DC Year 2 - The Arrival!

We came back! As hard as it is to believe we returned for another round of working with kids and having fun at the National Memorial BaptistChurch. There are some returning from the previous year and others for whom this is their first year, so we have a nice mix of kids.

So far things have gone fairly well. The train ride went smoothly. Well, actually it was very bumpy, but there were not any problems. For the first time I had the great opportunity to enjoy Wi-Fi on the train, and then I got the opportunity to complain about the slow Wi-Fi on the train. How quickly we get a sense of entitlement.

Once again a group of us took the subway from the train station to the church, but this time all of the escalators were working and we knew where we were going, so we did not have any problems. Maybe next time.

There is a different feel with the group this time. We are a little larger, and we have some people with what we will call frenetic energy. I don’t think this is a good or a bad thing, just different and it is something I am going to have to adjust to.

I have already noticed how the veterans have a desire to reclaim and recreate the experience from the previous year (myself included). To some degree this is good, but it is not a habit that I think we should embrace. Those who are new bring new ideas, new vision, and a different kind of energy which can be good. So I will have to work to create a space where this new and different energy can be shared and can take a part in shaping the group. New and different can be good.

I bet there is some kind of lesson for churches embedded somewhere in this reflection. If I just squint and look closely at the screen, then maybe I’ll be able to see it.

Life Will Go On

I’m trying to write a deep, profound blog-post in one of my coffee shops, but the television behind me is blearing the recent news about the NCAA sanction of Penn State. It is a lot of whining and crying about how it isn’t fair, how we don’t know the whole story, etc., etc. I am also hearing a lot of crying about how this is going to drastically hurt the football program at Penn State.

What about the people who were abused – I’m sure it will take more than four years for them to recover, if they ever do.

I just heard that they really “destroyed” the program. Again, think of the victims and how they have been destroyed.

What I think we are finding out is that we are dealing with humans who have been made more than human. I don’t mean only Paterno although he had his own part to play in this mess. I mean the institution itself. The mighty Penn State institution screwed up and needs to be responsible for that mess. The NCAA screwed up and needs to be responsible for that mess. Our society has screwed up and needs to take some responsibility for that mess. Unfortunately I don’t think we will make any progress on the fault of society – we will continue to idolize the sports franchise and create a culture where such atrocities can occur.

The reaction speaks to the lack of progress that we will have as a society. The NCAA and Penn State are trying to do what they can to change things so such a scandal will never happen again, but people are crying out that their beloved ritual and religion will be hurt, scarred, and “destroyed.” Come on, people, it is only a game.

I'm Free to be Me, You're Not

United States Council of Catholic Bishops is crying “foul” when itcomes to religious liberty.

How the worm turns.

Perhaps that isn’t the best way to start, perhaps it isn’t fair, but I find it so very ironic that the U.S. Conference of Bishops is having a fast/vigil for the sake of religious freedom. Wasn’t the Roman Catholic Church the very institution that argued, fought, died, and killed so that countries would be only Catholic (like Spain, France, Italy, and other places). It was Catholicism (along with others) who argued that the crazy American experiment of separation between church and state would be dangerous because then people would be running around in loincloths kissing trees, shaking hands with monkeys, and treating indigenous people with respect. The representatives of this very institution is now crying out that it’s religious liberty is under attack. Maybe that isn’t very fair. It has not been a long time since those days of religious conquest, 200 years. In the scope of 2,000 years that is not a long time.

Catholicism did not embrace religious liberty quickly. It was only in the 1960s when John Courtney Murry (a Jesuit) was the sittingexpert in Vatican II for matters of Religious Liberty and was very instrumental in penning Dignitatis Humanae. Even then his ideas were not well liked by many in the hierarchy.

John F. Kennedy had to convince the American people that if elected president he would not be a puppet for the Pope (a Pope Puppet… buy it now!).

Roman Catholicism does not have a long, rich, history of being involved with religious liberty. Now the U.S. bishops are crying oppression and I would argue that they are crying foul wrongly. Yet maybe because they are still new with this religious liberty thing they can be understood for their errors.

This issue is over a health care mandate requiring employers to offer coverage for contraception and other sexual things – gasp! Note, the issue is not coverage for Viagra or any other ED drug but those things that the woman would use. They are hard and fast about this (pun intended).

Ok, the Bishops don’t like talking or thinking about lady parts and don’t want to cover those things with insurance (and they are following the bizarre encyclical Humanae vitae). Even though Catholic institutions stand in the pernicious place of being both a secular and religious institution, muddying up the issue, the Obama administration compromised. They offered to change the mandate for religious institutions and instead require that the insurance companies offer the coverage. Still the Bishops cry out that they are oppressed.

No, they aren’t. They do not have to cover the icky stuff any more so there is not any infringement of religious freedom. On the other hand, if Catholic institutions were to restrict women’s access to birth control and such then we do have an issue of oppression. Yet in this case it is the Church oppressing the individual. We would have a lack of freedom from religion.

Again, they are new at this so I can understand the Bishop’s confusion and misunderstanding of religious freedom under the disestablishment clause. However, if they are the ones who are supposed to be telling everyone else what to do, what to think, and how to pray, then perhaps they should take a moment, step off the politically shaped conservative platform, and try to reclaim what it means to be a religious institution.

It is a good thing not all American Catholics are as misguided as the USCB and that the Bishops do not speak for all Catholics in America. Right?