WE’RE A MINORITY RELIGION
AND WE MUST BE UNITED
Over the last couple of months I had been trying to place an article about the ongoing conflict over liturgical music. As I announced in my last post, the essay was finally picked up by the online journal, ChurchPop.
It appeared Friday, June 26, the day our Supreme Court legalized “gay marriage.” That was also the day Islamist terrorists pulled off a triple-play in their ongoing run of carnage…
- killing 38 tourists at a seaside resort in Tunisia while wounding 36 others…
- killing 25 and wounding more than 200 in a bomb attack on a mosque in Kuwait…
- blowing up an American-owned chemical plant in France (that one perpetrated by a French Muslim of apparent radical sympathies who had worked at the facility and disliked his boss intensely enough to behead him)…
The Islamic State also held its own celebration of the Supreme Court’s ruling by executing four Iraqi men suspected of being homosexuals by tossing them off a tall building, and making ironic use of the #LoveWins hashtag tweeted by the White House.
Compared with such startling events, disagreement about the songs we sing at Mass doesn’t seem like all that urgent a topic. And expectedly, there appears to be a rather low level of interest in my article.
Well, you can’t anticipate the news.
I’ve done enough public-relations work over the years to know that some big announcement you’ve worked on for months can be spiked by a four-alarm fire or a multi-fatality car pile-up or some other catastrophe that grabs the front page and leads the 5:00-o’clock news. Though in a way, Friday’s developments do underscore a point I made in my article.
Catholics have been arguing about liturgy since Vatican II. And music has been one of the most contentious issues, deepening divisions at a time…
“when our Church is under varieties of stress that require faith, confidence and unity.”
I readily acknowledge that the disagreements are not trivial. After all, they concern liturgy, the ceremonial setting in which we open our hearts to receive the Eucharist — which, as the Church teaches, is the central focus of our Faith and the source of our strength and vitality as followers of Christ.
But we must get past these conflicts. They weaken our unity and sense of common purpose just when Judeo-Christian moral influence is being suppressed and we face fundamental threats to our religious and civic freedoms.
The current success of the “gay-marriage” movement strengthens the evidence of recent opinion polls that we are in a period when Christianity — for all its prominence in our national culture — is, functionally, a minority religion in America.
We are no longer the mainstream, the “establishment.” In fact, we have become something of an underground.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We spent our early days in the catacombs, remember. And an underground, if effectively organized, can be well positioned to carry on a war of resistance. In fact, that’s what I believe we’re being called upon to carry on at this moment of history: a war of moral resistance. To adapt a famous “Blues Brothers” quote…
“We’re on a mission from God.”
Responding to the Court’s ruling, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, explained the orders we’ve been given …
“I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions.”
But we can’t accomplish much of anything if we remain fragmented and quarrelsome.
For a start, can we at least come to some rapprochement on a matter as basic as the music of liturgy? Can we find some way of accommodating everyone’s worship needs? What a small but important start that would be on reconciling much bigger differences.
And then, maybe we can move on to reaching out to our separated Christian brothers and sisters, as well as to observant Jews — to all people of good conscience who may not share our religious vision but who are natural allies in the moral fight.
After a week in which Obamacare has been upheld, the Confederate flag discredited, and “gay marriage” declared the law of the land, secular Leftists are rejoicing; the White House has been decorated in rainbow floodlights; and Islamist radicals are salivating in anticipation of our imminent collapse.
To those who still know the meanings of words like “truth” and “right” and “reality” — to those who understand what’s at stake — I ask…
Can we at least start singing from the same score?
____________
Resistance is already underway. Bishop Michael Jarrell of the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, has issued an edict that…
“No priest or deacon of this Diocese may participate in the civil solemnization or celebration of a same-sex marriage. All Catholics are urged not to attend same-sex marriage ceremonies. No Catholic facility or property, including but not limited to parishes, missions, chapels, meeting halls, Catholic educational, health or charitable institutions, or facilities belonging to benevolent orders may be used for the solemnization of same sex marriage.”
His entire statement can be found at…
The full text of U.S.C.C.B. President Archbishop Joseph Kurtz’ statement is posted at…
http://www.usccb.org/news/2015/15-103.cfm
And my humble scribblings about liturgical music can be found at…
http://www.churchpop.com/2015/06/25/post-vatican-folk-vs-reformist-retro-is-there-no-middle-ground/
Tom says
The picture you have of the rainbowed white house at the head of your page is particularly galling to me.
That’s our house, not the presidents.
Almost immediately after the man had gone through a disjointed defense of those who were opposed to the ruling — where he said, “Opposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs … All of us who welcome today’s news should be mindful of that fact (and should) … recognize different viewpoints; revere our deep commitment to religious freedom …” — he has his grounds staff at the white house set up multicolored lights to ape the “gay” flag at night.
That’s very telling to me. He says one thing and does another. It’s an “in your face” insult. I don’t believe a word he says.
David says
From ChurchPop…
In my parish, I go to the eight o’clock because I like organ music, and a good organist — which we have — can make the most insipid lyric sound good.
OTOH, on Fourth Sunday, this being a parish which is at least half Hispanic, we have an all-Spanish hymnal for Mass. With guitars. Which sounds excellent, especially since our priest likes to sing as much of Mass has he can. And the Spanish guitar and lyrics work very very well with the sung Mass.
Strums and drums on Saturday Vigil for those who like it, preceded by a rosary. Smells and bells on Sunday 10 am for those who like that. Just rite on Sunday 8:00 am for the “early-birds”.
Dana says
This is ridiculous. You’re not the ‘minority.’ Polls still show Christians are the majority religion in the United States and that most citizens identify as religious/spiritual. I think you and other conservatives who whine about this are just angry that not everyone agrees with you.
Score two victories for SCOTUS — recognizing liberty by supporting marriage equality and recognizing that healthcare benefits should not be restricted to the wealthy. I am proud of my country beyond measure and intend to celebrate. I’m also excited about all of the fabulous weddings I’ll be attending in the next several years. 🙂
Jared says
Marriage equality AKA “gay marriage” is most appropriately framed as an issue of civil rights, and not one that primarily concerns religious organizations or the devout. This civil rights concern is one tantamount to the right to participate on an equal footing in civil society, and one should focus on the primary sought-after goals of marriage equality:
(1) The right to freely enter into binding contracts regarding property and survivorship.
(2) The right to recognition of a long-term, productive relationship by the government for purposes of adoption or, with the assistance of medical science, reproduction.
(3) The right to equal treatment of a relationship in issues of hospital visitation. AIDS patients in the 1980s had no visitation rights during the horrifying epidemic, as documented in the film “We Were Here.”
(3) The right to form a household for tax, insurance, and other accounting purposes.
The religious freedom issue of forced solemnization may occur in the future. Those of religious faiths whose dogma will be perceived as unacceptably discriminatory should be allowed to make their case, and I’m of the opinion that the First Amendment should not be trampled upon. However, all interested parties hopefully recognize that churches need not perform a single-sex wedding ceremony in order to achieve equal access under the law. Marriage is a contract, and it has both extrinsic and intrinsic benefits. You gain numerous benefits in society by acquiring “married” status. But the most important benefit is that feeling of being welcome in your own country. This is good, and over 12 million people this week are celebrating, quietly or openly, the beginning of this new era of inclusion (of which marriage equality is but one component part).
Thank you.