A Sound of Sheer Silence

Charlie has hit every major military target in Vietnam, and hit 'em hard. In Saigon, the United States Embassy has been overrun by suicide squads. Khe Sahn is standing by to be overrun. We also have reports that a division of N.V.A. has occupied all of the city of Hue south of the Perfume River. In strategic terms, Charlie's cut the country in half... the civilian press are about to wet their pants and we've heard even Cronkite's going to say the war is now unwinnable. In other words, it's a huge shit sandwich, and we're all gonna have to take a bite.   --Lt. Lockhart, Full Metal Jacket (1987). Everything is going to shit.  In your heart, you know I'm right. For my American readers, we are collectively living in Year 2 of the slow-motion car crash that is the Trump regime.  And, as I sit here on New Year's Eve, every indicator suggests that we are about to enter into some sort of new, more baroque version in Year 3, as the Mueller investigation clos...

I mentioned in a previous post about the increasingly obvious generational divide in the Episcopal Church, which was on display at General Convention.  I can't really speak to the attitudes coming from the Baby Boomer crew toward the younger generations, but the critique coming from the younger folks toward their elders can be boiled down to "your theology/theological praxis is bad."  For the younger folks of a more conservative bent with regard to the fundamentals of the faith (as distinguished from the sex/gender issues that are almost inevitably the fault lines in Roman Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism), this is usually expressed as the criticism that the Baby Boomers have watered down or sold out core Christian doctrines and distinctives.  But even among the younger folks who have a more progressive theological orientation you can find frustration with the Baby Boomers, leading me to believe that "they don't take the Creeds seriously enough" is...

But the Church’s theological factions are sufficiently far apart that each would rather do nothing than let the other side lead reform — because the liberals think the conservatives want an inquisition, the conservatives think the liberals want Episcopalianism, and there is some truth in both caricatures. --Ross Douthat, "Sheep Without Shepherds," November 17, 2018 . We are coming to the end, I think, of things to say about the sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church that are not restatements of previous ideas.  But, to go out, I'd like to unpack this is a very smart and insightful observation by Ross Douthat. Let's take the second part first.  On Twitter,  Francis biographer Austen Ivereigh expressed confusion as what Douthat meant by "Episcopalianism" in the above quote .  Maybe things are different in the UK, but I don't think Douthat was being obtuse at all.  "Episcopalianism," in the US Catholic context, is simply a push by fol...

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots ...

This Saturday, our priory of the Community of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer had our first monthly day of reflection.  There are five of us here in Columbus, at least for now--we have a half-dozen or so folks who are interested.  In any event, we met for about four hours, mostly just talking about what is going on in our individual and collective lives, as well as a book we are reading together.  In many ways, it was like chapter meetings that have been going on in monasteries and other religious communities for 1600 years.  But, there is was at least one way in which it was different from those chapter meetings.  Among the five of us, only one--me--is a straight man. In the last 36 hours, I have been trying to put together what I think the significance of this fact is, because I think it is significant, at least on some modest scale.  While we were meeting, we learned that one of the oldest horrors that have stalked Christian and Christian-influenced so...

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  (2 Corinthians 3:1-6) In the last week, I have found articles from two writers who I have discussed in these electronic pages--Melinda Selmys and Damon Linker--announcing that they are leaving the Roman Catholic Church.  While there are differences in the rationales offered by both for...

We have intentionally obscured the unambiguously clear, unifying message of the New Testament, in all of its diversity—that God’s agenda is to transfigure the world through nonviolent, self-sacrificial love. That is the Jesus way. There is simply no way around this. — Jonathan Martin (@theboyonthebike) October 4, 2018 I happened to see this first thing this morning.  It's very much worth reading in full, but I was particularly struck by these two observations. The fact of the matter is, the pendulum will swing hard the other way against the powers that be, & there is plenty I am not/will not be comfortable with. But don’t miss the point-even when it gets a little wild or far, that doesn’t mean Spirit isn’t at work in the anarchy. — Jonathan Martin (@theboyonthebike) October 4, 2018 It sounds like a rushing mighty wind, but it is only experienced as violence to those that resist it. Sons & daughter will go too far in their newfound freedom, like all liber...

There is a lot of talk about "owning your privilege."  Allow me to make an attempt at owning mine. One of the things about my life that I am increasingly aware is very unusual for a straight man of my age is that I have a handful of very close, very deep male friendships.  There are three or four (depending on the circumstances) people that I have known for a very long time (20+ years) and with whom I feel comfortable sharing personal things--struggles, fears, losses, disappointments.  And these people have shared similar things in their lives with me. This has been an enormous blessing in my life, one of the top two or three blessings that I have received.  But it has one notable downside, and has created a notable blindspot.  Because I know these guys so well, and so intimately, they form the baseline for what I think men as a whole are like.  Or, more accurately, they form a sample set from which I extrapolate my back-of-the-envelope estimates of wha...

Lots of people have said lots of better and smarter things about #metoo, particularly in light of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings ( most recent update here , though this story is evolving at warp speed), than I can.  I have never been assaulted, so I cannot speak to the experience.  I have, however, noticed a couple of things out there in the discussion that I think are worth commenting on. 1. "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" and "Innocent Until Proven Guilty."   Lawyers, and people who like to sound like lawyers, often try to gaslight people who are concerned about an accusation against someone by saying things like "people are innocent until proven guilty!" and "where is your proof beyond a reasonable doubt?"  The idea here, of course, is that you are a bad person for "immediately assuming" that a person is guilty of whatever they are accused of, whereas the speaker is a reasoned and broad-minded and fair person.  This is nonse...