Bill Kassel's Blog

Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...

bill kassel

Moral Choices & Actions

Pink T-Shirts & Black Dresses

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HYPE vs. REFLECTION
IN THE #MeToo CAMPAIGN

The late news on our local TV station carried a story about one of those efforts for breast cancer awareness. It was a 5-K run in which folks dressed in pink were trying to raise funds for some new screening program at an area hospital.

Turning to my wife, I commented, “You know, I wonder if the breast cancer people aren’t overdoing it with all these pink T-shirt events.”

“Breast cancer is an important issue,” she said, surprised that I should raise such a question. “People have to be made aware.”

“Well, that’s my point,” I replied. “It is an important issue. I certainly wouldn’t want you to get breast cancer. But there’s so much of this stuff going on all the time. Heck, you can see pink trash bins out on the streets. Doesn’t it risk trivializing an important concern? Isn’t there a burn-out point where people lose interest?”

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In Praise of Hypocrisy

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PRUDENCE IS A VIRTUE EVEN
IF IT SEEMS LIKE HYPOCRISY

In a play I wrote some years ago* the ghost of Erasmus, a leading Christian Humanist and one of the great wits of the Renaissance period, comments on the subject of hypocrisy…

“Hypocrisy is like human waste. It’s obnoxious, but we suffer when it doesn’t come forth with a certain regularity.”

This line springs to mind amid the firestorm currently raging over that crude description of certain Third World countries attributed to Donald Trump. It’s particularly relevant in two ways:

First, of course, is the human waste imagery.

Second is its reflection on the role of hypocrisy (not to mention regularity) in easing life’s discomforts.

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What Is Truth?

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WILLFUL DETRACTION VS.
LEGITIMATE CRITICISM

Pontius Pilate is often portrayed as a hardened cynic for his remark at Jesus’ trial…

“What is truth?”*

In my novel, My Brother’s Keeper, I interpret his feelings differently. I credit the governor of Judea with a kind of wistful ambiguity. There he was, trying to govern according to the will of Caesar in the midst of dangerously shifting political currents and a lack of clarity as to what Caesar’s will might be on any given concern.

If my take is correct, then poor old Pontius was struggling very much like the rest of us: weary with the world’s hypocrisy and self-interestedness, trying to discern what’s true and act appropriately.

This I can understand. After the wearying vilification heaped on Donald Trump throughout 2017 — as discussed in my last post — I feel a bit wistful myself.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no letup in sight.

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The Year of Lying

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AWASH IN FALSEHOODS
WITH NO END IN SIGHT

Can you sum up 2017 in a famous quote?

I’m going with a line from Adolph Hitler. He’s the all-purpose stand-in for everybody you think is bad, and his enduring observation remains as fresh today as when first uttered…

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

Lord knows, that’s the assumption behind pretty much everything that’s been said about Donald Trump’s first year as President.

Yes, The Donald is given to flights of wild hyperbole and intemperate criticism. And yes, such things can involve an element of mischaracterization (not to say untruth).

But, could anything Trump has ever spoken or tweeted beat this Newsweek headline for total disregard of fact and proportion?…

“How Trump and the Nazis Stole Christmas to Promote White Nationalism”

Now that’s imaginative.

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Once Again We Give Thanks

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WE’VE ALL SINNED AGAINST GRATITUDE
LET’S TRY TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT

(The reflection below has been posted for the last four Thanksgivings.)

It’s the kind of thing one hears from people who went to Catholic school back in the 1950s — how the good nuns taught them that a complete and well balanced prayer is based on the acronym, ACTS, and includes four key elements…

  1. Adoration
  2. Contrition
  3. Thanksgiving
  4. Supplication

Being a convert, I didn’t go to parochial school, but I would imagine that the prayers of Catholic schoolchildren back then probably contained plenty of supplication, especially at report card time. (Probably still do.)

Adoration was likely well covered also, given the pious practices in which Catholic kids of the ’50s were steeped. Just how much true contrition there was would’ve been anybody’s guess. But it’s the element of thanksgiving which I’d assume was least present.

Were we ’50s youngsters (Catholic or otherwise) grateful for the blessings we enjoyed? Our parents were always telling us we didn’t appreciate how much we had — at least in comparison with the deprivations they endured. After all, they’d struggled through the Great Depression, and had to walk ten miles to school everyday.

In the snow.

Uphill.

Both ways.

(That last part I used to tell my kids too, and they didn’t believe it any more than I did.)

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Harvey Weinstein

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A TIMELY LESSON ABOUT
HOLLYWOOD HYPOCRISY

Outrage generated by The New Yorker exposé of movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s dubious sexual ethics (and apparently limitless appetites) revives old stories about the Hollywood casting couch.

I suppose it’s a positive sign that we can still be disgusted when we hear about some mogul abusing the beautiful women of La La Land. But this is really nothing new.

Gorgeous girls have always faced coercive sexual pressure. Movietown history is replete with tales of open-secret relationships, unacknowledged offspring, wild bacchanalia in the Hollywood Hills, and much else.

Consider the strong advocacy for abortion among the celebrity set. There may be more than Feminist devotion in play.

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It’s Still All About the Babies

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A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
FOR ABORTED CHILDREN

Few things stir passionate debate, bitter feelings, and all-’round ill will more than abortion.

It’s fascinating — in a sad sort of way — to observe the stark and total contrast in views on this contentious issue. For some, abortion represents the ultimate safeguard of a woman’s freedom to find happiness and individual human fulfillment. For others it is the ultimate betrayal of our deepest and most sacred human values.

What is too often overlooked in this conflict of human absolutes is the reality of the small human who is sacrificed.

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The Trusting Prayer

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THAT EVIL MAY BE DEFEATED
AND THAT RIGHT MAY PREVAIL

It’s hard to know how to pray these days.

The country is in such turmoil, and clearly, we need God’s help. But I find it hard to keep my daily supplication from sounding like a blog post (like my last blog post, for instance).

I know God cares about our welfare. But does He care about our politics?

How do I implore His benevolence, without presuming He endorses my particular agenda?

What’s the proper way to frame my appeal to One whose perspective is eternal and all-encompassing?

The cute graphic above — currently circulating online — hints at the difficulty of keeping willfulness from imposing itself on prayer. Apparently a lot of people face this challenge.

I suspect the answer to my quandary lies in trust. Which is to say: in trusting that God knows what’s best, and assenting to His will, no matter how He permits things to work out.

Easier said than done, I’m afraid.

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Holy Attire — Examined

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DRESSING FOR CHURCH
IS A VERY HOT TOPIC

Last Saturday’s post — in which I raised the issue of wearing slovenly and/or immodest clothing at Mass — really struck a chord.

Each of the Facebook pages and discussion groups to which I linked the article has brimmed over with “Likes.” I’ve had more hits on this piece than any other essay in the history of my blog. Numerous comments have been posted all over.

Obviously, feelings about this topic are strong.

Most people agree with the point made by both Deacon John Amthor and myself that worship attire could stand some improvement.

But not everybody.

One objector put his view quite succinctly…

“Bullsh-t. Come as you are. God don’t care about how you dress. God cares about your heart.”

He saw the idea of applying standards to our physical appearance as a “doctrine of man,” which he rejects.

Another reader — named Lamont — had a similar edge to his critique, but he offered it with considerably more wit…

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Holy Attire

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LET’S TRY TO LOOK
DECENT IN CHURCH

When I was a kid attending a Presbyterian church, people dressed to the nines for Sunday service. Ladies wore hats. Gents came in suits. Little girls carried their collection money in their lace-trimmed white gloves. Little boys wore ties — grudgingly — and did their best to keep shirt tails tucked in.

Well…that was the 50s and early 60s. Times have changed.

When I began attending Catholic Mass, I was taken aback to see slacks on the women, open-neck knit shirts on the guys. That was the 70s. Things have gone completely to hell since then.

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The Deaths of the Innocents

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MEMORIAL DAY IS A GOOD TIME FOR
CAREFUL THINKING ABOUT TERRORISM

The carnage at that Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England has brought forth some really stupid statements. For instance, interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN, terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank shared that…

“in recent months in Europe there’s been a number of false flag plots where right-wing extremists have tried to frame Islamists for terrorism.”

Blessedly, Cruickshank didn’t carry this line of speculation too far. Somehow, a guy named Salman Abedi blowing himself up with a bunch of innocent little girls didn’t have a right-wing feel about it.

Perhaps the stupidest pronouncement came from Katy Perry, a member of that exalted sisterhood of pop divas to which Ariana Grande belongs…

“No barriers, no borders, we all just need to co-exist.”

Okay, Katy. I’ll ignore the implied slam at Trump’s border wall and just suggest that you and all your sister pop tarts go over to Syria, look up the ISIS guys, and deliver your impassioned plea to them.

Let me know how that turns out.

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