This is where I bow out
3 September 2008 - 4 אלול 5768 by Huw
NCE AGAIN We’ve reached that curious juncture in American Poltics where Christians on the Left and Christians on the Right are trying to make the other side into Canon Fodder, pardon the pun.
Palin is a pious, Christian who was baptised Roman Catholic and apostatised as a child. Now she speaks in tongues, thinks Jews need to be saved and imagines that she’s going to heaven with all certainty because she’s on God’s side. McCain is a bit shady in his religious views, but I gather he’s a low church Anglo-Baptist. Biden is a devout Catholic who disagrees with his church on several issues. This was an acceptable stance until about 4 years ago when the right wing in the Catholic Church got into power. Catholicism - like Anglicanism - is a Big Tent. Sadly - no one has told the fringes. Obama is a member of the UCC: a Christian body the last I checked, although their definition mightn’t match yours. He’s sworn up and down never to abandon the man who led him to faith in Jesus: until it would cost him some votes to stay loyal. Yup, all of these folks look like my Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
Truth be told, from a Conservative Roman Catholic point of view, both the VP candiates are worse than Protestants: an apostate on the one hand and a man who wilfully disagrees with “the magisterium” on the other hand. And neither presidential candidate is “really” Christian either - since neither of them belong to a real Church.
From where I stand: they will all get into heaven before me and I hope they pray for me when they do.
So, now that the secular media and the partisans of the Stupid Party and the Evil Party Are whipping Christians into a feeding frenzy far worse than the lions in the coliseum: I’m bowing out and retreating back to my Anarchristian Corner. The rest of you remember the words of that Great Saint who said, “You’re fasting from meat, but you’re eating each other.”
This will be the last (presidential) political post of this election cycle. I hope.
Quick question, who was the saint of our fasting comment? I think I would like to use that in a sermon if I can track it down.
Yup, I watched last night as well. I was interested in how “executive experience” was redefined in such a way that Sen. Biden was said to have less executive experience than Gov. Palin. That was quite a shocker to me. But, control the dictionary and you can control the debate.
I know Fr Victor (RIP) said it to me in confession… but I’ll see if I can find the quote!
I’m not sure if this is the same quote, but I know that St. Basil the Blessed was supposed to have offered fresh meat to Ivan the Terrible during Lent and when he refused, said, “Why abstain from meat when you drink the blood of human beings?”
Those words are from Saint John Chrysostom, in a homily entitled (I think) “On Fasting”:
Do you fast?
Then give me proof of it by your works!
If you see a poor man, take pity on him.
If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him.
Don’t just fast with your mouth,
but also with your eyes, ears, feet and hands —
all the members of the body.
Let the hands fast by being free of greedy grasping.
Let the feet fast by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast by disciplining them not to gawk at what is sinful.
Let the ears fast by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast by not uttering foul words and unjust criticism.
For what good is it if we eat neither fish nor fowl,
but bite and devour our brothers and sisters?
I always liked the story of how Saint Basil the Blessed, fool for Christ, handed Tsar Ivan the Terrible a bloody chunk of fresh meat during Lent to illustrate the incongruity between his bloodshed and his piety. That act really illustrates John Chrysostom’s words.
And of course, Chrysostom is referencing Isaiah there:
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
`Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
Isaiah 58:3-10
An interesting aside and a wistful prayer not likely to come to fruition any time soon in America, but nice nonetheless:
I remember seeing one of Barry Goldwater’s grandchildren on “Charlie Rose” some time ago, reminiscing how her grandfather, planning on running against John F. Kennedy for the presidency, wanted the two to share an airplane and fly around the country debating each other in a town meeting format. (Despite being at opposite ends of the political spectrum, Goldwater and Kennedy were quite good friends.) “We’d save money and have a lot of fun,” Goldwater ruminated. Alas, 22 November 1963 nipped that promising flower in the bud. Goldwater was grief-stricken over Kennedy’s assassination.
What a different spirit reigned then, when there were statesmen, and nobody forgot that regardless of political differences, we are all Americans and have the best interests of our commonwealth at heart.
Would that that spirit were alive and encouraged today.