Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Men and (Christian) religion

Bringing men back to church | Deseret News National:





It's funny. I had emotionally worked through my disappointment in Catholicism for not accepting me as a gay man. Indeed, had come to understand that it could not do so and in fact, if it were to be itself and any use to the world, must not. To sanctify sex between men would unravel an ancient but embattled moral code, with nothing at all to replace it.

That meant, of course, that my parting of the ways was personally permanent. But --not that it matters to anyone but me-- my attitude toward the faith in which I lived until I was almost 40 became positive, supportive, appreciative. Even if it was for primarily cultural reasons of intellect and aesthetics. Hell, I even appreciated Pope Ratzinger, who had been the straw on my gay camel's back in the 80's.

Well, that is all crumbling fast.

What now blocks my vision of almost anything else about Catholicism --and Christianity in general-- is that it has become a place toxic to men and to the European peoples who created it.

I recognize that most ordinary guys were ambivalent about the Church. And I confess shamefacedly that I mostly went along with the feminism in it in the 80's. For which sin I most heartily repent. Although the Apostolic Churches --Catholic and Orthodox-- will never ordain women, their local churches are, priest excepted, dominated by females. Men stay away, understandably.

And as I have argued elsewhere, while the Church can and does make clear and compelling arguments about the coherence of its sacramental system --why only bread and wine can become the Eucharist, not beer and ricecakes, or why only water will baptize, not sand-- it fearfully refuses to enunciate the obvious reasons why only men can be priests.

Even advocates for men in the Church have been cowed --a good metaphor-- to the point where the author of "Why Men Hate Going To Church" denies that he is interested in "male dominance." No, of course not. That would be CrimeThink. Just "male resurgence."

Pussy. It's like the Mormons who respond to queries about their Temple ceremonies by saying, "It's not secret, it's sacred." Have people no real shame? Well, I guess our culture makes not room for it. All we can have is the fake ritualized shame of racism and sexism and CaitlynJennerphobia.

The rage of the young Nietzcheans and Odinists cuts too close to the bone, that Christianity's current betrayal is embedded in its universalist and slave-worshipping DNA, its ineluctable destiny,  and is, as the kids say, not a bug but a feature.

Indeed, the autoimmune virus of Western liberalism has become so much the default mindset of the Church --including this spectacularly facepalmworthy Pope--- that The Camp of the Saints is not only not being resisted by the Church, but actively enabled and celebrated, as if that grim novel were not an apocalyptic warning but a tactics manual.  As if Pope Leo had gone out to meet Attila and given him the keys to the city. Or Pius V had surrendered at Lepanto and welcomed the "immigrant Turks" behind the very same Leonine walls that his predecessor had built to keep the Muslims from sacking St Peter's a second time. It is deeply shameful.

Maybe some day my sense of connection to the Christian faith will re-awaken. Hey, I got to respect Ratziner. For now, I can't imagine it. These last realizations --the racial replacement one especially-- are a knife in the heart.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Church was once quite literally run by whores. She has weathered great storms, and I expect her to continue to do so- though not in any form I think you or I would find recognizable.

-Sean

Anonymous said...

Maybe the Odinists will be able to reinvent the Church the same way Charlemagne did but, you know, different. Only time will tell if it is taken up by pacifists or by warriors. I hope that at least the Theology of Catholicism can allow restored Teutonic Paganism to develop into what it needs to be to help sustain the morality of an advanced civilization.

-A

Anonymous said...

A, I've wondered if the Church, rather than killing the old gods, gave them sanctuary.

I'm not sure if the Odinists will attempt some great revival of the Church. Most of them hate it. Many of them would refuse to put Jesus in their pantheon. There are some who are not violently allergic to Jesus, but they seem to be afflicted with the same Universalist tendencies that afflict the Church.

I certainly wouldn't mind some syncretism between Christianity and Odinism. I'm just unsure of how likely it is.

-Sean

Anonymous said...

What I was talking about was more the messages of Catholicism itself. It does not need Jesus. The aesthetics, the ethics and the discipline are all that are really needed. Though, maybe religious leaders will be able to get married and gays will have the same ambivalence in the spiritual sense as they do in the cultural sense of healthy societies but, whatever works. In my mind, the theology of Catholicism really does not require Jesus at all because He is in a twilight of central and incidental to the Church. Some people need him and others don't. The church recognizes this, they just do not talk about it. We will likely still need a Jesus figure. We could probably make one that approaches the same function but in a completely different culture and spirit.Jesus is redeemer more than he is mythical Son of God.

-A

Anonymous said...

A, I would debate you on how central Jesus is to Catholicism. The entire Mass revolves around the recreation of the Last Supper, and the focal point of worship in Catholic ceremonies is an effigy of the executed Jesus. In the sense that he is not necessary to the theology of the religion.... maybe. I don't think you can discuss the message of salvation without mentioning Jesus.

The problem with attempting a fusion of Odinist and Christian belief is that they are fundamentally contradictory on the matter of human nature. Christians believe (or ought to, if they are truly Christians) believe that humanity is fundamentally flawed, so flawed that no human being is capable of communion with God on his or her own. Odinists are far more naturalistic- humanity never fell from grace, our nature is completely, well, natural. There can be no Christ figure in Odinism because there is no Original Sin to be forgiven.

I would go with Baldr as the Jesus-figure. The Odinists already believe that he has died and will return as king of the gods in the new world after Ragnarok.

-Sean

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