Category: Michael D
A Cardinal’s Take on Church
Unlike our obsession with “new” or “next generation” technologies when it comes to Christianity “new” or “next generation” rarely has many early adopters or early adapters, nor is something “new” or “next generation” ever acceptable without its embrace of orthodox theology. The Emergent movement, the concert worship experience, the mega-church mall, and video screens in the sanctuary are next generation technologies dispensing the old, old, orthodox story about sacrificial atonement, the death of one man to save the know world and the world to come, from an angry, but loving, deity. I’m a skeptic about Emergent Christianity and Church, because the more I learn about it the less I see theological evolution. Rather, it is a different delivery system for orthodox Christianity through a different social lens. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini served as the Archbishop of Milan and two weeks ago he gave an interview to the Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily, where he noted the “Church was 200 years out of date.” As one about to, in the words of one Disciple minister I know, “claim the promises of his baptism,” Cardinal Martini did not fear the reprisals of his Church and spoke with clarity about what his expression of Christian faith had done to Christianity and to those that profess faith. Cardinal Martini, it seems to me, poses two questions for mainline Protestantism to digest. First, what have we embraced, passively blessed, and where has the Church been co-opted by culture that has “undermined its status as a moral arbiter?” Second, which of the Church’s rituals and theology on which the rituals are based is “200 years out of date?” In the Cardinal’s words, “Why don’t we rouse ourselves? Are we afraid?”
You can find the Corriere della Sera via web search and if you don’t read Italian, I don’t, the Google translation will give you a taste of the Cardinal’s interview. I found the article about Cardinal Martini on Huffington Post’s Religion section. Here is a paragraph or two. click the title to read more.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, In final Interview Before Death Says Church ‘200 Years Out Of Date’
Reuters | Sept 1, 2012.“Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our rituals and our cassocks are pompous,” Martini said in the interview published in Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
“The Church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the pope and the bishops. The paedophilia scandals oblige us to take a journey of transformation,” he said in the interview.
Neil Armstrong
I was five years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I have memories of standing in the backyard at our house in Garland, TX looking up at the moon through binoculars and telling my father, “I think I can see them.” I was away from the Internet and TV news media this weekend so I didn’t see the coverage of his death and the humility of his life. Apparently, the country missed it as well based on the reporting of the Washington Post via the Associate Press on Aug. 26. So, this morning I’ve been catching up and remembering his family and friends in my morning meditation. What saddens me is that Mr. Armstrong’s example of humility, his expression of gratitude for the teamwork at NASA, and his responsible citizenship after his 15 minutes of fame was lost as “News” outlets reported on the tropical storm and the impending GOP Convention. Information and news has become a “voyeuristic” business that promotes, creates, and profits from drama more often than reporting the news without bias or at least naming their bias. The FOX News channel is the best example of tabloid TV journalism passing for “news and opinion” journalism that pushes a white Christian-centric conservatism wedded to a capitalism that profits from division, soft racism, and has no problem with, “there will always be poor among you.”
From what I have read about the man, Mr. Armstrong, was not interested in the “celebrity” nature of his existence as one of the few human beings to exit earth’s gravity field, walk on the moon, and return earth safely. Government and private business worked to solve a problem, created technologies that did not exist, cooperated, compromised, and collaborated. One of the best TV series about this time in NASA’s history is HBO’s, “From the Earth to the Moon.” I trust they will bring it back as a tribute to Mr. Armstrong, the other astronauts, the scientists, engineers, and the technicians that made Armstrong’s small step and giant leap possible. That “NASA age” in our Nation’s history might be the last time, in my lifetime, that government functioned well enough to do a thing that no one thought was possible. If, government leaders today could take that example and apply that cooperation and collaboration to our economic crisis, poverty, or disease then people like Grover Norquist (watch his honesty on 60 Minutes) and those that want to manipulate government from the anonymity he offers them would cease to be relevant. Our economy would not trickle down it would bubble up. That’s the difference between Democrats, Republicans, Libertarian, and Independent candidates it seems to me. One set is comfortable with the “lottery winner” mentality of “reality TV” and game shows like “American Idol” because those support the “trickle down” model. The last great “bubble up” economic growth was decades ago after WWII when the “greatest generation” provided an example to people like Neil Armstrong about humility, service, civic responsibility, and what really makes America exceptional. Thank you Neil Armstrong and all the people at NASA.
And now an Aside.
This is the difference in the election for President this November. One candidate’s life has been about enriching himself, his family, and those close to him through every “legal,” not necessarily “moral,” means possible based on his inherited wealth. Government non-regulation and government subsidies or tax breaks have been useful in that process from time to time. The other candidate actually climbed the ladder of economic opportunity that echos across the globe as the American dream. One knows something about collaboration that helps bubble up the ideas that can solve problems or do a thing no one says can be done. That takes relationship, trust, and hope. It takes partners with diverging ideas that want to solve a problem. The other candidate knows how to maintain his status and the status of others like him. It is a choice election about the evolution of our Nation. We can either embrace the multi-ethnic, diversity rich collaboration of our National ideals that learns from the example of the work that Mr. Armstrong and NASA did decades ago or we can embrace the robber baron vision of the white aristocracy behind Rove, the Tea Party, Sen. McConnell, Limbaugh, and Norquist that have gone out of their way to, paraphrasing the Honorable Clarence Thomas(1), “perform a high tech lynching” of President Barrack Obama. The new “Obama 2016” film is the new version of the Sen. Kerry “swift boat” attack.
Note
1. I’m not a fan of Justice Clarence Thomas. I don’t dislike the man. I believe the allegations of Ms Hill about Justice Thomas. Read those quotes here on ThinkExist. But, his words ring true of what white “conservatives” have done and are doing to our President who is pulling the America toward being “post-racial.” I imagine they will do a similar thing to the first “Democrat” woman elected President.