Bill Kassel's Blog

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

bill kassel

Prom Night Dreams

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DO GIRLISH FANTASIES REFLECT
ACTUAL GENDER-IDENTITY CONFLICT?

Is it any wonder we sometimes feel confused by the challenges facing society today?

Especially in any issue related to sex and gender we’re faced with contradictions between claim and appearance that quickly bring us to a state of utter befuddlement, what psychologists refer to as cognitive dissonance.

Our eyes behold something we recognize as a self-evident reality, while we are told that the thing we see is not what we assume it to be — and that, in fact, we’re wrong to draw any conclusions about it at all.

Such is the case of a TV news report about a Texas student who describes himself as transgendered.  Tony Zamazal had asked for permission to attend prom at Houston-area Spring High School wearing a dress, wig, high heels, and other feminine accoutrements.

[Read more…] about Prom Night Dreams

Mass Panic

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A NEW POPE RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT LITURGY
AND THE CHURCH’S STANCE TOWARD ISLAM

The Catholic Church is not known for rapid change.

Generally speaking, practices and traditions have evolved and theological insights or doctrinal understanding been refined over centuries.  True, there were occasional marked shifts in direction — the Second Vatican Counsel most dramatic, though even in that case, it took the better part of a decade for liturgical changes inspired by the conciliar documents to be implemented. [Read more…] about Mass Panic

Ginni

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MEMORIES OF A DEAR FRIEND
FROM HIGH SCHOOL DAYS

The people who remain dearest in our memories of youth are those who shared the milestones of our lives — especially the moments of our youthful triumphs or, even more so, of our greatest youthful foolishness.  Ginni was on hand for many of mine, in both categories. [Read more…] about Ginni

Battle of the Signs

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ALL THOSE RED SQUARES WERE
SYMBOLS OF A COUNTRY DIVIDED

My wife and others in that shrinking cohort of people who have real things to do and therefore no time to play around on Facebook missed out on a small but interesting phenomenon over the past few days.  It’s symbolic of our plugged-in age that the week in which the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments in the cases involving California’s Proposition 8 prohibition of “same-sex marriage” and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Facebook was inundated with the Marriage Equality logo promulgated by the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign.Marriage Equality

The symbol, which features a pink equals sign against a square red field, showed up in newsfeeds, page headers, even as avatars for people’s online identities.  The Huffington Post puffed, “Facebook Profile Pictures Go Red In Support Of Gay Marriage Rights.”

[Read more…] about Battle of the Signs

Do This for Me

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From time to time I’ll be posting some of my song lyrics that, hopefully, hold up without the music to which they were written.  Here’s the first, a bit of conjecture about what one of the apostles (perhaps John?) might have thought looking back on the Last Supper from a few years after.  It was written as a meditation piece for Holy Thursday.

 

Do This for Me

By Bill Kassel

Take this bread I offer, feast and fill your heart
Remember all the love I showed you from the start
Drink the cup of kindness that peace may finally be
And keep this as a sign for all to see
Do this for me

Now my hour approaches, now I soon must go
Unless a seed should fall new life can never grow
Keep the words I gave you that truth may set you free
And share them with the least of those you see
Do this for me

It was late and his eyes were weary
And he knew what was coming with the day
But his voice was so clear that through all the years
I still can hear him say:

Take this bread I offer, feast and fill your heart
Remember all the love I showed you from the start
Drink the cup of kindness that peace may finally be
And keep this as a sign for all to see
Do this for me.

Copyright © 1994 Bill Kassel

 

School Days

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GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
AND MAYBE EVEN WHERE IT’S NOT

I was a terrible student.  Calling my scholarly record erratic would be complimentary.  The expression “skin of his teeth” was invented to describe how I graduated.

Failed Algebra I; made it up in summer school.  Failed Algebra II; took a second language so I didn’t have to repeat it.  Geometry and trigonometry didn’t figure in my wildest imaginings.  It was the old story: bright kid who put effort into only those subjects that interested him.  I left a sad trail of dedicated high school teachers frustrated with their inability to motivate me.

I can’t say I didn’t care about grades.  It would have been nice to be on the honor roll, and the one time I made Dean’s List in college did feel good.  Of course, that was accomplished mainly because of a very light semester composed of pretty much all fluff courses (I’ve always said I majored in Drop-and-Add).

[Read more…] about School Days

The Philadelphia Story

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A CONVERSATION LONG OVERDUE
IN THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

It’s a question that echoes through the Gospels — Who is my neighbor? — and it suggests all manner of related queries:  What do I owe my neighbor in terms of respect, encouragement, and tangible assistance?  How can we get along in a world of individual differences, competing needs, and conflicting values?

In his preaching and parables, Jesus kept directing his followers to such considerations, never more pointedly than in his tale of the Good Samaritan.  Here was an illustration of neighborliness that crossed some very strongly guarded social/religious boundaries. [Read more…] about The Philadelphia Story

Sing, Sing, Sing

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WHAT WAS MUSIC LIKE
IN THE DAYS OF THE BIBLE?

One of the benefits I hope to derive from this blogging experience is learning things I didn’t know before.  It would be great if people came forth to share knowledge I don’t possess — which, if it were to happen, could provide an endless font of material, since there’s all kindsof knowledge I don’t possess.

Let’s start with music, a lifelong passion of mine…

Reading the morning prayers for Palm Sunday (note to non-Catholics: Google Liturgy of the Hours), I was struck by how musical some passages in Psalms 118 and 150 felt to me, with their repetitions of certain phrases suggesting something like the structures of modern songs. The canticle reading as well (Daniel 3:52-57) had an almost contemporary feel. [Read more…] about Sing, Sing, Sing

Why was Jesus Crucified?

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CHRIST MAY HAVE DIED FOR OUR SINS
BUT THERE WERE WORLDLY REASONS TOO

Despite its status as the holiest day on the Christian calendar, Easter has never had an impact on American life that comes close to the annual, all-pervasive social and economic supernova of Christmas.  This is probably explainable by Easter’s limited potential for commercialization.  Chocolate bunnies and died eggs can’t match the buying and gift-giving frenzy of Yuletide. Even shopping for that new spring outfit — to the extent people still dress up for Easter in our over-casual age — barely nudges the gross domestic product.

Easter just remains so stubbornly…religious.  It’s also kind of demanding.  Grasping the joy, or even the concept, of resurrection takes faith.  What does it mean that Jesus rose again?  For that matter, why did he have to die in the first place?

Now, there’s a question even believers often ask.  To reply that Christ died for our sins is to express a theological insight arrived at after the fact (and one which folks who have trouble making the leap to a Christian point of view can find a little off-putting; “I didn’t ask him to die for my sins,” they’ll say).

But let’s go back 2,000-or-so years.  What were the conditions at the time which prompted Jesus’ execution? Or to frame the question another way:  Why would anybody want to kill someone who went around preaching love and offering a lot of uplifting homilies?  And healing the sick to boot!  What’s not to like about all that?

[Read more…] about Why was Jesus Crucified?

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