tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post7729999415945580962..comments2024-03-23T12:05:23.537-05:00Comments on The Wild Reed: Revisiting Our Catholic "Stonewall Moment"Michael J. Baylyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03087458490602152648noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-26774412256858774232008-07-13T20:22:00.000-05:002008-07-13T20:22:00.000-05:00Michael, First, touché - very well said, but back ...Michael, <BR/><BR/>First, touché - very well said, but back to the discussion.<BR/><BR/>The 60's have a long geneology (sic). I see as it as part of the Romantic Period in literature, and similar movements in music, the arts and some philosophy. Indeed, recent digging into the roots of Constructivism has shown me its roots extent back to 1710 or so, predating even Kant's Critiques. So my limited appreciation of the 1960s is part, I hope, of a larger appreciation of its roots. Its the last place I look for original thought or praxis, that's for sure.<BR/><BR/>As far as presumptious judgement of Mary's Hunt's faith community: too darn bad. There's much in parish life to cause dismay, but that is where you find the great bulk of Catholic people in the U.S. Not all by any means. But to ignore them? Where I work a number of highly qualified theologians (to former priests come immediately to mind) can't stand to participate in parish life because they think the preaching stinks and the preachers are idiots. They may be right, but they are doing theology in a vacuum. Theological generalization from one's fellow-travelers-in-diaspora is, as the old say goes, preaching to and from the converted. Sorry, Ms. Hunt remains an elitist.<BR/><BR/>Re/questioning authority, if the pastors of the Church are to be damned for their faults, real and imagined, excuse me while I strip search their putative replacements. I am fond of old sayings, so this time I'll say "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."<BR/><BR/>And there is a particular difference WRT to education in this context. I'm not a mechanic, so somebody fixes my car. I'm not a physician, I go to a doctor when sick. But when it comes to theology, which I have been reading since the tender age 7 (lives of the saints), working my way through Aquinas in my teens, followed by Rahner and Schillebeex in my early 20s, and then in to the scholarly literature the last 20 years - all my formal and informal education is irrelevant next to being baptized into Christ, received the sacraments of initiation, and confirmed. That makes me the equal of anyone in the Catholic Church. My faith is no different than B16's and my responsibilities are no less than his, yours or anyone elses. Those responsibilities may be realized differently, but they are not diminished just because I'm a bloke in the pews.<BR/><BR/>If Mary Hunts theology is typical of what the Jesuits give us from Berkeley and Westin, please let us have less.<BR/><BR/>A personal note: my brother-in-law was 10 years in the Jesuits. He hit the eject button 3 semester hours short of his M.Div. because he didn't believe in it any more - not Jesus, not the Church, not the Jesuits, not any of it. Long story that, he was later diagnosed with severe, chronic mental illness. But he was certainly clear-headed enough to say the the majority of his Jesuit brothers at JSTB, and the shared faculty of GTU, approached their scholarly work as a job, but not as an extension of personal faith in Christ. Their reaction to the propositions of the pastors of the Church was less than derisive, as if pope and bishops were not even worth of recognition as teachers, much less scholarly and academic peers. They were not even worthy of contempt.<BR/><BR/>So, a big, fat raspberry for Mary Hunt and her theology. If I want to ready an original thinker, I'll look up Marx, who, I believe, was doing his best work (which as it was) in 1868.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-1670917744716513832008-07-13T19:34:00.000-05:002008-07-13T19:34:00.000-05:00Actually, Mark, I find your reaction to Mary Hunt ...Actually, Mark, I find <EM>your</EM> reaction to Mary Hunt to be “a predictable disappointment.” It too could be said to be bound by four number: 1. 8. 6. 8. (or thereabouts).<BR/><BR/>Also, I get a bit tired of the dissing of the 1960s by many of those intent on maintaining the status quo. I mean, for women, LGBT folks, and people of color, the decade of the 1960s was, and remains, a pivotal moment. Is it possible that being a straight white male can limit one’s appreciation of this particular era, I wonder?<BR/><BR/>I also question if it's in Catholic parishes where one finds the “disenfranchised and marginalized.” It also seems a bit presumptuous of you to be judging Mary Hunt’s small faith group. Whose to say that this worshiping community doesn’t inspire its members to go out and work with the “disenfranchised and marginalized” of our society?<BR/><BR/>Finally, does your heuristic to “question authority” extend to church authority, or is it restricted only to academic authority? As for your contention that “these people think they are smarter than we are. They’re not.” . . . Well, actually, in their areas of expertise, I think they <EM>are</EM> often “smarter” than many of us. Isn’t that the whole point of education?<BR/><BR/>Peace,<BR/><BR/>MichaelMichael J. Baylyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03087458490602152648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-69612091560435478292008-07-11T17:43:00.000-05:002008-07-11T17:43:00.000-05:00Sorry, Michael, but this is a predictable disappoi...Sorry, Michael, but this is a predictable disappointment from the first word to the last, bound by four numbers: 1. 9. 6. 8.<BR/><BR/>When I read sentences like "I don't attend Mass every Sunday; instead I participate in "Sisters Against Sexism (I'm paraphrasing of course)," I hear another "ism" at work: elitism. The author can't be bothered with the Holy Spirit's work among the unwashed in your run-of-the-mill, dumpy, frumpy, lumpy parish. THAT'S where you find the disenfranchised and marginalized.<BR/><BR/>No, listen closely enough in this essay and you'll hear echoes of Luther calling the Pope the Anti-Christ, while Rome's robotic minions suppress the Pure Gospel We've Just Discovered/Recovered/Uncovered (TM).<BR/><BR/>Here's my heuristic: Question (Academic) Authority. These people think they are smarter than we are. They're not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com