I'm sitting here on Ash Wednesday. I'm not going to be able to go to Mass, but I am refraining from meat today. I wonder how serious No Meat Fridays are in Lent? Is it more important than other Fridays? I don't usually keep that custom/discipline. Quite frankly, I'll probably need some sort of edict from the Archbishop to start, because not eating meat is so unnatural to me. One time, I went an entire meal without eating meat, because it all was suffused with cheese/onions/something gross, but that was not a willing choice. Anyway, I didn't come here to tell you that. I should probably piously comment on this, but I didn't come here to tell you that, either. Oh, fine. I don't think Catholic apologists and other leaders should tease Catholics about the penances they impose on themselves. Sure, they might seem weak from the outside, but not to the person who chose it. The good I have chosen to lay aside has been a gateway to anger and frustration at times, and because that itself is a gateway to worse things, there you go. Lent is a season of repentance and turning from sin, but the disciplines in it are also to lay aside attachments and strengthen spiritual muscles of self-denial. I can remember last year, as a candidate for entry into the Church*, I wanted that denial to help me focus on the urgency of my decision. [Just think, Tim: All we had to do to keep him was force him to drink a soda.--ed.] Fat chance. Anyway, I don't sense the solemnity of the season quite yet, because I'm excited and hopeful for all the catechumens and candidates, here and everywhere.
I wanted to talk about Jeremy Lin. I may not have the right to just adopt myself into the culture simply because I spent nearly 2 years at an American Chinese Protestant church, or because my two of my best friends (and many others) share that ethnic background. Still, by observation, there are things I should say. I want to hear Jeremy talk about race. I want him to be blunt with us about the discrimination he's faced. I want his own prejudices and racism (if there is any) to be talked about as well. It needs to be. On the one hand, we are not going to homogenize Jeremy into our monolithic "American" culture, at least not completely. And we need to be OK with that. On the other hand, there is a pernicious tendency to absolutize and lionize those ethnic markers, and juxtapose them in complete opposition to that American culture and its political system (and people). Dr. Anthony Bradley, I may be looking in your direction. There is nothing more debilitating to any dialogue about "race" than, "You wouldn't understand, and you can't, because you're white." Even if it is true that the first response to all the Marxist garbage about the issue in politics is "colorblindness," which denies that distinctiveness, that "otherness" that longs to be expressed. Even if that impulse to homogenize is a "White" impulse. (Let me add that there is nothing worse, possibly, than a Christian, who, having imbibed some bad ideas uncritically, repeats them as "gospel imperatives.") We can say that the pressure to conform is coming too fast, or doesn't leave room. But especially if one is a Christian, we ought never to say, "You wouldn't understand..." Because it's arising directly from the Marxist "divide and conquer" playbook. Jeremy Lin has East Asian (Chinese) heritage, but he's an American. More importantly, he's a Christian. Let's let him explore and express all of those things (in order of importance, God-willing) and realize that as he does this--and as we allow each other to do this--we are enriching our shared experience together.
*Note: My starring of the word "Church" above itentionally and exclusively refers to the Catholic Church; that is, those in communion with the Bishop of Rome. If you are Orthodox, I'm sorry about Constantinople, and perhaps the imperious manner various holders of that venerable Chair may have had. Even so, they do hold it. Ahem. If you are Protestant and this offends you, be advised that your various individual mental phantasms of what constitutes the Church are not an ecclesiology. Thank you; come again.
I wanted to talk about Jeremy Lin. I may not have the right to just adopt myself into the culture simply because I spent nearly 2 years at an American Chinese Protestant church, or because my two of my best friends (and many others) share that ethnic background. Still, by observation, there are things I should say. I want to hear Jeremy talk about race. I want him to be blunt with us about the discrimination he's faced. I want his own prejudices and racism (if there is any) to be talked about as well. It needs to be. On the one hand, we are not going to homogenize Jeremy into our monolithic "American" culture, at least not completely. And we need to be OK with that. On the other hand, there is a pernicious tendency to absolutize and lionize those ethnic markers, and juxtapose them in complete opposition to that American culture and its political system (and people). Dr. Anthony Bradley, I may be looking in your direction. There is nothing more debilitating to any dialogue about "race" than, "You wouldn't understand, and you can't, because you're white." Even if it is true that the first response to all the Marxist garbage about the issue in politics is "colorblindness," which denies that distinctiveness, that "otherness" that longs to be expressed. Even if that impulse to homogenize is a "White" impulse. (Let me add that there is nothing worse, possibly, than a Christian, who, having imbibed some bad ideas uncritically, repeats them as "gospel imperatives.") We can say that the pressure to conform is coming too fast, or doesn't leave room. But especially if one is a Christian, we ought never to say, "You wouldn't understand..." Because it's arising directly from the Marxist "divide and conquer" playbook. Jeremy Lin has East Asian (Chinese) heritage, but he's an American. More importantly, he's a Christian. Let's let him explore and express all of those things (in order of importance, God-willing) and realize that as he does this--and as we allow each other to do this--we are enriching our shared experience together.
*Note: My starring of the word "Church" above itentionally and exclusively refers to the Catholic Church; that is, those in communion with the Bishop of Rome. If you are Orthodox, I'm sorry about Constantinople, and perhaps the imperious manner various holders of that venerable Chair may have had. Even so, they do hold it. Ahem. If you are Protestant and this offends you, be advised that your various individual mental phantasms of what constitutes the Church are not an ecclesiology. Thank you; come again.
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