tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11741855076440544332024-03-17T09:26:29.804-05:00ivy rosaryReflections from day to day(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-18156423480674817592024-03-16T17:02:00.000-05:002024-03-16T17:02:06.928-05:00The sparrow<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Not a sparrow falls to the ground
without your Father’s knowledge.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>What is a sparrow?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>It is a collection of atoms and molecules, a collection that
grew out of much smaller collections (sperm and egg) in parent sparrows. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>An infinitely aware God, which is what we say that God is,
would know not only when the sparrow falls to the ground, but would know the
location of every atom and molecule in a single sparrow’s body, both its
location now and where that atom or molecule came from, and where it will go
when it departs from the sparrow. Almost none of those atoms and molecules
would have stayed in the sparrow throughout the sparrow’s lifetime—the atoms
and molecules are continually coming and going. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>So what is the sparrow? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>The sparrow is certainly a physical object that can be seen
and touched. That relates the sparrow to organisms outside the sparrow. Those organisms
could include other sparrows, other animals that the sparrow eats and that eat
sparrows, and human beings who observe the sparrow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>One way to look at a single sparrow is to say a particular
sparrow is the history or story of how a particular set of atoms and molecules
combined for a brief period of time (the lifetime of the sparrow) to result in
the physical object that relates to all the beings in its lifeworld. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>From a course in ancient philosophy I recall that Aristotle
would say that the sparrow is a combination of matter (the “stuff” from which
everything in the world is made) and form (the pattern which the stuff takes to
make a particular individual object). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>What Aristotle called the “form” I call “the story.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>The word “form” suggests a pattern that is fixed in time and
basically unchanged. The word “story suggests a “diachronic” pattern which is
always changing and always unique. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>The sparrow is the story of one unique set of atoms and
molecules coming and going to form an observable animal for the brief period of
the animal’s lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>If God is truly infinite, God knows the story of every atom
and molecule in the universe, and the stories of the various ways those atoms
and molecules can clump together to form stars and planets and rocks, trees,
animals, and human<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>beings. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><b>The human being</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>The particular set of atoms and molecules that make up a
human being <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is unique in that it results
in the mysterious experience we call “consciousness.” It results in other
unique experiences, such as a sense of freedom, of love and other emotions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Each human being has a story beyond the story of its atoms
and molecules. Each human does things and experiences things in ways so unique
that authors can write thousand page novels about one human person. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>From my standpoint as a Christian, each human’s story can
include moments of praise and worship of the God responsible for that human’s
life and for everything else in that human’s lifeworld. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>The ability to freely and consciously honor God makes each
human and the human species in general unique in the natural world. It gives
each human being a dignity and value that is not shared by anything else in
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>We are part of the sparrow world, but we are more than the
sparrow. God knows each of us, and we can know God. God loves each of us, and
we can love God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-48481526825382382032024-03-12T16:31:00.003-05:002024-03-12T16:31:47.871-05:00Work<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Fr. Edward Lutz was the
“sub-rector” during my high school years in the seminary at Westmont, Illinois.
He was the friar most responsible for the day-to-day life of the students.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>One of Fr. Edward’s favorite
quotations was “Man is made to work as the bird is made to fly.” It turns out
that this is a faulty translation of a verse in the biblical book of Job, but
that doesn’t mean the idea is faulty. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Work is a necessity,
part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development
and personal fulfilment.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span><span> </span>That is a quotation from Pope Francis’s 2015
encyclical “<i>Laudato Si</i>,” but in that letter he references several of his
immediate predecessors: Benedict XVI, John Paul II, and Paul VI, all of whom
had things to say about work. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span><span> </span>Work is any activity I do that someone else
depends on. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>In my father’s declining years, he
was able, once a week, to drive his older sister to the grocery store. That was
about the only thing that someone outside his family depended on him for. That
was work for him. It helped him maintain a sense of dignity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>In some of the Franciscan
communities in which I have lived, one of the brothers had the job title of
“refectorian.” The refectory was the traditional name for the dining room, and
the refectorian set the tables in the dining room. It was not a time-consuming
job—it took perhaps a half hour, when the community had several dozen members.
But it was work. It wasn’t paid work, but it was enough to provide dignity to
the brother who held the position. Fr. Irenaeus Kimminau, now almost 103 years
old, was still setting the tables for the six members in our community until he
had to move to assisted living a year ago. After the meal he would pick up the
cloth napkins and take them to the laundry room. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Pope Francis again:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We were created with a
vocation to work. The goal should not be that technological progress
increasingly replace human work, for this would be detrimental to humanity.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span><span> </span>The problem is that in the way we do capitalism
in this country, any activity that other people need has to be tied to money,
or nobody can do it. That leaves many people with no way to contribute to the
community, and with the loss of dignity that goes with that inability. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span><span> </span>Free-market enthusiasts would have us believe
that everyone can be employed if they really want to. If they don’t want to,
then they should starve.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Yet the orientation of
the economy has favored a kind of technological progress in which the costs of
production are reduced by laying off workers and replacing them with machines.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Very true. It happened with my
grandfather, who arrived in America with the job title of “cooper”—maker of
barrels. The machine caught up with him. It drove him to spend his later years
as a janitor and, I suspect, an alcoholic. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Today the machine gets at our young
people before they ever enter the work force. They know that, regardless of
their personal gifts and dreams, they had better enroll in courses that are
most likely to survive the machine or they will never be able to have a family.
Teachers who can provide them with anything beside marketable skills are driven
out of employment. We are left with nothing but trade schools. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>No wonder our Catholic schools seem
to do a poor job of helping young people develop a vibrant faith life. What
good is knowledge of God or God’s will on a job application?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>No wonder that Quincy University,
where I have spent the last fifty years of my life, can no longer afford to
support solid programs in philosophy or theology.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Or, for that matter, in literature
or history or foreign languages.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The loss of jobs also
has a negative impact on the economy ‘<i>through the progressive erosion of
social capital: the network of relationships of trust, dependability, and
respect for rules, all of which are indispensable for any form of civil
coexistence.’”<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span><span> </span>Here Francis is quoting his predecessor, Pope
Benedict, from Benedict’s letter “<i>Caritas in Veritate.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>We need societies that allow men
and women, of all ages, to contribute to the common good, whether or not their
contribution can be marketized into a paid position. That means that the
community as a whole needs to support people whose contributions are not
immediately monetarized. That requires higher taxes, but raising taxes is
heresy in our culture. The reason that it is heresy is that we believe the
dogma that unless people are threatened with starvation, they will not work. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Perhaps people who fear that
everyone else is a potential free-loader are projecting their own fears onto
everyone else. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>For several centuries of European
history, ordinary people could live lives of dignity and relative security and
still enjoy periods of leisure. Even today, many European countries combine
capitalist enterprise with government support for people and services that
allow leisure and security—vacations and medical care. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Most people want to contribute to
the common good. Few people are free-loaders. The problem is what so many of us
can contribute cannot be rewarded enough for us to live on. We have gifts that
no one will pay for.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span> </span><span> </span>Our customs and laws and tax
policies should allow all of us to live with dignity, security, and leisure.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-2204728097956636062024-02-24T09:53:00.000-06:002024-02-24T09:53:30.506-06:00Hubris in the Democratic party<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Who are the people
supporting Donald Trump for a second term as president?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Theory Number One,
which I have tended to accept, is that they are people who have been left
behind in today’s culture, a culture that has turned a useful human invention,
the market, into a demonic force. The divinized market has been immensely
successful in allocating to itself an unfair share of the products of labor,
and in the process has robbed a growing segment of the population of resources
needed for a life of dignity and reasonable security. Theory Number One is that
this latter segment, the “left behind” folks, the rust-belt casualties residing
in mid-America, is rebelling against the system that is robbing them. Trump is
their hero because Trump will blow up the system.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Theory Number Two
is that there is another segment of our society that is not at all a casualty
of the system. This segment is not disadvantaged. It is people who have done
everything right—are blessed with stable marriages, are members of a faith
community, have a decent education and a job that provides a dignified
living—these people are also leaning towards Mr. Trump. Many of these people—most
of the ones I know are Catholic—are speaking favorably about Mr. Trump for a
different reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">People of faith
accept as true the statement that human affairs are not totally under human
control. There is something beyond human capability that needs to be taken
account of, especially as we face unprecedented environmental disasters. People
of faith take a higher power seriously. People of faith take God seriously.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Theory Number Two says
that people of faith look favorably at Mr. Trump because his Democratic
opponents look down on people of faith, mostly by ignoring them. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">The Democratic
leadership, and probably a lot of what middle America calls the “coasts,”
suffer from a disability that keeps them from appreciating how most people in
the world see the world. The sense that we are all responsible to some kind of
“higher power” is common to men and women with religious roots in every part of
the world. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">The theory labeled
“secularization” says that as a society becomes more industrialized or
“modernized,” religious faith disappears. But as Ryan Burge asks, from his
study of survey data about religion, why is it that the poor in our country are
the least churched and most secularized among us? And that it is people who
have done everything right, “checked all the boxes,” that are more likely to be
members of a religious community?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Shaun Casey was
appointed to a post in the Obama State Department, a post charged with making
government officials aware of how religion can affect political behavior around
the world. Mr. Casey, in his book <i>Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom</i>,
quotes Madeleine Albright, in a book she published five years after her term as
Secretary of State in the Clinton administration, a book titled <i>The Mighty
and the Almighty</i>, regarding the role of religion in political affairs: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Drawing on her
experience, she noted that while religion had played important roles in varied
locations, including Vietnam, the Balkans, Iran, Poland, Uganda, Lebanon,
Israel and Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the State Department in her tenure
had no experts for her to draw on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Secularization
theory has not fared well in explaining and predicting trends in modern
history. A theory more accurately telling the story of modernity might be
called “hubris theory.” As people become politically and economically
successful, they move in circles that reward success, both real and imagined.
They feel less responsibility to anything or anyone beyond themselves—they are
self-made men and women. It is that attitude, “we can solve any problem,” that
religions challenge. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Hubris causes
people to think that they are the wave of the future, that the important people
are all like them, that their opinions are self-evident. They do not realize
that their world is limited in space and time. Not everyone is as self-made as
they are. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">It is that
attitude that is infecting the Democratic leadership. They are discarding
important segments of the voting public, segments that accept the idea that
there is something or someone beyond themselves to which they are responsible.
When those segments feel disenfranchised, they react by throwing bombs—casting
their vote for Mr. Trump. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Some observers
claim that the Catholic vote will be critical in November’s election. Many
Catholics I know are turned off by the confident secularity of Democratic
leaders, especially by their full-throated acceptance of abortion. They are
influenced by an American Catholic hierarchy that has been cultivated too
successfully by Republican leadership. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Abortion is evil.
The term “pro-choice” used to mean that a decision about abortion should be
made by the woman carrying a child, with or without the support of a physician.
A Catholic can accept that as a morally legitimate position, because not all
moral evils should be dealt with by governments and their laws. Democratic
strategists have discarded choice and replaced it with a claim that abortion is
a positive good. That is something that many Catholics see as morally
repugnant. It enough to turn them into Trump supporters. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">The Catholic vote
is not the only such vote, though it is the largest in numbers. There is a huge
ex-Catholic population that may be as religious as the Catholic faithful who
are still committed to the church, and those two populations, ex-Catholic and
Catholic, make up a significant voting bloc, more significant even than
evangelical voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Democrats should not
discard this important group that traditionally voted Democratic, and includes
a growing Hispanic segment that, Catholic or ex-Catholic, takes the existence
of God seriously.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Christians should
not seek to control, but they do wish to be respected and taken seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few things anger human beings more powerfully
than when people disrespect them. <o:p></o:p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-25824273728650052112024-02-21T11:54:00.000-06:002024-02-21T11:54:28.349-06:00A revised rosary<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">We call them “mysteries” of the
rosary. I’d rename them “stories.” They are stories about the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I have grown up with three sets of
five stories each: the joyful stories, the sorrowful stories, and the glorious
stories. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The idea seems to be that you should
think about those stories as you vocalize the prayers, one Our Father and ten
Hail Marys for each story. I grew up thinking that the idea was to forget about
the words of the prayers and just think about the stories. I discovered later
in life that there is merit to thinking about the prayers and let the stories
sort of float in the background. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I had one problem with the traditional
three sets—they skip over all the events of what we call the “public life” of
Jesus, the things he did as an adult in the years before he died. So I invented
what I call the “public” mysteries or stories. Here are the five I created:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">1. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">2. The devil tempts Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">3. Jesus eats with sinners.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">4. Jesus heals people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">5. Jesus teaches people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Before I explain further why I chose
those five, I should tell you that Pope John Paul II had the same idea, only I
invented mine before he made his public. His five are: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">1. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">2. Jesus turns water into wine at
Cana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">3. Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">4. Jesus appears to his apostles
transfigured.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">5. Jesus institutes the Eucharist at
the Last Supper.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Why
my five<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Both John Paul and I chose the baptism
of Jesus as the first story for reflection as we pray the rosary. It was a
crucial event in Jesus’s life, with the voice of the Father and the Spirit
appearing as a dove. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The temptations described in three of
the gospels are surely a literary way of saying that Jesus continually faced
three paths that would divert him from his mission. The first was to seek his
own well-being (by avoiding hunger); the second was to focus on fame (through a
dramatic descent from the height of the temple pinnacle); and the third was to
bring about the kingdom through political power. That Jesus was tempted is a
very important way in which he was “like us in all things except sin.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus’s eating with sinners was an
important way in which he broke with people’s expectations. The Pharisees more
than once complained about the way he ignored ritual rules about eating, and
especially rules about eating with the wrong people. Table fellowship cements
social friendships—look at how seldom interracial contact at work results in
dinner invitations. The scripture scholar Robert Karris, who focused on the
gospel of Luke during his career, said “Jesus was crucified because of the way
he ate.” Karris meant that he was crucified because of who he ate with. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Surely Jesus’s healing was a
significant part of his life in Galilee and Judea. “People kept coming to him,”
says the gospel of Matthew, “bringing to him all those who were <span style="background: white; color: #363936;">sick with various diseases and racked
with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured
them.</span>”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">And finally, Jesus taught, especially
through his parables about the kingdom of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Mystery
revisions<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I was fifteen years old when Pope Pius
XII declared that Mary’s being taken up body and soul into heaven was a dogma
of faith. At the time he said that her “assumption into heaven” was a reminder
of a doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed, "the resurrection of the body."
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The idea that we are to be resurrected
in both soul and body led to much reflection on my part about the significance
of the physical in our lives and deaths. So I replaced the term “assumption”
with the phrase “resurrection of the body” for the fourth glorious mystery. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">That was my first revision. Then my
revisionism picked up steam. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The fifth glorious mystery or story,
that Mary is crowned queen of heaven and earth, bothered me. First of all,
there is no scriptural basis for this story. There is no scriptural basis for
the story of Mary’s assumption either, but at least there is a more credible
tradition of belief down through the centuries for that idea. Second, I have an
American negative reaction to kings and queens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">So my first revision was to replace
the coronation with the phrase “life everlasting,” based, like the
“resurrection of the body,” on the last phrases of the Apostles’ Creed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The Apostles’ Creed got me to think
about re-doing the last three glorious mysteries or stories as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Third glorious mystery: The Holy
Spirit comes to the apostles at Pentecost, forming the holy Catholic church. (“I
believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church . . .”)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Fourth glorious mystery: the communion
of saints, and the forgiveness of sins. (“. . . the communion of saints, the
forgiveness of sins . . .”)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Fifth mystery: the resurrection of the
body and life everlasting. (“. . .the resurrection of the body, and life
everlasting.”)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The
mysteries as doublets<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Those last three glorious mysteries
suggested ways of thinking about all the mysteries as doublets, two events
each. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">First glorious mystery: Jesus rises
from the dead and appears to Mary Magdalene and others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Second glorious mystery: Jesus
commissions his followers to make disciples of all nations (the “Great
Commission”) and ascends into heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<b>The Joyful Mysteries<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">1. The Angel Gabriel appears to
Zachary, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and to Mary<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">2. After Mary visits Elizabeth, she
prays her “Magnificat,” and Zachary prays his “Benedictus.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">3. Mary and Joseph cannot find
lodging; Jesus is born in a stable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">4. The family is visited by shepherds;
the family visits Simeon and Anna in the temple.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">5. Magi visit Jesus; the teachers in
the temple marvel at his wisdom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The fourth mystery or story shows
Jesus being acknowledged by less important people (shepherds and Simeon and
Anna—Luke’s gospel does not say that Simeon was a priest). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The fifth mystery shows Jesus being
acknowledged by important people: magi and teachers in the temple. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The
public mysteries<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">1. Jesus gets in line with sinners for
baptism; the Father and Spirit publicly acknowledge him as “beloved son.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">2. Jesus fasts; Jesus is tempted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">3. Jesus eats with ordinary tax
collectors like Matthew; and with rich ones like Zacheus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">4. Jesus heals physical maladies; and
possession by demons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">5. Jesus teaches using parables; and feeds
thousands after his teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The
sorrowful mysteries<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">1. Jesus eats with his followers at
the last supper , he suffers agony in the garden of Gethsemane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">2. Jesus is condemned to death by the Sanhedrin;
and condemned by Pontius Pilate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">3. Jesus is spit upon; and crowned
with thorns.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">4. Jesus takes up the cross; and falls
on the way to Calvary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">5. Jesus is nailed to the cross; and
dies on it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">This revision of rosary mysteries is a
work in progress. Most of the ideas have been road-tested, but I composed a
few, especially the sorrowful ones, as I was writing this piece. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Anyone can change things about a
private prayer like the rosary, in whatever way they find spiritually fruitful.
Of course, when we pray together, any changes are a distraction for other
people, and we shouldn't impose our innovations on them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The spirit of prayerful adventure that
allowed me to manhandle the rosary is something I got from Fr. Martin Wolter, a
friar who invented a whole batch of ways to make prayer more meaningful for
people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A rule that I find useful for any
prayer form, liturgical or otherwise, is one that I modify from the
psychologist Erik Erikson. He was describing interactions between a mother and
her infant, but the description fits prayer very well. His advice, modified for
prayer: <b>Prayer forms should be familiar enough that they don’t distract, and
innovative enough that they’re not boring.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-86105468668467180382024-02-19T11:03:00.000-06:002024-02-19T11:03:06.949-06:00How free am I?<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">What does it mean
to be free?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">My Franciscan
educators, back in the 1950s and 60s, contrasted their philosophy with the
philosophy promoted by most of the rest of the Catholic academic world,
philosophy shaped by Thomas Aquinas. Our Franciscan heroes were John Duns
Scotus and William of Ockham. Those writers stressed freedom as an essential
characteristic of the human condition. Through three years of study of that
Franciscan version of Neo-Scholasticism, I came away with a sense of the beauty
and wonder of freedom. But that freedom did not mean I could do anything I
wanted to do. Freedom meant that I could do loving things and know that I was
doing them freely because I wanted to do them. Nobody was forcing me to do
them. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">That became the
basis of my thinking of love as a gift. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">When I love
someone, when I deliberately choose to treat that person with respect, with
vulnerability, and with faithfulness, my love is a gift to that person. I don’t
have to give it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">A gift implies
freedom. A gift does not have to be given. A gift cannot be bought and sold. We
have the wonderful custom that we do not allow price tags to be attached to a
gift. Cutting off the price tag removes
the gift from the realm of measurement and strict reciprocity. It is true that
a gift creates an expectation of a return gift, but the return cannot be in
exact dollars and cents. It need not be immediate—the expectation can lie
dormant for months and even years. “I owe you one” is a statement of solidarity
between two people, not a statement of dependence. When the person receiving
the gift feels oppressed by the dependence that a gift can create, the gift has
gone off the rails. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">In our Franciscan
vision, everything is in some sense a gift from God. God did not have to give
me life. I do not have to return that gift. When I do actions that I see as a
return on the gift of life to me, I am acting freely. I do not have to do that.
I do it because I want to. That gives me an intense dignity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Every one of us
has that kind of freedom, the freedom to respond to God’s gifts of life and
love. From the earliest moments when a child is conscious of self, a child can
give freely to God. That is one basis of the dignity of every child. Every
child should know that they have that wonderful freedom and power—they can love
God freely, just because they want to. My limited experience of children with
disabilities tells me that even a child with serious mental disability is able
to freely respond to love from others and from God. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">How free am I?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">In some ways, the
story of my life can be seen as a story of “limited” possibilities. My family
of origin had many limits, economic and psychological. When I decided in sixth
grade that I wanted to be a Franciscan priest, was I free? The educational program
that structured my joining the Franciscans took fourteen years. At any point
during the first ten of those years I was free to walk away from the program.
Then, at the end of ten years, I made a promise to “live the gospel” for the
rest of my life. Was I free to do that? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">There were factors
that surely played into my decisions. In grade school I was generally not well
accepted by my peers, mostly because I was fat and had almost no athletic
skills. I looked forward to living in the seminary where I would not have to
play softball. I was seriously mistaken, because the high school seminary
program required every one of us to take part in every sport: softball and
touch football in the fall, basketball and bowling in the winter, and baseball
(“hard ball”) in the spring. We could ice skate when the seminary pond froze. I
was good at none of those things. Why did I stay? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Surely I was
rewarded in grade school by some of the Franciscan sisters who taught me. I got
good grades, and was obedient. I do not recall comparable rewards at any later
point in my seminary career, though certain teachers quietly recognized that I
had certain abilities that other young men did not have. Was I free all along
those years to continue pursuing the goal of living as both Franciscan and
priest? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">In some sense, I
felt that I had to make that choice. I didn’t know why. Nobody was forcing me.
Neither of my parents put any pressure on me. Even weeks before my ordination,
my mother was saying “<b>If</b> you should be ordained . . .” Was I free?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">I have concluded
that freedom is a story that I tell about myself. I can tell the story that I
was pressured to do something, and I can tell the opposite story that I did it
freely and without pressure. When I tell my story as a story of freely doing
things, I feel calm and joyful. I refuse to tell my story as a story that says
I did something because someone else made me do it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">So maybe freedom
is simply a choice between versions of the stories of my life. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Some people seem
to go through life telling the story that they have no choice about important
things in their lives. Are they mistaken? Is the story that they have no choice
a demon from which only someone else can free them? Is the story that I have
been free to make the important decisions in my life an angel? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">The language of
angels and demons reminds us that there are stories we tell about ourselves
that are put on us somehow by others, and that those others can make our lives
joyful or painful. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">My Christian faith
says that God wants every human person to tell their life story as a story of
freedom and love, and that every one of us is called to try to free others if a
demon of powerlessness seems to have taken over their story. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">Maybe any one of
us can be an exorcist, but we can’t practice exorcism without support from a
loving God.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="text-align: left;">O</span></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-22882331086163324322024-02-10T09:48:00.003-06:002024-02-10T10:06:30.244-06:00The tree of knowledge of good and evil<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">March
20, 2014</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.25in;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">One of the readings for the first Sunday of
Lent describes Eve and Adam’s eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil, the basis for the doctrine of original sin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Most people take such a story as a descriptions
of an actual physical event. It is only in recent decades that we have become
more aware of how symbols and metaphors function in human understanding. In
some ways every statement we humans make is based on symbol and metaphor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Take, for example, our description of the
ultimate particles that make up the atoms of our universe. Scientists describe
these “particles” as either waves or packets. The very term “particles” is
metaphorical. It makes us imagine something like a grain of sand. A “wave”
makes us think of bodies of water whose surfaces are moved by the wind. A
“packet” suggests something that you would put into the mail.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">In fact, scientists cannot reconcile the fact
that this elementary particle sometimes behaves like a wave and sometimes like
a particle, so they use both metaphors. They cannot avoid using metaphors to
speak about what they are studying. Every scientific description is based on
metaphors, and every scientific explanation is a story, a “fictional”
description of what we think is happening.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Example: “Cholera” is a disease that used to
devastate cities (for example, Memphis in 1878). It reappears in conditions
where sanitation is not provided, as in refugee camps. What causes the disease
of cholera?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Scientists will talk about a “microbe,” which
is a tiny living organism. All of those words, “tiny,” “living,” and “organism”
are metaphors, based on experiences from our everyday lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Then scientists tell a story. The microbes
live in water that has been polluted by sewage. When a person drinks that water,
the microbe is transferred to the blood stream of the person, and the person
gets sick.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">This is a fictional construction, a story. The
actual event is far more complex. The microbe can be described in far greater
detail, nowadays down to the level of its genetic composition. So can human
blood be described in far greater detail, and how microbes “behave” in human
blood.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Back to Adam and Eve</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Church accepts the theory (story) that the
authors of the books of Scripture were human beings who were writing under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit. They were not providing scientific descriptions of
events, or perhaps more accurately, they were not providing descriptions any
more detailed than the everyday “scientific” theories of their time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">The traditional story developed from that
original story is enshrined in later Scripture, for example, in St. Paul’s
letter to the Romans. Adam and Eve “sinned” (a metaphor). They “disobeyed” God
(another metaphor). This use of metaphor results in a story where God is like a
human parent who gives orders to a child. When the child “disobeys,” the parent
punishes the child. “Satan” tempted Eve.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Here is another way to read the story. God
(the term is metaphorical, so metaphorical that Jewish custom forbade even
pronouncing the Name) created humans and knew that they would be tempted to
push the boundaries of any situation. The “tree of the knowledge of good and
evil” is a metaphor for human thinking and theorizing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Applying this to our present human condition,
I use two examples.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Nuclear fission. We have learned that by
“splitting” the atom we can release immense amounts of energy. That knowledge
(of good and evil) can free us from the problem of providing energy, or it can
destroy our world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Genetic engineering. We have learned that we
can manipulate the genetic code that underlies all living cells. That knowledge
of good and evil can provide cures for terrible diseases as well as genetic
disaster for the whole human race.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">God knew when God created us that we would not
be able to resist pushing the boundaries. What happens when we push the
boundaries?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">We get hurt. Adam and Eve got hurt. They had
to leave paradise (a metaphor). The inventor of dynamite thought that he was
providing something that would end wars. The exact opposite happened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">God did not “punish” Adam and Eve. God created
unfinished creatures, who would push the boundaries, get hurt, and have the
possibility of living more fully as a result.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Admittedly this interpretation of the story is
not compatible with Paul’s interpretation of it in Romans. But we can live with
competing stories, just as scientists live with the competing stories about
particles as waves and as packets. We can read the Adam and Eve story the way
Paul read it, or we can read it as I just re-told it. My way of re-telling it
seems more compatible with the kind of God that Jesus described as “the
Father,” a God passionately “in love” with each human being.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Aside: the Adam and Eve story makes no mention
of “Satan” or “the devil.” It is the “serpent” who tempts them. It is only
later writers, like Paul, who identify the serpent with Satan.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Our problem is that, down through the ages, we
humans have been too ready to translate our stories into descriptions of actual
physical facts, “scientific” facts. We have not appreciated how stories
function in</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">human behavior.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .25in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-58052965763360123962024-02-10T09:23:00.000-06:002024-02-10T09:23:29.753-06:00"Any support you might have had . . ."<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">April
1, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[This
was published as a letter to the Quincy Herald-Whig around April 2015. I had
footnoted the word “qorban” but the editors omitted the reference, which must
have made that word meaningless to most readers.]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">You shall love your neighbor as yourself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Who is my neighbor?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">A man who fell among robbers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In our town, Quincy, there are people who have fallen among
robbers. We are told that food pantries are in greater demand than in times
past. People who had jobs have lost those jobs. We are told that successful
politicians will provide jobs, while at the same time we are told that
politicians should not provide jobs, private enterprise should.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Young people who want to "contribute to society"
find that society does not make contributing easy. They are told that they
should do well in school. But it is hard to do well in school when you do not
eat breakfast. It is hard to eat breakfast when one of your parents is in
prison and the other one is working three jobs and is at work when you should
eat breakfast. It's hard not to be in prison when the color of your skin makes
people suspect you of bad intentions when you walk down the street. If people treat
you like a criminal, why not just be a criminal and prove them right?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The man who fell among robbers should have been more careful.
He should not have been traveling alone. It was his own fault that he got
robbed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">When people are poor, it's their own fault. They don't work
hard enough.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Any support you might have had from me is qorban* [Mark 7:11].
Any support you might have had from me will be taken care of by the invisible
hand. But it takes patience. The invisible hand is slow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The invisible hand might move faster if the government would
give it a boost, but that would mean raising taxes. The Third Great Commandment
is: do not raise taxes. Under no conditions should you raise taxes. Everyone
needs every penny they earn, no matter how many pennies they earn. Don't touch
my pennies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We love our neighbors as ourselves. We contribute to the Good
News of Christmas. That should be enough. We pass by on the other side because
we work hard, and that poor man should have been more careful. We are in a
hurry. If we don't hurry, the invisible hand will punish us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We love our neighbors as ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*(Mark 7:11)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-32963914555922242512024-02-10T08:53:00.000-06:002024-02-10T08:53:06.485-06:00When a pope apologizes<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">April 16, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Every
time I pass a certain house on Lind Street in Quincy, I think of the time when
a group of students living there were arrested for throwing a dog off the
bridge into the Mississippi River at Quincy. They were drunk, which of course
was no excuse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But
then I think of a story my father told, more than once. When he was young,
probably around 1915, he used to “fire boilers” at the Dominican Sisters’
convent in Springfield, Illinois. A sister there befriended stray cats. The
cats became a nuisance. So my dad would shoot the cats and throw the corpses
into the boiler. Telling the story years later, he would end by laughingly
quoting the sister, “I can’t imagine what is becoming of my cats.” He was proud
of his ingenuity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Our
sense of what is morally acceptable changes. One generation sees no problem
with shooting cats (or drowning them in a sack, which was another common
custom). A later generation arrests you for doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> There
are far more serious changes in history. For centuries, church authorities,
both Catholic and Protestant, regarded charging interest on loans as immoral
(the practice was called “usury”). For centuries, Catholic church leaders
defended the institution of slavery as morally acceptable. After all, didn’t
the apostle Paul write a letter to Philemon telling him to take back a runaway
slave? Paul didn’t question the institution of slavery itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> A
Latin quotation from my seminary days comes to mind (courses were taught in
Latin back then): <i>“In processione generationis humanae, semper crescit
notitia veritatis.”</i> “In the course of human history, the knowledge of truth
continually expands.” The quotation is from the Franciscan theologian John Duns
Scotus. It would be hard to find a stronger affirmation of what might be called
“evolution” in human thought.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Catholic
theology is in a bind again, just as it was in the days when it had trouble
with usury and slavery. Today it is dogma about contraception, stem cell
research, and homosexual behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Today
the bind is worse. Before 1871, the evolution of Church teaching was accepted.
Change was usually controversial, especially when politics or economics were
involved (as it was both regarding usury and slavery), but the change
eventually came about. But in 1871 the First Vatican Council declared that the
pope is infallible when he speaks <i>ex cathedra</i> on issues of faith and
morals. That locked the Catholic Church into a position as untenable as the
ancient custom of the Persians, who, according to the biblical book of Esther,
regarded any decree of the king as unchangeable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The
position didn’t look untenable when the Council bishops passed it, though two
American bishops left the Council rather than vote in favor of it. (One of the
bishops was from Little Rock, Arkansas. The joke was “the Little Rock met the
Big Rock.”) Probably the other bishops regarded the move as a gracious gesture
of support for the aging Pius IX, who was in the middle of the trauma of losing
control of the Papal States. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Statements
<i>ex cathedra </i>(“from the chair”) are so rare that there have been only two
since 1800: the declarations by Pius IX and Pius XII regarding Mary’s
immaculate conception and assumption into heaven. The problem is that Roman
authorities have not been able to resist the temptation to throw the cloak of
infallibility over everything else that they put into the mouth of the pope. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Pope
John Paul II seems to have done everything in his power to undercut the concept
of infallibility. The author Luigi Accattoli, in his book <i>When a Pope Asks
Forgiveness: The Mea Culpa's of John Paul II</i>, counted, as of 1998, 94 times
when John Paul apologized for something one of his predecessors did. The
condemnation of Galileo was the most famous case. Yet John Paul II never took
the implied step of saying that the doctrine of infallibility is untenable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Catholic
moral practice, in the U.S. at least, is moving inexorably away from the
official positions of the papacy. Judging from the birth rate among Catholics,
the practice of contraception is not seen as immoral. A small group of
conservative Catholics use this as an example of how the Church has sold out to
secularism and modernity, but I know all kinds of adult Catholics who take
their faith very seriously, make great sacrifices to make their faith real in
their everyday lives, but never talk about contraception. Neither do most
priests. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Homosexual
behavior, stem cell research, and artificial nutrition and hydration are issues
where Catholic doctrine is slowly losing credibility. This is sad, because a
Catholic sensibility has much to say about those issues. Instead, we are asked
to keep silent about the ideas and go to war about the politics. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> There
is a fine line between “selling out to secularism” and “dialogue with the
culture.” We Catholics cannot ignore that line. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p> </p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-51924441089562058502024-02-10T08:29:00.001-06:002024-02-10T08:29:10.488-06:00A Glossary for Nonviolent Prophets<p><br /></p><p>written on September 4, 2008</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Aggression is the intent to hurt someone.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Violence is the intent to hurt someone physically.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Nonviolence is the strategy of being prophetic without intending to hurt anyone.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Prophecy is trying to change something that other people do not want changed. Prophecy leads to conflict.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Conflict is when one person takes a stand and another person takes an opposing stand.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Conflict does not need to be aggressive. Conflict is part of healthy involvement with others. The goal of conflict is to create change that will benefit both parties. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>The prophetic person takes a stand for change that she judges necessary for her own well-being. The person being challenged to change will benefit if the challenger can live more fully, because when one person suffers, all people suffer.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Rosa Parks was a prophet. She judged that a change in the rules for riding buses was necessary for her own well-being. She took a stand by refusing to move to the back of the bus. The people who made the rules took the opposing stand. The result was that Rosa Parks was arrested and charged with violating the law. She continued to take her stand and was joined by others. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Rosa Parks was not just a woman who got fed up with a situation. She was part of an organization that was studying the tactics of nonviolent resistance with the goal of changing the racial situation in her community. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>When Rosa Parks was arrested, this gave her nonviolent fellow prophets the occasion to take a public stand against the rules about riding buses. Throughout the struggle, the goal of the protestors was not to hurt the city officials and those who defended them. The goal was to change the rules. The hope of nonviolent protest is that the people opposing the protestors will come to see the justice of the protest and accept the change demanded. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Nonviolent protest often provokes violence against the protestors. That is the price of nonviolent prophecy. The prophet who suffers violence does not return violence with violence, because the intent to hurt another person is always counter-productive. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>It is very hard to maintain a stance of nonviolence. The urge to strike back when you are hurt is very strong. Many, and maybe most, nonviolent movements eventually become co-opted by people who become impatient with the refusal to hurt in return. That is the story of the protest started by Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King was overtaken by Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X, who shaped the later history of the civil rights movement. It is the story of nonviolent movements in Palestine, in Kosovo, and in Chechnya, to name some more recent conflicts. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Anger is a feeling.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>A feeling is a form of passion. The word “passion” comes from the same word as the word “passive,” which means that one is not in control. Feeling means that you are not in control of the hormonal physiology of your body. Feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are. Anger is neither right or wrong, it just is. You don’t control it. You control your behavior when you are angry, but you don’t control the anger.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>When someone is hurting you intentionally, the natural reaction is anger. The nonviolent protestor does not react by trying to hurt the person causing the pain. The protestor can share the feeling—she can let the opponent know very clearly how she feels about being hurt, but she does not lash out intending to hurt the opponent. She uses “I” statements—“I feel hurt, I feel like a child who has just been kicked by another person.” </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Anger is in itself not bad or counter-productive. It can be a powerful aid in staying motivated to change a situation. What is bad and counter-productive is to try to hurt the person you are angry at. The behavior needs to be controlled, not the emotion. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Example of violent protest. You tell me I cannot do something. I react by calling you a slut, or a bastard. Words like “slut” or “bastard” are aggressive words. Their intent is to cause hurt, and they succeed. If words do not seem to be enough, I throw something at you, or I strike you. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>The more I try to hurt you, the stronger my anger becomes, and the situation escalates. This is what it means when you say that I am “out of control.” </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Example of nonviolent protest. You tell me I cannot do something (for example, ride in the front of the bus). I react by refusing to go to the back of the bus. I am not trying to hurt you. I am taking a stand for what I think is right. You react by trying to hurt me. I refuse to try to hurt you back. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Nonviolence as a political strategy requires the involvement of many other people. Rosa Parks’s protest succeeded because thousands of others in Montgomery joined her by refusing to ride buses. Eventually the cost of the protest became so great for the defenders of the status quo that those defenders gave in and changed the rules. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Changing the rules was painful for the officials of Montgomery, but the goal of the protestors was not to cause the pain. The goal was to change the rules. There is pain on both sides of a nonviolent conflict. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>The nonviolent protestor can use several theories to explain the strategy of nonviolence. One theory is that nonviolence leads to redemption. This is the story of Jesus. Another is that nonviolence leads to political change. This is the story of Gandhi. Martin Luther King appealed to both theories. He sought political change and spiritual redemption, for the good of the protestors and for the good of their opponents. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>An opponent is someone against whom you are taking a stand. An enemy is someone you want to hurt. Nonviolence uses the term “opponent” rather than the term “enemy,” because the protestor hopes that at some point the opponent will become a friend. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Nonviolence is not non-resistance. The nonviolent protestor resists but does not try to hurt. Resistance can provoke violent reactions, and in fact usually does so. It is striking how violently political officials attack nonviolent protestors. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>The Dalai Lama is trying to hold to a strategy of nonviolence, but Chinese officials react by accusing him of fomenting violence. This is the same reaction Dr. King faced. It seems that violent reactions are so ingrained in human cultures that any resistance is interpreted as aggressive, and is therefore met with violence.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>“Respect” is a key concept in conflict situations. Many conflicts escalate because one party does not “show respect” for the other.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>To show respect is to use rituals of deference. Examples of rituals of deference: paying attention when you speak, not interrupting you, bowing, rising when you enter the room, shaking hands, smiling. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Examples of rituals of non-deference: ignoring you, staring at you, refusing to answer when you speak, calling you a name.</p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Violence is the height of disrespect. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>The nonviolent protestor continues to use rituals of deference towards her opponent. The prophet respects the opponent. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>To tell someone, even a child, that she is not allowed to speak is disrespectful. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>A child should be taught to behave respectfully. There are rituals of deference that children should pay to parents, but keeping silent is not one of those rituals. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Parents need to be respectful to children. I think one ritual of deference that an adult owes to a child is to listen to the child. </p><p><br /></p><p><span> </span><span> </span>Young people should be taught to engage in nonviolent conflict. Their anger can be beneficial, if it does not lead to aggressive attempts to hurt others. School officials need to experience that anger. We adults want to back up the children in their struggle to see changes made in the bad behavior of school personnel. We want to teach them how to resist bad situations in ways that will be both redemptive and effective. Since we ourselves are not sure how to do that, we must engage them in the discussion of how to do it.</p><p><br /></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-45120266995997534642023-12-21T16:45:00.000-06:002023-12-21T16:45:33.846-06:00My new blog format<p> <span> Last fall the Quincy University Office of University Advancement helped me set up a website/blog on QU's computer site. They named it "friarzimm.org." You should be able to type in those letters, maybe with "www." preceding, and get the result. </span></p><p><span><span> The new site is my attempt to arrange some of the things I have written by topic rather than by date when I published them. My goal is to migrate more of the "ivyrosary" pieces to the new site as I get time to decide what is worth migrating. </span><br /></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-87428802935688616622023-12-21T11:51:00.000-06:002023-12-21T11:51:14.786-06:00A Way Forward<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">John Joe Lakers,
my friar friend and philosopher who died over ten years ago, spent a good part
of his life proposing that we approach moral and ethical problems wrongly. “We”
means us Christians, but potentially everybody else.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">John Joe said that
there are two ways—he calls them “metaphors”—that we think about morality. Both
are rooted in our biblical tradition. One is what he called “judgment and
power,” and the other he called “intimacy.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><b>Definitions</b>:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">Judgment is deciding
whether something is good or bad. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">Punishment is
deliberately inflicting pain. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">Power is the
ability to punish. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">Forgiveness is
deciding not to punish.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">Intimacy is being
involved with other people respectfully, vulnerably, and faithfully.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">Both “judgment and
power” and “intimacy” can be traced to our scriptures—and “our” means us Jews
and Christians. Islam is another story. Islam grew out of Judaism and
Christianity, so our thinking may fit Muslims too, but we should let the people
of Islam speak for themselves. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">The best
illustrations of the metaphors of power and judgment are in stories of what
happened to people when they disobeyed the commands of the Lord. For example, in
chapter 16 of the book of Numbers, Korah, Dathan and Abiram had rebelled
against Moses. Moses put the legitimacy of his leadership to a test: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="txt"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Moses said, “This is how you
shall know that the LORD sent me to do all I have done, and that it was
not of my own devising:<a name="04016029" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"></a></span> if these die an ordinary death,
merely suffering the fate common to all humanity, the LORD has not sent me.<a name="04016030" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"></a></span> But if the LORD makes
a chasm, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them with all belonging to
them, and they go down alive to Sheol, then you will know that these men
have spurned the LORD.”<a name="04016031" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"></a><span style="color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-left: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="txt"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline: none;">No sooner had he finished saying all this than the ground
beneath them split open,<a name="04016032" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"></a></span> and the earth opened its mouth and
swallowed them and their families and all of Korah’s people with all their
possessions.</span></span><a name="04016033" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"></a><span style="color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The story is the composition of
people describing how the Lord treats people. Imagine what kind of God would do
such things. The story describes a God who judges that some of these people did
wrong, and then punishes all of them by swallowing them up in the earth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">That’s judgment and power and
punishment in action. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Judgment and punishment are the
foundation of the public morality that is dominant in our country. The shelves
of our lawyers are covered with law books. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The laws in those books describe judgments of
what we consider bad behavior and how we promise to punish people who break the
laws. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Our toolbox of punishments has
steadily shrunk over the years. We moved from executing people, to exotic ways
of causing pain, both physical and emotional (think of the torture rack and the
scarlet letter) to our modern ways: fines and imprisonment. None of them prevent
all bad behavior, but we keep at it. What else can we do?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">But, says John Joe, beginning
with the Hebrew prophets like Jeremiah and Hosea, a different approach to
morality began to emerge, based on a metaphor of intimacy. Hosea compared God
to a spouse, a forgiving spouse, who takes an unfaithful partner back again and
again. That metaphor becomes the center of the story of Jesus, whose message
centered on repentance and forgiveness. Jesus refused to punish a woman caught
in the act of adultery, and promised paradise to a criminal on the verge of
death. Jesus described God not so much as a judge as a parent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">I cannot find an instance in
the gospels where Jesus himself personally punished someone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Our public sense of morality
has gone the same way. We have gone from “spare the rod and spoil the child” to
charging teachers with battery if they so much as lay a hand on a child. We try
to avoid causing physical pain, and even emotional pain. At least that is the
way we like to think of ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Why can’t we have a similar
sense of morality in our public affairs?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">An application to the conflict
in Gaza<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The country of Israel grew out
of the Shoah, the Holocaust, the genocide practiced by the Nazi regime in
Germany in the 1930s and 40s. That genocide had a long history of Christian antisemitism,
with its segregation and pogroms. The Nazi ideology found fertile Christian soil
in which it could grow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Survivors of the Holocaust got
the world community to legitimize a homeland for people of Jewish background, a
place where they could be safe from persecution. But unfortunately, there were
already people living on the land that the world community deeded to the Jewish
people. Those people, the Palestinians, reacted furiously with judgment and
punishment. But not all of them. Some Palestinians, and some of their new Jewish
neighbors, lived by the principle that violence was not the only way to deal
with the situation. Such people were in the minority. The Israeli governments felt
obliged to segregate the Palestinians and treat them with distrust and
disrespect. In recent years they even built a wall to separate the West Bank
from Israel. They sealed off the tiny territory of Gaza. In return, Palestinian
leaders kept alive the dream of getting back all the land they used to have,
“from the river to the sea,” as Hamas puts it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The violent are always more
visible than the peaceful. Nonviolent movements succeed so seldom because
people grow impatient and decide that only violence will achieve their
objectives. The “First Intifada,” the first large-scale movement by
Palestinians to oppose Israeli policies, began as a nonvokiolent movement, but
it was overtaken by leaders choosing violence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Both Israelis and Palestinians are
governed by people determined to judge and punish. But still there are people on
both sides who are open to approaching the other with respect, vulnerability
and faithfulness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Maybe people on both sides will
find leaders with the courage to forgive the other—to let go of the right to
punish. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">In South Africa, everyone
expected the black population would demand retribution for the years of
apartheid that the white government had inflicted on them. Nelson Mandela was a
leader of the black population who was able to lead the entire nation to avoid
retribution. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Both sides need such leaders
now. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #363936; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-42945319779201263112023-11-04T10:50:00.002-05:002023-12-17T09:50:32.162-06:00What are we talking about?<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 36pt;">A lot of my
thinking involves trying to get working definitions of important things. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Let me give you an example. Take the word
"conflict." It's a very important word. Most people don't like what
the word refers to, and some use it as an excuse for violence. Karl Marx even
built a world-shaking theory out of it. Here is my definition:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Conflict</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is <b><i><u>when one person takes a stand and another person takes an opposing
stand.<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That definition comes from my experience in a
movement called "Worldwide Marriage Encounter," a weekend experience
based on talks written out beforehand by married couples and a "team
priest." I devoted important parts of my life to that movement for several
years. Its goal was to improve the relationships between people committed to
marriage, especially Christian marriage. One of the talks given as part of the
program was titled "Rules for Fighting." Here is what they said:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rule Number One: Fight! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The rule was not advocating physical violence.
"Fighting" essentially meant that one party would take a stand that
she or he knew the other party would not agree with. People can't live together
without dealing with such situations, but not facing them in a constructive way
is destructive to the relationship. So they wrote "rules for
fighting."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In sociology courses I found a definition of <b><u>violence</u></b>
that I found persuasive. It was developed by a scholar (whose name I have
forgotten) who was widely cited on the topic of violence. His definition was:
"Violence <b><i><u>is the intent to hurt someone physically." <o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The friar I mentioned earlier, Al Merz, spent years
of his life offering workshops on conflict resolution, and he disagreed with
the word "physically." He argued that attempts to hurt someone in <u>any</u>
way should be labeled "violence." In my mind, an attempt to hurt
someone in <b><i><u>any</u></i></b> way is <b><u>aggression</u></b>. Violence,
the intent to hurt someone <b><u>physically</u></b>, is a subcategory of
aggression.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As I walk around doing things like the
laundry, I like to think about issues like "conflict" and
"violence," and keep thinking about how well my definitions hold up.
Definitions should be brief enough that you can memorize them and think about
them in idle moments. What good is a definition that tries cover every possible
situation, even if it looks nice in a textbook? Nobody can use it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And we need to use definitions, because if we
want to talk about important things, we have to know what our words mean. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The first thing we need to talk about is
"truth." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Truth<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The world of social media has shown us how
powerful untruth can be. But we need to have a definition of truth. Here is my
definition: <b><u>Truth</u></b> is <b><i><u>the story as God would tell it.</u></i><u>
<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You don't have believe in God (or gods) to use
that definition. The definition simply asserts that there is, "out there
somewhere," a story about what happened that accurately describes what
happened. The definition is not very precise because stories are not precise.
Every experience we have can be expressed in a story, but we cannot even
describe our own experiences exactly. Each time we try to describe what we have
seen or felt, we tell the story in slightly different ways. The situation gets
even more complicated when two people try to tell a story about what happened.
Nobody can say <b><u>exactly</u></b> what happened. But something happened, and
it should be possible for someone better equipped than we human beings to reach
that level of exactitude. Such a mythical person is God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Speaking of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I am a member of a Catholic religious order,
so naturally I have an interest in God more than most people. Or at least I
should have such an interest. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mother Teresa said that she went years without
a rewarding experience of God. Many of us religious people could say the same
thing. God never seems to say much. In fact, God never seems to say anything.
That does not make for a very satisfactory relationship, and is probably the
reason why so many people have found other things on which to center their
lives. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Years ago I found myself wondering if this
whole God-thing is just a projection of my own thinking. I remember telling a
close woman friend of mine, "I'm not even sure God exists, but I just know
God doesn't want me to marry you." She went on to marry someone else, and
the marriage has so far lasted fifty years. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We religious use the psalms a lot. The psalms
are poems or songs given to us by Jewish composers several hundred years before
the time of Jesus Christ. I said to myself, "Well, I don't know if there
is a God out there, but maybe I can just hitch a ride on words that all kinds
of people have used for hundreds of years."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So I have been hitching a ride--sometimes I
use the term "piggy-backing"--for years and years. Strange thing. I
was in religious life for forty or fifty years when the thought occurred to me
that I am really addressing Someone when I pray. I started paying attention to
when a psalm was speaking directly to God and when it was speaking to other
people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That's enough God-talk for now. I'm a
sociologist who specializes in studying religion. I am convinced that whatever
future there is for religion in our modern societies, there won't be any future
unless people try to know God. The story of Jesus Christ doesn't mean much
unless we have some sense of what God is like. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And, to repeat how I started, <b><u>Truth</u> </b><i>is
<b><u>the story as God would tell it</u></b>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Science<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Science</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is two things: 1. It is <b><i><u>a combination of research and theory</u></i></b>.
2. It is <b><i><u>a community of people criticizing one another's research and
theories</u></i><u>.</u></b> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What is research?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Research</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is <b><i><u>observing something carefully, and if possible, counting something</u></i></b>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Observing means using one or more of our five
senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and feeling (which means feeling
something physically, like feeling a rough surface). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The goal of research is to observe
correlations. A <b><u>correlation</u></b> means that <b><i><u>when one thing
happens, another thing usually happens</u></i><u>.</u></b> For example, where
there is a poor neighborhood, there is a lot of crime. That is a correlation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In science we can never observe a correlation such
that where when one thing happens, another thing <b><u>always</u></b> happens.
We can never say "always" because even though we have observed
something happening 10,000 times, on the 100,001st time, the second thing may
not happen. There are some poor neighborhoods where there is not a lot of
crime. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nevertheless, when we look for observations,
we are looking for causes, and a <b><u>cause</u></b> is <b><i><u>when one thing
happens another thing always happens</u></i></b>. Since we can never be sure
that a correlation actually is a cause, to say tht one thing causes another is fiction.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Theory<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Science</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is <b><i><u>a combination of research and th</u></i><u>eory</u></b>. That is
half of my definition of science. I will treat the second half in a few
paragraphs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Theory</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is <b><i><u>a story about causes</u></i></b><i>.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since we can never say one thing causes
another thing for sure, every theory is just as much a fiction as the idea of
"cause" is a fiction. This is where the second part of the definition
of science comes in, <b><u>the community of people criticizing one another's
research and one another's theories</u></b> or stories about causes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here's a classic example of how science works.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Back in the 1800s there was an epidemic of
cholera in England. As we have learned from our experience with Covid-19, it
takes time for us to develop an understanding of what is causing the disease. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A doctor named Snow made a street map of
London and put an X on places where there had been a case of cholera. He
noticed that the X's clustered in a particular neighborhood. He had observed a
correlation. He went to the neighborhood and noticed that there was a pump in
the center of the neighborhood from which the residents got their drinking
water. On a hunch he removed the handle from the pump so that people couldn't
get water from it. The epidemic stopped. Another correlation: handle on pump,
cholera. No handle on pump, no cholera. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But why did the epidemic stop? Eventually he
and others developed a story (theory) about why it stopped. The story went like
this: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is a bug in the water that causes
cholera. When people quit using the pump, the bug can't get to the people and
the epidemic stops.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That story is a fiction, a narrative developed
from observing a correlation. That's how theory operates. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Peer
Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here is the second part of my definition of
science <b><u>Science</u></b> is <b><i><u>a community of people sharing one
another's research and evaluating one another's theories</u></i></b>. Scientists
share their observations and theories with other scientists in
"journals," which are scientific magazines. There are thousands of
journals. Each journal contains "articles," which are descriptions of
individual research projects and the theories that the scientists create from
their observations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A typical journal might contain ten or fifteen
articles. Scientists are grouped into communities who do work similar to one
another--the members of each community are observing the same kinds of things
(for example, a particular species of plant). When they describe their
research, there are other people in that community who do the same kinds of
research and are considered good judges of how well the scientist did his or
her work. When scientists finish a research project, they write up what they
did and what they found and what they think their findings mean, and send their
work in an article to a journal that their fellow scientists are likely to
read. If their fellow scientists think they have done a good job, those
scientists are likely to name the research article in their own work, which is
published in a similar journal. The more other scientists refer to your work
(we say they "cite" your work), the better your reputation and the
more likely that your work is considered good science and not fake science.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The whole process is called "peer
review." A peer is a partner doing the same work you are doing. Eventually
one of your peers will do research on the same thing you have described. We
call that "replication." When your work is replicated, the work
becomes good testimony. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If somebody cites credible evidence that you
have cheated on the descriptions of what you observed, you may get a reputation
as a poor scientist. That is what should happen, but, like the rest of us,
scientists can sin, and they sometimes do the less ethical thing, which messes
up science.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Meta-analysis<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There are thousands of journals and tens of
thousands of articles, so there are now computer programs that can sift through
all the articles dealing with your kind of research and say how many agree with
you and how many disagree. We call this "meta-analysis." If there are
fifteen articles that agree with you and only two or three that disagree, your
work is likely to be considered good science. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You can find a few articles describing
research that agrees with you on almost any topic, so it is easy to claim that your
idea is “proved by research” and that people who disagree with you are using
fake science. Tobacco companies were able to cite studies for thirty or forty
years "proving" that smoking does not cause cancer. The studies they
cited were far outnumbered by other studies that showed that smoking does cause
cancer. Eventually almost all scientists agreed with the theory that smoking
causes cancer. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">An example closer to our time is climate
change. No one can claim with absolute certitude that burning fossil fuels
contributes to climate change, but when thousands of studies point to the
conclusion that they do have that effect, the scientific community concludes
that there is cause and effect there. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But they can never be absolutely sure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is no such thing as absolute certitude
in science. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Faith
and testimony<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Faith</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is <b><i><u>when I act on an idea that I am not sure is true</u></i></b>. For
example, there is a possibility that the cereal in the box from which I get my
breakfast is poisoned. I can't be sure it isn't poisoned, but I go ahead and
eat the cereal anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Faith depends on testimony<i>. </i><b><u>Testimony</u></b>
is <b><i><u>when someone tells me that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
story is true</u></i></b>. Scientists accept one another's theories because
they trust that other scientists, their peers, are telling the truth. Every so
often a scientist says that he observed a correlation that he did not observe.
It can take a while, but eventually other people will make observations similar
to the ones he made (we say they "replicate" his work) and get
results that lead to a different story. His reputation should be ruined, and he
should be exiled from the community of peers. Sometimes that doesn’t happen,
which is an indication that every human being is affected by political
considerations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Most of the things we accept in everyday life
are based on the testimony of others. In our age, many people get their
information from "siloes," media that use testimony only from people
they agree with. The users of such media are getting tainted testimony. The
only way to remedy the situation is for people to try to get their information
from a wider set of inputs, especially from media in a silo different from
theirs, information likely to disagree with the stories told in their silo. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is not a new problem. Jesus defended his
teaching and actions on the basis of testimony, and his critics used other
sources of testimony. It can be very hard to determine the truth when there are
conflicting testimonies. Until the day of his death Pope St. John Paul II
accepted testimony that Marcel Maciel was a holy man. His successor, Pope
Benedict XVI, accepted testimony that Marcel had fathered several children by
different women and banned him from leadership in the Catholic Church. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We have conflicting testimonies about climate
change, and about who won the 2020 presidential election in our country. We all
have to evaluate the credibility of the witnesses who are giving us testimony
about their stories. We have a name for that kind of evaluation. We call it <b><u>critical
thinking</u></b>. Critical thinking is <b><u>looking for testimony from people
who do not agree with a story you like</u></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I titled this essay "Don't interrupt me,
I'm thinking." What I am doing when I am thinking is doing thought
experiments about stories I want to tell. I am looking for evidence against
what I want to say. I prefer to find that evidence myself. It's more
comfortable that way. But I do keep snooping around, looking for people who
disagree with me. I'd just rather not meet them face to face. That gives me
time to tweak the story I want to tell. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love is the most used and least defined word
in our language. For years I looked for a definition of love. Everybody talked
about it, but nobody said what love <b><u>is</u></b>. Without a definition I
can't find correlations, and if I want to think about love in a scientific way,
I need correlations. When there is love, X tends to follow. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Finally I got a definition I was satisfied
with, from one of my fellow Franciscans. He wrote a book with the title <i>Christian
Ethics: An Ethics of Intimacy. </i>He never claimed to define
"intimacy," but he talked about it so often in the book that a phrase
he used became a definition of intimacy. Intimacy is passionate, respectful,
vulnerable, faithful involvement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That became the definition of love that I had
been looking for. <b><u>Love is passionate, respectful, vulnerable, faithful
involvement.</u></b> <b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A word about "passionate." Passion
is something that we do not produce on demand. It is not under our control. It
comes when it is ready. It is a gift. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So I drop the word from my working definition
of love. Love is something that we want to practice every day, and we can't get
passionate every day about everyone. Marriage Encounter insisted on the
principle: Love is a decision. We make decisions on demand. We decide to be
respectful, to be vulnerable, and to be faithful. There's no mystery here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dorothy Day liked to quote Dostoevsky:
"Love is a harsh and dreadful thing." When we welcome people off the
street and are involved with every such person, as she was, we welcome a lot of
pain. Some of the people who walk in off the street are not nice people.
Dorothy treated them with respect, vulnerability, and faithfulness. Especially
vulnerability. The reason we do not welcome people off the street is that we do
not want to be that vulnerable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Science goes best when the people doing it
treat one another with respect, vulnerability, and faithfulness. There are
stories of scientists who live their lives in bitterness about things other
scientists have done to them. Bitterness messes up the peer community that we
need in order to have our work evaluated critically, but also graciously. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-66307316112390974792023-11-01T11:09:00.000-05:002023-11-01T11:09:28.587-05:00What is God like?<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 36pt;">People in our country seem to be abandoning
religion. Or at least they are abandoning churches.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Is this a bad thing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s not a new thing. As I read the Old
Testament book of Chronicles, I am struck by how much of the history of the
Jewish people was a history of abandoning the religion of Abraham and Moses.
Often the abandonment was the people’s turning to other gods. But I suspect
that a lot of their abandonment was a simple tossing aside of the faith handed
on to them—busy with other stuff. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then a prophet would arise and call the king
back to true worship. The king was always central to the story. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Coercion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kings coerce. They order and punish. Is that
what is needed in order for religion to flourish? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When it comes to religious issues, we have quit
ordering people around and punishing them when they deviate. We have decided
that God doesn’t want that. So what does God want?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God wants people who relate to God freely, and
lovingly. Churches exist to help people do that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here is how we should be helping them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">People
of the Book<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">They say that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
are religions of the Book. All three faiths take writings seriously. The reason
they do that is because they believe that writings, stories and all the things
that grow out of stories, are our best tools for learning about what God is
like. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And that is the fundamental question, at least
for these three faiths: <b><u>what is God like</u></b>? Our religions are
schools of what God is like, and to explore the question we use a book. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What is God like? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Perhaps there are some people for whom that
question is not important. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, some of the people
think about God all of the time, and (almost) all of the people think about God
some of the time, but all of the people don’t think about God all of the time.
And maybe some of the people never think about God at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">All of the people think about God some of the
time. I think of children, who ask questions like “Why is there anything?” Or
of people facing death, who can wonder about what God thinks of the way they
have treated others. Certainly people who suffer seem to be drawn to religion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And conversely, people who do not suffer can
forget all about religion. Jesus said it is easier for a camel to fit through
the eye of a needle than for a rich person to know what God is like. We of the
western world are rich. We suffer, but we suffer alone. We want the camera to
see us smiling. And as long as we are smiling, we are embarrassed to let others
see us being concerned about what God is like. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Let’s
start with the essentials<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">First of all, none of us knows much about what
God is like. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Start with the question of whether there is a
God in the first place. We can’t prove that there is. It seems reasonable to
assume that if something happens, there must be a cause for the something (one
of Aquinas’s arguments, I believe). But just because it is reasonable doesn’t
make it certain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the other hand, nobody can prove either
that God <b><u>doesn’t</u></b> exist. The issue is not amenable to empirical
proof. Which means it is an issue of faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That shouldn’t bother us. We operate on faith
99% of the time in our lives. If I had to be sure about everything, I would be
afraid to step out of the door in the morning. Maybe the earth in front of the
door wouldn’t really be solid the next time around. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Okay, so we can’t be sure that there is a God,
any more than a husband can be sure that his wife really loves him. Still,
things go better if the husband can believe that his wife really loves him.
Sometimes husbands are deceived, but not always, and it is reasonable for them
to trust in that belief.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Once we’ve gotten past that hurdle, the next
question is, what is God like? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here is where religion steps in. Our
religions, at least our Book religions, are schools of what God is like. If
they are not that, they are nothing. Perhaps one of the reasons people these
days toss religions aside is because their religion does not seem to be helping
them to know more about what God is like. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Religions are not in the business of entertaining
us on the sabbath, or making the world better, or helping us live happier, or
even of making death easier to face. They <b><u>can</u></b> do all of those
things—Jesus did a lot of those things—but that is not why religions exist.
They exist to help us know God better. Knowing God better can lead us to live
better lives, but we shouldn’t confuse the effect with the cause. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Book religions present us with a life
project of knowing God better each day, no matter how many days we have. They
do that by starting with the Book, and then using the Book to draw us to one
another and then to do things with those others—actual physical behaviors—that
are the results of our reading the Book. Some of those physical behaviors are
“worship”—because what the Book teaches us about God suggests that if God is
who the Book says God is, we ought to respond with courtesy and grace, and join
with others in our response. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That is how we become religious people. We
learn about what God is like, we respond with courtesy, and we do this with
other people because that is what the Book suggests and doing it with others
makes the experience come alive. To paraphrase an old sociologist, Emile
Durkheim, doing religion with others can add zest to our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our
Books are dangerous<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The sacred texts of these religions of the
Book are creations of people who did not know God very well. They knew God
better than any of us do when we are starting out, but some of the ideas
presented in the books are ideas that we no longer think are good. For example,
“spare the rod and spoil the child.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That should not surprise us. Jesus taught
things that earlier sacred books did not teach. He said that he didn’t come to
abolish those books but to bring them to perfection. He brought them to
perfection by teaching us things about God that the sacred books before him did
not teach, like the idea that God is more like a parent than like a dictator. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We people of the Book get into trouble when we
think we have to use every word of our Books as a guide to how we should relate
to God and one another today. We Christians believe that the earlier Book
people did not see God as three persons—admittedly a hard pill to swallow—but
the story of Jesus seemed to leave us no other choice. This makes us part ways
with Jews and Muslims, but we believe that Jesus did not tell us to make Jews
and Muslims into Christians. He told us to make “disciples,” and a disciple is
someone who is learning (the Latin root of the word means “to learn”). We are
to invite others to share in the project of learning what God is like. And we
know that others can teach us a thing or two about that—things not necessarily
in our Books. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That means that we should be going through the
world like fellow learners, with the hope that anybody we meet might teach us
something about God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We Christians believe that when Jesus said
that the two greatest commandments were that we should love God with our whole
heart and soul and mind and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves—and
that every person on the face of the earth is our neighbor—Jesus perfected a
lot of the older moral norms. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love is a difficult thing to define, which is
probably why it is hard to find a definition of it. It is also probably why we
can say we love our neighbors and then go out and kill them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here is a working definition of love that has
served me for the last thirty years or so. There are surely better definitions,
but this one is the best I’ve found so far. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love is passionate, respectful, vulnerable,
faithful involvement with others, including God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For practical purposes, when I am sharing this
definition, I leave out the word “passionate,” because passion is not under our
control. We can’t produce it on demand. It’s a gift. And since it is a gift,
for practical purposes, if we want to talk about love, we can bracket “passion”
and hope that respect and vulnerability and faithfulness will gift us with it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Respect.” The first characteristic of love.
Respect is just courtesy, and most cultures have customs of courtesy. Striking
someone physically seems to us, at least in our culture, disrespectful. We say
it violates a person’s physical integrity. That’s why we don’t use the rod in
spite of the warning that we might spoil the child. We’ve gotten past that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our culture seems to see the gun as essential
to safe living. If striking someone is disrespectful, how can shooting someone
be respectful? Not to mention entering people’s neighborhoods with tanks, throwing
exploding munitions at them from mikes away, and annihilating them with atomic
weapons? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We do all these things not because we really
want to be disrespectful, but because those things make money, and we too often
put money ahead of more important things in life. Jesus said we cannot serve
God and money. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But I’m getting away from my topic. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love is also vulnerable. It is when another
person “opens up” to us in genuine vulnerability that our hearts open up in
love of that person. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And faithfulness. Faithfulness means that each
involvement with another human being, even starting with the check-out clerk in
the store, can be open to future involvements, to future interactions.
Faithfulness keeps us from “using” people. We want to be able to greet them
with warmth even weeks or months from now. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The four gospels are one of the Christian’s
most important books. Surely the gospels show us a Jesus Christ who was
respectful, vulnerable, and faithful. And because we believe that Jesus was
God, we believe that God is respectful, vulnerable, and faithful in dealing
with each human being. Which means that we can no longer fear God as one who
might condemn us to an eternity of hell because of a moment’s behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Exploring the doctrine of hell would take me
away from the main point I am trying to make here. But I can say one thing: the
way we describe hell may be one of the reasons why so many people walk away
from religion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To
sum up<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We do religion because we see religion as a
good way to learn about what God is like. Many of us may not worry much about
what God is like, but many of us experience moments when we do want to think
about the question. Churches exist to help people to learn what God is like.
Jews and Christians and Muslims use a book as their main tool in learning. Then
they surround the book with other ideas and rituals, and in the process they
can experience life as more bearable and even more delightful. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That won’t fill huge churches, but it will
fill small ones. When churches get too big, what God is like gets crowded out
by keeping the lights on. We don’t need lights. We need our Books and one
another. <o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-81550021256040456072023-10-04T05:56:00.000-05:002023-10-04T05:56:22.480-05:00Name change<p><span style="font-size: large;"> A few months ago the Quincy University Advancement Office helped me set up a blog on the University platform. I have friends who are Trump supporters, so I thought the blog title "Reflections from Magaland" would capture their attention. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Recent political events have convinced me that associating myself with the label "Maga" is not wise. I do not support Mr. Trump and never have, and think he is a dangerous demagogue. So I changed the title to "Reflections from Flyover Country." </span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-88819111345312956772023-09-17T15:03:00.000-05:002023-09-17T15:03:17.173-05:00enthusiasm<p> <span> </span><span> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Emile Durkheim was an atheistic
scholar who wrote some things that became very influential in the early days of
the science of sociology. He did a study of suicide rates in France that was
cited in sociology textbooks as a model of research. He wrote a very
influential book with the title </span><i style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, </i><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">published
in 1911.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">His book was a study of religious
practices among aboriginal people in Australia. He never actually went to
Australia, but he used written accounts by anthropologists of how aboriginal
people lived. He came up with the following theory:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Aboriginal communities in Australia
are held together by religious beliefs. Their beliefs and rituals are centered
on totems, which are animals or people or objects that each group considers
sacred to itself. For example, the group might consider the kangaroo sacred. The
kangaroo is sacred only to that particular group. That group will not touch the
animal, or harm it in any way. It will honor the animal symbolically. The group
knows that other groups have different totems, and those groups<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>might kill and eat kangaroos, but that
doesn't bother them. They are the people of the kangaroo, and for them the
kangaroo is sacred. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Durkheim's theory was that the people
are not really worshipping the kangaroo. They are symbolically acknowledging
that something is greater than the individuals in the group. What Durkheim
speculated was that what the people were worshipping was not the totem, but the
group itself. It was the group that was superior to the individual, outside the
individual, and demanding respect and deference. The totem could be anything. For
each group of people, some object or person symbolized a force greater than the
individuals in the group. Since the totem was greater than the individuals, the
perception of the participants was that the totem is greater than the group
itself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What religion does for people is to
provide them a symbolic way of expressing their dependence on something outside
themselves. The religious attitude is "I am not master of my own universe.
My universe has a master greater than me." The individualism of modern
cultures teaches people to say "I am master of my own universe. There is
nothing that can put limits on what I can or cannot do." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Note that in Durkheim's
understanding, the individual cannot live by a religious attitude without the
involvement of a group. I cannot be my own religion. I have to unite with other
people, through ritual and other group activities, if I want to live with zest
and enthusiasm. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The zest and enthusiasm idea was
central to Durkheim's theory. Religion does not just provide limits on people.
It creates moments of excitement that take people out of themselves and gives
them reason to live everyday life with some excitement. Religious rituals
interrupt everyday life with moments of group enthusiasm. People need that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our society does seem to have a lot
of people who lack enthusiasm for living. People seem vulnerable to all kinds
of victimization--online bullying, rip-offs in everyday exchanges with other
people, violence within forms of intimate contact. There is nothing greater
than the individual which can put limits on how people should treat each other.
We are all our own religion. We are limitless, free, and wandering in search of
enthusiasm. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wikipedia says "The word [enthusiasm]<span style="background: white; color: #202122;"> was originally used to refer to a
person possessed </span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">by </span></span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God" title="God"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">God</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">, or someone who exhibited
intense </span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piety" title="Piety"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">piety</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">. </span><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It implies that something outside the individual has taken
hold of a person."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There seem to
be moments in our society when people experience such possession. Concerts by
famous musicians come to my mind. But that kind of enthusiasm is not enough to
sustain everyday living. People have to go back to their everyday environments,
which no longer provide weekly, even though much less intense, moments of being
taken out of themselves. Just gathering among other people on a regular basis
can do a lot for people. What religious communities do is to systematize such
gathering and make it predictable and controllable. That is reassuring to
people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But it is on
the international, geopolitical level that the absence of a sense of
"something outside oneself" is most felt. When a nation or warlord
does not see itself limited by something outside itself, there are no limits on
behavior. International law, the Geneva Conventions, or the rules of war are no
longer relevant to the group's behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Durkheim's
theory originally shook my religious faith. If my worship is really only
worship of the group of people that surround me, is my faith based on illusion?
Perhaps I am just rationalizing my own prejudices. But I reason that the sense
that we humans have of a need for something beyond ourselves could be written
into our constitutions just as much as my body is sustained by mechanisms
written into my biology. Maybe those functions originated out of evolution, but
evolution itself could have been authored by a force or being characterized by
wisdom and love. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I can't prove
that it was authored that way, but no one else can prove that it wasn't. I
choose to believe that it was. That is my faith. That is what faith means. But
it sure helps when other people share that faith with me, and share it on a
regular basis. </span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-38281086264518655512023-08-10T06:53:00.001-05:002023-08-10T06:53:22.000-05:00A collection of essays<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For the past several months I have
been completing a history of my Franciscan province. It will soon be
self-published by "iUniverse" of Bloomington, Indiana and will be
available with the title "<i>Cura Animarum</i>: The Sacred Heart Province
of the Order of Friars Minor in North America: 1858-2023." During these
months I have dashed off a few short essays, which I decided to share here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-22320211970598842752023-08-10T06:08:00.001-05:002023-08-10T06:08:27.127-05:00Am I a fool?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This whole religion business still
seems farfetched. Am I a fool for keeping on doing it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This has to be one of the questions
at the back of the mind of many believers these days. We are surrounded by
people who seem to be doing just fine without religion. Maybe they are
"spiritual but not religious." Maybe they are just plain atheist.
Whatever they are, they must think people like me are fools. People like me
must be deluded, willfully self-deceived, hopelessly benighted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Are we? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I have grown up and lived my life
cradled in a Roman Catholic world. When I am in that world, all is well. But I
have to venture out of that world, partly because I feel called to do that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Called." Who is calling? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prayer<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One of the central behaviors of
religious people is prayer. What is prayer? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prayer is communicating with the
divine, the sacred, the ineffable (a big word which means you can't talk about
something). Like all other human communication, using language as a form of
involvement with another person is to engage with a partly self-made image of
that person. We do not know other people completely. We know only the stories that
we create out of our experience with those people, or stories about them that have
been given to us by other people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There have been more than one individual
who was perceived by people as saintly, but who turned out to be an emotional
and sexual abuser. Marcial Maciel founded a religious order called the
Legionaries of Christ, was praised and considered saintly by no less than Pope
John Paul II, but was found to be a serial abuser of young men. Jean Vanier
founded an ecumenical religious movement dedicated to living with and caring
for people with disabilities called "L'Arche," but was found also to
have sexually abused six women over the course of thirty-five years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We do not know the complete story of
the people closest to us. Are we deceived when we experience contact with God,
however we perceive God? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our critics fault us for being too
willing to accept stories that may not be true. They may go further and claim
that the stories we accept are not true. What is the evidence they provide for
that claim? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I assume, without consulting such
critics, that the evidence they give is that people can be deceived, just as
the people around the two individuals I described were deceived. But, I reply,
does the fact that some of us can be deceived by some people imply that billions
of us are deceived about God?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Years ago I read a little of Sigmund
Freud and about Sigmund Freud. His attitude toward religious believers seemed
to me to be an accusation of infantilism. He was saying to religious people,
"Grow up. We all have a tendency to want to go back to the womb, where
everything was warm and comfortable. That is what you religious people want to
do. Be a man. Face up to the hard, cold reality." (I don't imagine him
saying "Be a woman." My own misogyny shows through here.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The advice "Grow up" is a
moral injunction. What is the grounding for such an injunction? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I suspect it is the experience of
most of us that as we grow up, there are times when we would like to go back to
days when we were cradled in some way. But we have learned from experience that
it is not good for us to try to carry out such a desire. Freud's accusation is
a move in a game of one-up-manship. He is more mature than we are. He can see
the world as it is. We are infantile. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Community<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our U.S. culture says that it is
better to stand alone than to go along with the crowd. Our culture assumes that
the crowd is likely to be less enlightened than the individual. The result is
that we move away from any involvement that would tie us closely to a
particular group of people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Religions, by definition (the word
comes from a Latin word meaning "to bind"), begin with the statement
that it is better to go along with a crowd than to stand alone. So it is not
surprising that U.S. culture is not friendly to religion. Our critics say that
it is because we are deceived and too anxious to go back to the womb that we
practice religion. We can counter that it is because we accept the value that
it is better to go along with others than to stand alone that we practice
religion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There is increasing evidence that, at
all phases of the human life cycle, it is better to be in relationship with
other people than to be alone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So, to answer the question that I
began this essay with, am I a fool? I answer: I am living in a counter-culture.
I do not accept the culture's value that it is better to be alone than to be
involved with other people. The empirical evidence of social science tells me
that too much individualism is not healthy. <span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I still admit that I could be wrong.
I can be deceived as much as the followers of Marcial Maciel and Jean Vanier
were. But the presence of some deceivers does not prove that everyone is a
deceiver. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Faith is to know something even when
you cannot prove that the something is true. It is better to live with faith
than to reject any story that you cannot prove true. We all depend on
testimony--we trust some people to tell us the truth when we can't prove it by
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The prevalence of "fake
news" made more visible by social media has highlighted the failure of our
schools to help us think critically about the trustworthiness of our
information sources. We have been sold the ideas that "STEM" courses
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) should replace traditional
courses in history, literature, and philosophy, and that the primary goal of a
college education is to get you a good job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If I believe somebody who tells me
that I should study engineering instead of history, why is it foolish of me to believe
somebody who tells me what God is like?<o:p></o:p></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-76310544652774825032023-08-10T06:04:00.000-05:002023-08-10T06:04:11.460-05:00Probabilism and the transgender penitent<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I studied moral theology in the early
1960s. At that time there was an interpretation of the sacrament of
"confession" that saw the priest-confessor as a judge. I think the
interpretation was based on John 20:23, where Jesus said, "Whose sins you
forgive are forgiven; whose sins you retain are retained." Your job as a
confessor was to judge whether the penitent's sins should be forgiven or
retained (not forgiven). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If the confessor was to be a judge,
the confessor had to be educated to give sound judgments. Thus arose a system
of reasoning called "probabilism." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The system depended on the
availability of a set of moral theology authors, some of whom would say a
particular behavior was permissible, and some would say it was sinful. That in
itself strains credibility. How many confessors would have a shelf of moral
textbooks? Confessors would not have such a shelf, but moral theology
professors would, and moral theologians taught in seminaries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When a penitent confessed that he had
had a vasectomy, the confessor was to consult the shelf of authors who
discussed vasectomy. If only one author said that vasectomy was forbidden, the confessor
should refuse absolution. The probabilist would say that even if there are only
a few authors who permit the surgery, while the majority forbade it, the
confessor should still grant absolution. There would be at least some
probability that vasectomy was not sinful. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Franciscan tradition favored
probabilism. When in doubt, judge in favor of the penitent. That was the bottom
line. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We simply do not know enough about
transgenderism to make dogmatic statements about what is moral and what is not
moral about it. What we do know is that there are more people who claim
transgender experience than there used to be. There are people who were labeled
male at birth but who experience the world from a very early age as a female
would experience it. Those people tell us that they are not deliberately faking
the experience, and they are not being deceived by medical people out to make a
profit. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So what do we do with such people? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We wait while experience accumulates.
Science moves slowly. To prove something is harmful requires much careful
research done honestly. In time we will know what is harmful and what is not.
But until then, we should err in favor of the person claiming to be
transgender. We should honor their description of their experience. To do otherwise
disrespects them. Disrespect is not loving. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To use the old language, there is a
probability that accepting transgenderism is harmless, and so anyone in a
position to pass judgment on it should err in favor of the transgender person.
We could be wrong, but only time will tell. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Serious study of sexuality is not
more than a century old. There is much that we do not know. An appeal to
"natural law" is irrelevant when nature creates a condition. When
that happens, our attitude should be, "Withhold judgment, wait for good
research, and in the meantime do not accuse people of acting immorally."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To do otherwise makes us risk the
Galileo error. The Church rushed to judgment and condemned Galileo, and it took
centuries for popes to apologize. We shouldn't do that again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-87054793787823342442023-06-11T11:01:00.000-05:002023-06-11T11:01:10.801-05:00Mr. Trump and Truth<p> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It all started with academics,
those people who hang out in universities. I am one of them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The academics speculated,
correctly, that truth is a creation of the human mind. More accurately, it is
the creation of a group of human minds agreeing on a statement or a story. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Because truth statements are human
creations, they are subject to error. More troubling is that truth can so often
be used as a weapon to dominate someone else. This insight has become the basis
of an intellectual movement labeled "postmodernism." Postmodernism agrees
with the following statement: "Whenever someone claims to be speaking the
truth, look out, because that someone is angling to get power over someone
else." <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The statement can easily be oversimplified
to saying that there is no such thing as truth. Such misinterpretation leads
people to reject any statement made by academics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><b>What
is Truth?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">We have to have truth. So we need a
definition of truth. I go to mathematics. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">In geometry, we speak of a plane as
a surface with width and length but no depth. There is no such thing in
reality. But the idea is useful. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The concept of god or God is useful
in the same way. I define truth as "the story the way God (or the gods)
would tell it."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Truth is a quality of a story. Did
the criminal intend to kill the victim? We may never know, but somewhere there
is a truth: either the criminal did or did not intend to kill the victim. We
have a tool to try to determine which story is true, the jury trial. We know
that juries can be wrong, but they are the best we have. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">In other areas, science plays the
same role. Is the vaccine safe? It is or it isn't. We use observation and peer
review to try to determine which story is true. Those tools can be wrong, but
they are the best we have. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">A third source, which supplements both
jury trials and science, is testimony. We accept some people's story as true
because we trust those people. Jurors trust witnesses. Scientists trust other
scientists. Religious people trust their faith leaders. Politicians trust their
pollsters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Which brings us to Donald Trump. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Mr. Trump claims that the 2000
election was stolen. Either it was or it wasn't. The truth is the story that
God would tell. We use science and testimony to try to determine which story is
true. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">We have used a combination of
scientific observation of how the voting process is carried out and testimony
of people who were involved in the voting process. Out of those two sources we
have concluded that the story that God would tell is that the election was not
stolen. We could be wrong. We have claimed to speak the truth, but watch out,
we may be angling to get power over you. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The durability of the story that
Mr. Trump tells is based on two things: the reality that many people do not
understand the value of science, and the ease with which stories, true or
false, can be propagated by social media. We combine those two facts with the
danger that Mr. Trump and the people who testify in his defense are angling to
get power, the power of government. He can correctly argue that people who
oppose him are also angling to get power. Which is true? Which story would God
tell?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><b>Truth
and Faith</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">I am a professionally religious
person--I make my living from religion. My faith, Roman Catholicism, claims to
speak the truth. Our claim is one of the reasons why academics say that people
who claim to speak the truth are often angling to get power. We have a sad
history of popes and other church leaders who have used power in very
unfortunate ways. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The Catholic church leadership
still uses power. If I state something publicly that goes against church
teaching, I can be out of a job. That is power. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Catholic tradition has put too much
weight on what we call "natural law." The term implies that there are
certain stories that everyone accepts as true, and that anyone who does not
accept the stories is either ignorant or is lying. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">But there are no such stories.
History is full of examples of stories that everyone thought were true but were
later judged not to be true. One example from Christian (and Jewish and Muslim)
tradition is that charging interest on loans leads to bad outcomes and is
therefore evil. It was not until the 1400s or 1500s that most Christian
communities accepted the alternate story: under some conditions, charging
interest on loans will not lead to evil outcomes and is therefore permissible. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">We are human beings, not gods. We
cannot tell the story that God would tell. We can only grope towards the true
story.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">And once we think we have some
grasp of the story that God would tell, we enrich our knowledge with our love
of other people and of the creation that God has given us. We do the best we
can not to use truth to get power over others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">For a fine reflection on the
relationship between truth and love, I suggest reading Pope Benedict XVI's 2009
letter "Caritas in Veritate," ("Love joined with Truth"),
available on the Vatican website. Benedict does not discuss definitions of
truth. He asks us to reflect on the beautiful things that love can produce when
it merges with and enriches truth. including scientific truth. <o:p></o:p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-32899424540168950102023-03-23T11:46:00.001-05:002023-03-23T11:47:20.736-05:00Website migration<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">With the help of the Quincy University Advancement Office, I
have set up a website, and plan to move things from this blog to that site.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The website address is:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><b>friarzimm.com</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The website has a modified blog format. I have divided the
entries into two categories, "religion" and "secular
issues." Under each heading the entries are listed with the most recent
post on top. The titles of the entries are displayed, and the site is more
easily searchable by topic. </span><o:p></o:p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-27645232314727237212023-02-06T04:57:00.000-06:002023-02-06T04:57:36.956-06:00The wrong turn<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">[published in Muddy River News 2/3/2023]</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">The pro-life movement in this country is in the ditch. At a
crucial moment they swerved in the wrong direction, like a driver on a patch of
ice, and overturned.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>This is sad, because their moral instinct is right—every
abortion is a tragedy. It is not something that people cheer about. We do not make
jokes about it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>At a crucial moment, in 1973, after Roe v. Wade, defenders
of the unborn went on record in favor of the quintessential American solution
to all problems: pass laws. Punish evil and you will stamp out evil. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>No. You will not stamp out evil because you will not stamp
out sin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>Sin is a bad word in our times. It calls to mind Puritan
divines preaching the wrath of God, and most of us Christians no longer see God
as wrathful. That is not because we have abandoned religion. We just started
realizing the message of Jesus Christ: God is not in favor of punishment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>The wrong turn that the pro-life people made in 1972 was to
go for the political solution to the tragedy of abortion. Roe said that states
could not use law to prevent abortion. The solution: overturn Roe. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>The prolife cause succeeded. The dog caught the car. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>What has happened is the exact opposite of what prolife
defenders want. It has made abortion something to be defended in public.
Democratic politicians go on record in favor of it. Protecting abortion has
become a virtue. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>True, it took law to abolish slavery. But slavery and
abortion are very different issues. Slavery was a public practice, with immense
economic consequences. Abortion is very private, and while abortion provision
has economic consequences, as the prolife cause points out, it does not compete
with Microsoft.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>What prolife defenders should have done is work to create a
moral consensus that abortion is tragic. Instead they have caused a major
political party to promote a moral consensus that abortion is to be defended. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>It did not have to be this way. But our American flaw, where
there is sin, punish, captured the prolife cause. </span><o:p></o:p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-18440410337484994492022-12-10T21:36:00.000-06:002022-12-10T21:36:38.077-06:00the hood<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the hood</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span> </span>for me</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span> </span>is what franciscans wear<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .3in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span> </span>what drew me to
them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">think of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">sixth grade</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .3in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">christmas midnight
mass<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .3in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">first year
serving mass<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>st. mary’s hospital<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .3in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">two franciscans
appear<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>deacon and subdeacon<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(sisters wanted solemn high mass)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>never saw one before<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
liked the hood<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>neat!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">three years later<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>high
school seminary<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>lots
of hoods<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
reflect<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>you
know,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>hoods
invite<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>could
grab them<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>from
behind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>these
are guys you could<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>grab
from behind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>stop
in their tracks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>I
like that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>I
want to be like that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">why?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .3in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">who knows?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>something
in me?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a leper stopped francis in his tracks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>changed
his life<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>go
to the bottom <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>be
like the carp<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>feed
on the bottom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>who
cares what the neighbors think<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>where
you find Jesus<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>where
Jesus finds you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">francis in a broken down church<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>crucifix
in a broken down church<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>a
leper church<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>but
this time a message:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Build!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>OK<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>said
francis<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
will build<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
need stones<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Give me stones<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>and off he went.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>false
start<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>nobody
hurt<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>some
buildings fixed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>but
new direction<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>build
people<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>build
up souls<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>broken
down souls<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>bottom
again<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .3in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">no wonder anyone
can stop these guys<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>in their tracks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">why me?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>background?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>questionable
grandfathers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>one
suicide, other probably alcoholic<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>yet
loving parents<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>parents
without pedigree<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>alcohol
and suicide ruin pedigrees<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>did
they find Jesus on the bottom?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>did
Jesus find them on the bottom?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>maybe
they taught me<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>go
to the bottom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Jesus
will find you<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">so I like the hood<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>foolish
motive for seventy years of living<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>but it held up<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>don’t
even wear the hood that much now<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>but it’s there<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> s</span>omeone
could stop me in my tracks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">good way to live</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">actually, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>not
a half bad way to accept death<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>pulled
from behind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>get
stopped in my tracks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>hope
by Jesus this time<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-74871914360240936232022-10-23T08:59:00.001-05:002022-10-23T08:59:38.867-05:00Pews<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Church pews are the single greatest
obstacle to the Eucharistic liturgy as envisioned by the Second Vatican
Council. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For the last two or three summers,
excepting the Covid-limited years, we friars here at Holy Cross Friary have
shared our Eucharist each weekday on the covered patio between the two
buildings that make up our friary. Some years ago we bought fifteen or twenty
outdoor furniture chairs to accommodate the people that began to join us. We
were tired of dragging dinner chairs out of our two houses. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But this past summer even the new
chairs were not enough, and we were dragging dinner chairs out again. People
say they love sharing the Eucharist with us and with one another in that
setting. This is what liturgy should be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course, with the coming of autumn,
the weather has driven us indoors, but even more important is our desire to use
the University chapel for those weekday Masses so that students might be
welcomed. But as soon as we return to the chapel, what happens?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All the congregants scatter. It is
like what physicists call “Brownian motion,” where molecules seek the greatest
distance from one another in any given space. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have a dream. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the dream we would remove all the
pews in the chapel and replace them with reasonably comfortable chairs. We
would move the altar from its platform and put it down on the floor in the
midst of the chairs. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We would have to have enough chairs
to accommodate larger groups, but surely that obstacle could be overcome. We
would set up enough chairs to seat the number we expect, just as we have done
on our patio. If more come, we could easily take some out of the storage space
and use them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Movable chairs would require labor to
place them and clean under them. Since a typical weekday Mass draws at most
twenty-five people, that would not be a huge project. Even the Sunday Masses
draw only fifty or sixty people. It would be a rear occasion when enough chairs
would have to be used to fill the chapel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But the arrangement would place the
worshippers within speaking distance from the presider, and close to one
another. This is what I think is attractive about our summer patio Masses. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I shudder at the thought of removing
those beautiful pews—such fine wood, over a hundred years old. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But does keeping them sacrifice a
living liturgy to dead wood? The pews were put there when the couple of hundred
students at the College were required to attend Mass, at least on Sundays. The
only time I have seen the chapel full in recent years is for special occasions:
the night when we bless all the college athletes, and graduation time. This
past May the chapel was not full even for the graduation Mass. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But could we afford such a change? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The wood in these pews is
magnificent. Maybe we could cover the cost of removing them, re-carpeting the
floor, and replacing them with chairs just by selling the wood in the existing
pews. Each pew has planks fourteen feet long and some feet wide. Finding a
buyer might require patience and widening the search, but when some people are
salvaging wood from old barns, others might salvage it from pews.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Eucharist is a living form of
worship. Many beautiful churches in other places have become museums. Ours are
headed in that direction. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Beauty is wonderful, but prayer with
one another is even more wonderful, and prayer in the Eucharistic presence of
Jesus is heavenly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I would mourn the loss of our pews.
But I would mourn more if they were to burn in a church fire, or get eaten by
termites in a boarded-up building. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Furniture should serve life, not
strangle it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-24472638845766993002022-07-03T11:08:00.000-05:002022-07-03T11:08:06.018-05:00Abortion is tearing our country apart<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Abortion is tearing our country
apart. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Few people see abortion as a positive
good. That includes many of the women who choose to have an abortion. Yet our
politics have forced us into two camps. Both sides of the issue are to blame. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Those of us who are Catholic
Democrats do not see abortion as a good thing. The issue is not whether
abortion is wrong, but whether it is a good thing for the state to make it
illegal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is possible to argue that
some behaviors are evil but that getting the state to punish them creates more
problems than we wish to accept. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There are countries that make
prostitution legal. There are countries that make use of any kind of drug
legal. There are excellent arguments on both sides of those issues, but
countries have made the decision that the lesser evil is on the side of
permissiveness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our own country experimented with
making alcohol use illegal. Few people saw alcohol addiction as good, but
eventually the country decided that the lesser evil was to permit alcohol use.
We have gradually developed ways of dealing with alcoholism better than making
alcohol use illegal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There are better ways of dealing with
problem pregnancies than making abortion illegal. We can support women, and
men, who find themselves pregnant. We can support them socially and
financially. Many<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>groups such as
Birthright have been doing heroic work in support of such people. But when a
problem is so massive that private initiative cannot effectively deal with it,
we use government support, no matter what it costs. We do that with floods and
fires and hurricanes, and now with Ukraine. We need to do it with our own
people who are pregnant. Whether the pregnancy is their own fault or not is not
the issue. They and their unborn children are ours, and we take care of our
own. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We are not heartless people who care
only for fetuses but not about women after their children are born. We are not
heartless people who see fetuses as a form of maternal disease. We are people
who have gotten ourselves into polarized camps by leaders who are too willing
to fight rather than to talk. We need to talk, and talk some more, and
recognize that our opponents are human just like us, moral people just like us,
and not as cocksure about their rightness as our leaders are trying to make us
believe. <o:p></o:p></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1174185507644054433.post-5674024747995783432022-05-17T10:42:00.000-05:002022-05-17T10:42:54.286-05:00Lattices<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lattices<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>A lattice is a structure around which climbing plants can
grow. The image suggests an inanimate thing, the lattice, providing a means for
a living thing, a plant, to flourish. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>Churches are lattices. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>A church provides a structure within which people can
experience God. The life is in the people and their experience, not in the
structure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>Take the Catholic Church. It provides places where people can
gather, and gathering is essential for experiencing God. It provides a script
for behavior when the people gather (liturgy). It provides resources that can
enrich the experience (Scripture and theology). It structures experience around
life events: baptism, Eucharist, burial. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>Within the structure, all kinds of different experiences
occur. Some people experience God through mysticism, some through concrete acts
of service to others, some through a regular routine of prayer. Many withdraw
from the lattice but continue to find God through faint memories of the stories
of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>People who have never had the experience of the structure
never benefit from what the structure can provide. They are like athletes who
grow up without coaching, and whose abilities may or may not ever fully
develop, or like musicians who have not had people around them who will nurture
their musical abilities. Some such people will overcome their disabilities and
develop a relationship with God in their own way. Many, perhaps most, will not.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>That is the cause for regret on the part of us religious
people. We are like people who love music and regret that some people never get
to experience the goodness of musical experience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>The regret is the motive for what we call evangelization. We
do not evangelize for the sake of numbers—statistics about church membership
and ritual attendance are misleading. We who manage the structures are managing
wood and nails, not living things. God is moving in our structures, we hope,
and sharing abundant life. Our role is to let plants grow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>We of the structure are human beings, which means that we are
sinful. We develop pathologies of structuring. We fall in love with controlling
other people, or with pride in creating beautiful buildings and objects. We
love creating rules, because rules are one way for us to gain power over other
people. Rule breakers get ruled out of conversations. We get into fights with
other religious people, sometimes even to the point of using violence. This is
especially true when we merge our lattices with political lattices, whose
function is to keep us at peace with one another. Church and state merge, and
the structures smother life instead of promoting it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>For some reason we church people got the idea that we have to
control the world in order for people to come to God. No. We just have to
provide the lattice and get out of the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A poem<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>Weeds</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">have sympathy for weeds<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>flowers
out of place<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">true, not so pretty<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>don’t
look like flowers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>have
to look close<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">but persistent<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>even
in sidewalks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">God works that way<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>life
out of place<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">often not so pretty<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>have
to look close<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">we church people are sidewalks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>weeds
are life<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>(Joe Zimmerman)http://www.blogger.com/profile/16785598522396951782noreply@blogger.com0