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Friday, February 19, 2010

Breach of etiquette

You can tell a lot about a man’s moral or spiritual compass by what offends him. For example, many Catholics are oddly thin-skinned when it comes to criticism of their own denomination.

At say that’s odd for a couple of reasons. For one thing, their hypersensitivity is strikingly lopsided. After all, a number of Catholic epologists are hardly paragons of decorum in their characterization of the Protestant faith. And, of course, it’s not as if their denomination was conspicuous for its tender treatment of theological opponents in the past.

I suppose we could chalk this up to standard issue hypocrisy. But I think there’s more to it than that.

In practice, Catholicism has no core identity. It’s all circumference. Surface-level piety.

For Catholic piety represents, to a fairly extreme degree, a highly externalized piety. You can see this in many respects.

Consider the pervasively pictorial emphasis in Catholic piety. Statues and paintings and other doodads.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with making room for the picturesque dimension of religiosity. You have some of that in the OT. Yet the OT never confuses symbolism with reality. Indeed, the OT goes out of its way to accentuate the difference. Signs are nothing in themselves. It’s what they point to that counts.

You can also see the externalized piety in its pervasive emphasis on rites and rituals. For example, repentance is transmuted into “doing penance.” Performing a ritual.

Once again, there’s nothing wrong with a certain amount of ritual. The OT had its share of ceremonies. But, once again, the OT never confuses a rite with the reality it signifies. These are placeholders.

You can also see this externalized piety in the way it confuses grace with matter. Take its morbid obsession with the relics of the saints. The notion that holiness is something which literally attaches itself to a bone or desiccated organ. And if you make a pilgrimage which puts you in spatial proximity with the severed head of a saint, his holiness rubs off on you.

Once more, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of ritual purity or impurity. But that is, at most, a divine convention. God must assign that relationship to the medium. It’s not something that you and I can simply wish on things. And, once again, Scripture never confuses cultic holiness with real holiness.

On a related note is the Catholic notion of holy objects, holy places, holy gestures, and so on. Again, that’s appropriate in such cases where God has actually authorized holy time, holy space, &c. Yet even then, Scripture never confuses the sign with the significate. At best, it’s a type or emblem.

You can also see this in the Catholic notion of holy persons (“saints”). In many cases, this is a purely ascribed status. Something you (allegedly) have because of your relationship with someone else. Popes and bishops. Mary as the Queen of Heaven. On this view, it doesn’t matter what you do, only what you are–in a derivative sense.

This accounts for the amoral reaction of so many Catholics to the priestly abuse scandal. Yes, they may be indignant, but their indignation is strikingly compartmentalized. Outrage at the end-result, but no outrage at the underlying cause. Complicit popes and bishops are allowed to continue in office until they expire or retire.

And that’s because, in Catholic piety, the person of the pope or bishop is sacrosanct. What matters is his office. His isolated status as an officeholder.

Now, the Bible also has a concept of church office, with OT counterparts. And a certain deference was normally paid to officeholders.

Yet that was far from unconditional. Kings and priests could be deposed if they broke the covenant.

We can also see this externalized piety in the theology of indulgences. The saints accrue certain units of supererogatory merit, through lives of heroic mortification. Their vicarious units merit are then deposited in the treasury of merit. The pope can then redistribute certain units of merit to second parties.

This division of labor also creates one of the most appealing features of Catholicism. For the laity can wax eloquent over the austere lifestyle of Mother Theresa or Padre Pio or Father Damien while they themselves are free to live like the Prince of Monaco, le Roi Soleil, or Lord and Lady Marchmain–because they delegate “heroic virtue” to monks and nuns and other stand-ins.

You can also see this externalized piety in the purely decorative use of Scripture in Catholic apologetics. There’s no serious effort to ascertain the actual meaning of the prooftext in context. No, it’s just so much pretty wallpaper. And the more reams of wallpaper a Catholic apologist can roll out, the more impressive the argument.

As a result, the cardinal sin in Catholic piety is a breach of etiquette. It’s like high society, where the worst thing an ingénue can possibly do is to commit a fault pas at her debutante ball–like wearing the wrong color dress–and thereby disgracing the family name.

This surface-level piety also blinds them to the obvious. For example, one Catholic epologist acts offended at my suggestion that artistic renditions of St. Sebastian’s martyrdom betray a homoerotic and sadomasochistic undercurrent. Yet I’m not the only one to notice this. For instance:

[Camille Paglia] “The church that I was baptized in, St. Anthony of Padua, that I attended weekly until we moved away from Endicott, New York, when I was in first grade, had right near the altar this pretty-boy statue of St. Sebastian posing in an extremely voluptuous way, with a little loincloth around his hips and arrows in his body, bleeding. I've often spoken about the impact this statue had on my mind right from the start. As a Mediterranean Catholic, I understood the intermingling of my culturally rooted history with that kind of imagery of boys' beauty. It's built right into the iconography of the Mediterranean Catholic countries.”

http://www.ipce.info/library_2/files/paglia_guide.htm

22 comments:

  1. It’s called 'class' Steve and you have demonstrated an amazing lack of it over the past several threads.

    At one time I linked up a couple of articles on this website and sent them to Catholic friends. I sincerely hope that they are not reading these recent posts.

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  2. Well, that's an interesting criterion. I don't see where Scripture places a premium on class. Is blood atonement classy? Was butchering all those sacrificial animals classy? Is the crucifixion classy? Is Ezk 4:12-13 classy?

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  3. Steve,

    You are the Steve Colbert of the Reform blogosphere. You alternate between keen insights and razor-sharp putdowns that have me alternate between focused attentiveness and mirthful chuckling in the same paragraph.

    It's quite funny. And there's a sharp substantive point amidst the sharp and humorous barbs too.

    P.S. Steve Colbert is a staunch Catholic. Have you ever seen his video on liturgical dance?

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  4. Apparently, the reason for your lack of class is that you don't know what class actually is. At least there is a reason for your not having any.

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  5. Raymond said...

    "Apparently, the reason for your lack of class is that you don't know what class actually is. At least there is a reason for your not having any."

    You sound like a Victorian dowager who's scandalized by the tea stain on the butler's tie.

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  6. Raymond -- I think you're just too sensitive. Steve Hays is (aside from the lack of a Scriptural premium on class) one of the classiest individuals you'll ever come into contact with.

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  7. John,

    Sexual humor about nuns is not classy.

    Likening nuns to 'girls gone wild' is not classy.

    Invoking images of nuns acting as dominatrixes is not classy.

    Posting all of the above publically on a blog that aims to be apologetic to the Reformed cause is not classy.

    Laughing about it is not classy.

    Chastising others for being offended is not classy.

    I can insure you that not a single Catholic will be moved by these threads in our direction. The more likely reaction would be a revolting one.

    Not a good way to carry the banner of truth. Thats all I am saying.

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  8. I honestly understand where Raymond's coming from.

    I waver sometimes between wondering whether modern "etiquette" is overhyped (eg., the over-emphasis on Political Correctness and its corollary Christian Correctness) or whether there's too much coarsening of culture and communication.

    Or we could be experiencing both simultaneously.

    Both too much Political Correctness and too much Coarseness in Speech. Perhaps occuring in different channels.

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  9. I can insure you that not a single Catholic will be moved by these threads in our direction.

    You are right. Steve is more than capable of speaking for himself, but I have two comments on this:

    1. Only the Holy Spirit will move those Catholics you are talking about.

    2. These images are genuinely funny, and Steve is not just writing for Catholics. There is such a thing as edifying and even entertaining the home crowd, and there is nothing wrong with this.

    Ever since I've been following this blog, it's been directed to edifying believers. Its primary purpose is not humor, but when opportunities for humor come along, it is certainly welcomed by someone with as fine a sense of humor as Steve is capable of delivering.

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  10. We can also see this externalized piety in the theology of indulgences. The saints accrue certain units of supererogatory merit, through lives of heroic mortification. Their vicarious units merit are then deposited in the treasury of merit. The pope can then redistribute certain units of merit to second parties.

    I've believe more and more that the radical environmental movement is a religion. Now with AGW, I see carbon credits as the equivalent of indulgences, but I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it.

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  11. ^^That's a funny connection^^

    You might have something there!

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  12. A lot of good thoughts. Deep thoughts really.

    "For example, repentance is transmuted into “doing penance.” Performing a ritual."

    I remember being a young Christian, or perhaps a 'Cornelius' at the time, and I went back to the RC Church for a season, and so I went to the priest and confessed a lot of sins.

    He told me to say 10 'Our Fathers'. I didn't say two before I stopped, and walked away questioning why I was doing this. Little by little the Holy Spirit opened my heart and mind to the truth about RC theology.

    I had a discussion with a nun not to long ago about the Catholic sacraments.
    She actually said to me, "Why did you leave your consecration." Which I thought was a weird statement.
    And she said, "Don't you understand the sacrament of reconciliation?"

    She basically says that by saying 10 prayers, we are saying we are sorry to the Lord in the same way we would buy flowers for our wives, if we sinned against them.

    I told her that the Lord has taken all my sin, all the hundreds of thousands of sins, and bore them in His broken body, and then washed them away with His precious blood, once and for all.

    She says we need priests to help us receive forgiveness, because of Matthew 16 and the keys to the kingdom Peter received, and the whole loosing and binding sins.

    Hopefully I will be able to debate these things with her again. I'm almost certain I will, and whether she leaves her RCatholicism and shed's the false gospel, I can't really be anxious about, although I would long to see her flee this 'angel of light'. I am to share the Gospel, and the truth of Christ, our one and only Mediator for a sinner with God.

    have a blessed Lord's Day. Maranatha!

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  13. I'm offering my Friday fasting and penance for your conversion to Christian charity and piety.

    As a Catholic, I'm not angered by your words, so much as I am saddened that you are mocking what you do not (yet) understand.

    in the love of Christ the King,
    Taylor

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  14. Donsands, thanks for sharing that. I too walked out in the middle of confession, aware of the overwhelming forgiveness that Christ gives, purely by faith.

    Taylor Marshall -- You are a poor, sad, deceived fool.

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  15. Taylor:

    Do not cast your pearls before swine.

    There are two ways of drawing a picture of a pig. One is to draw a picture (and Hays/Bugay and Co have drawn a fine self-portrait).

    The other is to draw a picture of a pig and write below it, "This is a pig."

    You don't need to write that. All normal people can see the pigs here.

    The oinking here does not require a reply from Catholics. It requires stony silence.

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  16. Mark Shea: how bout a few cuss words? Isn't that your style?

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  17. Mark Shea writes:

    The other is to draw a picture of a pig and write below it, "This is a pig."

    You don't need to write that. All normal people can see the pigs here.

    The oinking here does not require a reply from Catholics. It requires stony silence.


    Yet here you are, breaking that stony silence, calling Steve, John & Co. pigs (again).

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  18. Well, I am going to read the comments but before I do I wanted to comment on one part in the article:::>

    "....But, once again, the OT never confuses a rite with the reality it signifies. These are placeholders....".


    That there is a powerful admission!

    Just think of what they were asked to do to have their "personal" sins remitted for another year?

    They had to buy a "pure, clean, sinless" lamb, either from the goat herds or the sheep, then watch it for two weeks I believe and then come and present their lives before the killing priest, put their own hands on that little innocent lamb, hopefully the little guy wasn't lovinging looking you in the eyes as his throat was slit and while bleeding out you had to keep your hands on his head, transfering all your guilt and shame for the foregone year upon him until he died and then was butchered up and eaten by you! And you had to do this every year of your life ritualistically just to live one more year as a sinner before the Holy Triune, the Spirit of Grace, of course here in the world devils full!

    Wow, what a foretelling of the Innocent Lamb, huh?


    Rev 5:1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
    Rev 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"
    Rev 5:3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it,
    Rev 5:4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
    Rev 5:5 And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals."
    Rev 5:6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
    Rev 5:7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.
    Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
    Rev 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
    Rev 5:10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

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  19. John,

    come on now, as long as I have been coming in here, at least, I get both wet by humor and dried out by some of the dry humor and wit!

    Now, besides being classy, it's a skill and it seems from my dumb head's point of view, a gifting that I don't have!

    Sit back and enjoy the ride as I can attest, it's been one hell of a joy ride since! :)

    And I suppose it will continue it's hills and dells too as the bell of Truth is tolled and chimes out Him!

    I mean, are we now coming to straining at John the Baptist and Jesus? Ah, I mean, gnats and camels? Ah, I mean, John came with camels' hair three piece suits and Jesus with very fine linen garments. The one, John, you would think would fit right in with the publicans and sinners. But Jesus, fine and properly clothed, letting a whore wash His feet with her tears, well now, in the era of aids and all, she most likely would have had to strip down and be sanitized just to get within feet of Him to that thing that is spoken of her deed, even now? :)

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  20. I was hoping my comments on the environmental movement's usurpation of (especially) RCC hierarchy and practices would have taken off. I have so much to say about PETA's "Treasury of Ferrets," and the environmental poet's masterpiece, "Carbon Footprints in the sand."

    I got a million of 'em.

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  21. "The oinking here does not require a reply from Catholics. It requires stony silence."

    Stony silence ... and name calling and mud slinging ... (apparently)

    The stony silence is apparently only good for avoiding discussing the merits of the issue.

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  22. Pilgrimsarbour,

    You're cracking me up. I think your insight deserves a post to itself. People are too busy being offended on this thread.

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