Trinity Sunday.  There's nothing wrong with using a tune from that old hymnbook, though I draw the line at actually singing "Down in the River to Pray" in Mass which our choir did once.   But it's interesting how a seemingly innocent choice of song can spur unexpected images in the minds of the listeners.

Resources for Catholics to Fight the Tide

In no particular order, here are some documents and videos of note if you're interested in the fight against the tide.

• Pastoral Care for Those with Homosexual Tendencies by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Absolutely required reading if you want to know the Church's teaching.  Written while one Cardinal Ratzinger was the prefect and it bears his stamp of doctrine presented with Clarity and Charity.
• Ministry to Persons with Homosexual Inclination by the USCCB.  Absolutely required reading if you're confused why many people think the USCCB should be disbanded.  It's particularly shocking when compared with the CDF document which, after all, was not originally written in English.
• Christian Witness in America. A talk by R.R. Reno of First Things.  Reno is a smart guy, no doubt, and he has compelling ideas.
• Jonathan Sacks on Creative Minorities.  This is where we're headed.
• Remaining in the Truth of Christ.  The so-called "Five Cardinals Book" because five Cardinals contributed to it. Worth consideration, but perhaps a bit technical in places for non theologians like me.  If you order it, don't have it delivered to your Vatican mailbox or it will disappear. Those people are Italian after all. The missing copies are probably sitting at the bottom of the Tiber river in little concrete overshoes.
• Gospel of the Family. Going beyond Cardinal Kasper's Proposals.  Perhaps this could be called the "One Cardinal Book" because Cardinal Pell wrote a foreword for it.  It's actually very good and I'd recommend it, but it is a response to Cardinal Kasper's book (also called Gospel of the Family) and so I think perhaps it'd go down better if I'd read that one first (which I haven't). Without that background, I sometimes feel like I'm listening to one side of a telephone conversation (do people still talk on the telephone?)
• Communio's Summer 2014 issue on Marriage and the Family.  Also pretty deep in places (most places), but beautiful description of marriage.  Just simply beautiful.  So much so that I wanted to renew my marriage vows after reading some passages in it.
• Saving Society with the Salt of Sanctity by Bishop Robert Morlino, speaking at the Institute of Catholic Culture.
• Being Catholic Today. A pastoral letter by Cardinal Wuerl.  Insightful and interesting.
• Love is our Mission. Prepared by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as a preliminary catechesis for the upcoming World Meeting of Families.
• Confronting Secularism by Bishop Robert Vasa.  Another awesome talk at the Institute of Catholic Culture. 
• May I recommend my own little contribution, written for a talk at RCIA.  (of course I can: it's my blog!)

 Deo Gratias that these resources are available.  It's not that no one in the Church is trying to uphold the teachings of Christ in the face of a secular tide.  But we could do a better job of publicizing the efforts that are being made.  We can also share the insights better in our daily lives.

Tips for Apologetics: Know your sources, but don't mention them

When engaging in apologetics it is important to know your audience.  If you're speaking to non Catholics you'll want to tailor your approach differently than if you're making an argument to Catholics. And if you're trying to educate faithful Catholics, you'll approach the topic different than if you're talking to nominal or dissenting Catholics.  Generally you're talking to non Catholics so here are some things to keep in mind.

We all want to give credit where it's due.  None of us want to be accused of plagiarism.  Sometimes a Pope or a Bishop or Priest spits out a great one-liner and we want to give proper attribution.  But I don't think you should lead off with that. You can leave that for followup.

You don't need to quote the Magisterium.  You are talking to someone who doesn't accept the authority of the Pope and who treats the Popes and Bishops as nothing other than pundits or experts they may see on a TV talk show.  Furthermore, they may actually be opposed to the idea of the Pope. Or they may have heard something negative about a specific Pope (Benedict was a Nazi or Francis is a Socialist).  Consider the situation is someone said "Barack Obama said that all Americans should honor the sacrifice of our veterans", but you don't like Barack Obama.  You'll get all wrapped up about the various controversies surrounding our president and won't pay any attention to what is undeniably a bipartisan patriotic American sentiment.  So it's not necessarily going to do any good saying "Pope John Paul II said this" or "Pope Francis said that". You can just say "The Church teaches this or that".   If they want more details, you can point them to whatever document is relevant.

There's another trap in quoting a Pope.  You can inadvertently give the impression that the Pope is a king.  You can give the impression that Pope John Paul II legislated some teaching on life, or sexuality, or the priesthood and another Pope can come along and change them.  Similarly since Pope Francis is already known far and wide as a reformer, you can give the impression that whatever he says is his own agenda: an agenda that previous Popes didn't share and which a subsequent Pope can change.  Unless you read the National Catholic Reporter, you should know that that's not how things work.  And regardless, you shouldn't encourage that idea in non Catholics.

It won't help to quote Vatican II.  I once had a brother-in-law from Ohio visit me in Dallas and he was shocked that the Cincinnati Reds weren't on TV.  Where he lived, the Reds were on TV all the time, so he assumed there was a TV channel in Dallas that would also show their games.  It was cute and exasperating at the same time.  Similarly, as a Catholic, you may assume that everyone has heard of Vatican II.  If you're like some people I know, you probably celebrate The Annunciation on January 25, the date John XXIII announced Vatican II (and that's really when salvation was assured, or so I've heard every day for the last 20 years).  But non Catholics don't know what a "Vatican II" is.  When you say "Vatican II" they may think "I thought there was only one Vatican?" or if they understand that this is the 2nd in a series, they'll approach it was a movie: when was Vatican I and is Vatican III being planned, and if James Cameron is going to direct it.  Again, instead of going on about what "Dei Verbum" and "Lumen Gentium" says, just say "The Church teaches that ...."  It's true, after all.  Again, if someone wants more detail you can point them to the documents, or (better) a more accessible summary of the documents.

I hope to post some more tips in the future.

Maury Povich, Culture Warrior

This is an interesting article about the mores of The Maury Show.

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/05/maurys-silent-majority

I was especially taken by this line:

They lead dissolute lives, shaped by social codes so senseless that a daytime TV host seems their most reasonable hope for decency.

It's a testament to what has happened to society at the margins.  This is a frequent theme in First Things: that the sexual morality in today's culture has little negative effects on the culture elite that champions these issues, but a devastating effect on others.  It's fascinating to me.  Because of what I do in RCIA, I'm always looking for something I can describe in five to ten minutes (I've considered collected all my little talks into a book and naming it "The Catholic Faith in Ten Minutes or Less) and I'm not sure this is one of them. Or at least I couldn't do it without sounding like a snob or bigot (those poor people are not as smart as us...).  But it's something I could explain in, maybe fifteen, so it's alluring as a "stretch goal" as we say at work.

The concept of mercy and "who am I to judge?"

As a confession, I'm not too hot thinking on my feet. If I'm going to make an argument, I need to ruminate over it for some time and try out different ideas that best make my case.  In a sense, I'm sympathetic to our president's use of the teleprompter. I've occasionally wanted one in RCIA class as well.

With that as an opening, I'm working on a RCIA talk on the subjects of "mercy" and Pope Francis' infamous "who am I to judge?" comment since they are easily misunderstood and, despite my aggravations, it's my job to correct the misunderstandings.  I present here a line of attack I've been ruminating on for your amusement.  There will likely be more. This is just my way of working out what I want to talk about and perhaps get some feedback.

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Typically in the media, Pope Francis is portrayed in opposition to the previous two popes, especially Pope Benedict XVI.  It is commonly stated that while Benedict was a strict enforcer, Francis is focused on "mercy".  In fact, that characterization doesn't take into account the complexity of the two men and much has been written on how much Francis' various positions are mirrored in the statement of Benedict.  But leaving that aside, is there a distinction between God's Commandments and God's Mercy?

Let's say you wanted to be a cook.  More than that, you wanted to run a restaurant and be known as a great chef.  To be a great cook in a great restaurant, you have to follow a bunch of rules: you have to follow a recipe and you have to maintain a minimum of sanitation.   The consequences of this are clear: what you cook won't taste good and people can get sick.  Now if I go to your restaurant and don't like what the waiter brings out because you used the wrong ingredients in the recipe, or because it's covered with cat fur, you may not like it. You may ask who I am to impose a bunch of small minded rules on you, a free person who can make up his own mind what to do.  But that doesn't mean I'm going to pay.  And if I happen to be the health inspector, things will quickly go downhill for you.

What does "mercy" mean in this case?  Mercy means that I give you another chance to follow the rules.  Mercy doesn't mean that whatever you do in the kitchen is OK with me and whatever comes out of the oven will get five stars on my Yelp review.  It doesn't matter what I say about the matter.  If you don't follow the recipe, then the same results will come: unhappy, sick customers.

What would the lack of mercy be in situation?  A lack of mercy would be to castigate you as a failure of a cook who will never be any good and to banish you forever from the kitchen.  (There is a sense of Justice here, as well, if you sicken your customers, there will be a period of penance -- just ask the people at Blue Bell -- but I will leave that for a future discussion).  Indeed, we can think of situations where the only way to protect society is to remove a miscreant from society but even there mercy can moderate the harshness of the sentence.

God's mercy is not in opposition to His commandments.  It is an opportunity to return to the Commandments when we've gone astray.

Now when Pope Francis make his "who am I to judge" statement, he was making a statement about a hypothetical person who had sinned in the past and had confessed those sins and was honestly seeking the Lord.  In the context of the interview, it seems that the person Francis was talking about was a repentant sinner who was trying live by the teachings of the Church.  In that case, the merciful thing to do is to give the sinner another chance to live a moral life.

But just like the example above, "mercy" does not mean that whatever the person does is good and holy and we can't distinguish between one action or another.  As in the example above, failing to live a moral life puts a sinner in jeopardy, no matter what Francis says. He doesn't have the power to make sin a virtue, and according to the reports of the interview, he never intended to.

The 1970s. The Gift that Keeps on Giving

I agree.


It might be nice if a Church with 2000 years of artistic heritage, including Michelangelo and Caravaggio, not to mention the inspirational iconic tradition kept alive in the Eastern Catholic Churches could manage to move past the folk-art movement of 1968-1974.

But that'd be crazy and offensive to the Baby Boomers currently in charge.

I guess I should be happy that Jesus isn't wearing a polyester leisure suit.

On Redefinition of Marriage

Of interest. An amicus brief with the Supreme Court (link points to a 100 page PDF file).  I'm unfamiliar with amicus briefs, having only read this one and only because it was co-written by PJ O'Rourke.

Some discussion of the testimony during the Supreme Court case (which is where I got the link above).

There are a lot of amicus briefs for that case. Holy crap.  I looked at a few of the documents and I'm not sure I'd call them "brief" and I suspect not all of them are amicable.

I noted with interest that one was written by Catholic Answers and weighs in at around 55 pages.  Before I started sending them angry letters they used to send "urgent" appeals every week.  They'd be full of apocalyptic language about how society would collapse if I didn't send them a check right now(!).  There would usually be some crisis afoot and Catholic Answers would need money to address it.  "What are you going to do with the money?" I'd ask.  "If you're just going to do what you do, then I'll help you do it, but if you're just using hysterical reaction to today's news, then forget it."  That's what I said, but there was no answer.  But now I know at least a little bit what they are up to. I imagine that it costs a bit to get a team of lawyers to write a 55 page document (minus boilerplate cover pages).