Friday, May 26, 2006
Going WAY Out On A Limb
I was born in Oxford, Mississippi in 1957, at the University of Mississippi. A large section of my extended family still lives in Mississippi so I have visited there often through the now nearly 50 years of my life. I was born in the heart of segregationist racism and have seen its ugliness. I have watched the south change through the years and it is fair to say that institutional racism is dead. It is fair to say that physical oppression, in the form of enforced poverty, is dead. Poverty exists without question, but it is no longer the the result of institutional discrimination.
That said, in some circles, racist attitudes still exist. It is painful to behold. In the wink of an eye otherwise lovely and wonderful people are transformed into very ugly, very mean ogres. And worse, I have seen such attitudes eat at their very souls, robbing them of a real richness of life. The attitude is a personal corruption, it is a small crucuble into which all that can be ugly in a human is crammed and it comes out like Gollum comes from Smeagol.
Such an ugliness hid in the heart of Christendom for centuries in the form of antisemitism. Despite the fact that Christianity was born of Judiaism, Christians through the centuries treated Jews much like blacks were treated in the American south.
Bigotry against blacks was born of two basic ideas - one racial, the other economic. It was useful to think about blacks as sub-human because such thoughts enabled slavery and the spiral went downward from there.
In the case of Jews and Christians, the bigotry was born, I think, out of the idea that Jews were not saved and simple adolescent rebellion. What child does not at some point in achieving maturity declare the absolute vileness of their parents? Somehow it seems to be a part of the break away.
The personal corruption I mention above is one of the reasons I have been so worked up about fundamentalist, "truly reformed" declarations concerning Catholicism. It is, in the end a purely discriminatory, ultimately segregationist attitude that is a corruption in the heart of good people.
Now, most people will say there is a big difference between declaring Catholics as "unsaved" or "not-Christians" and the kind of oppressive bigotry under which blacks and Jews have historically suffered. - Agreed, but within the declarations concerning Catholics lie the seeds of that same vile oppressive bigotry.
In the south today, save in the darkest corners of redneck bars far from civilization, you do not here the truly perjorative terms anymore - the "n-word" for example. No, the racist attitude expresses itself in a tone, in a look, in the idea that "they are not as good as us and they simply cannot be."
There is more, I think, to the declarations that Catholics are not real Christians than a simple theological distinction. The declarations are made too often, too vigorously, and with a bit too much enjoyment to be a simple academic statement. When you read them, you get the feeling that when the people that "really" know the truth get together in the dark corner of a sancturary far from civilization, the analogies to the "n-word" are uttered.
They also smack of the same adolescent rebellion from Catholicism that one sees in Catholicism as it relates to Judiasm. The Catholic thinking started simply enough, but through the centuries it grew to the horror that was the Holocaust. Not, mind you, that the Catholics are responsible directly for the Holocaust, but they kept anitsemiticism alive for centuries for Hitler to find and worsen.
The attitudes we harbor concerning others hides in our hearts and eats at our souls. Eventually they will eat our heart itself and leave us loveless - an empty husk filled not with the love of Christ, but only a disapproval, if not downright hatred, of all those we consider "the other." It is an ugly way for a person to end up.
My concern about these uttereances is not only a defense of my Catholic brethren, but also a deep concern and love for my fundamentalist brethren. I do not want to see them end up ugly and loveless.
Related Tags: bigotry, racism, antisemitism, discrimination, Catholic bigotry
That said, in some circles, racist attitudes still exist. It is painful to behold. In the wink of an eye otherwise lovely and wonderful people are transformed into very ugly, very mean ogres. And worse, I have seen such attitudes eat at their very souls, robbing them of a real richness of life. The attitude is a personal corruption, it is a small crucuble into which all that can be ugly in a human is crammed and it comes out like Gollum comes from Smeagol.
Such an ugliness hid in the heart of Christendom for centuries in the form of antisemitism. Despite the fact that Christianity was born of Judiaism, Christians through the centuries treated Jews much like blacks were treated in the American south.
Bigotry against blacks was born of two basic ideas - one racial, the other economic. It was useful to think about blacks as sub-human because such thoughts enabled slavery and the spiral went downward from there.
In the case of Jews and Christians, the bigotry was born, I think, out of the idea that Jews were not saved and simple adolescent rebellion. What child does not at some point in achieving maturity declare the absolute vileness of their parents? Somehow it seems to be a part of the break away.
The personal corruption I mention above is one of the reasons I have been so worked up about fundamentalist, "truly reformed" declarations concerning Catholicism. It is, in the end a purely discriminatory, ultimately segregationist attitude that is a corruption in the heart of good people.
Now, most people will say there is a big difference between declaring Catholics as "unsaved" or "not-Christians" and the kind of oppressive bigotry under which blacks and Jews have historically suffered. - Agreed, but within the declarations concerning Catholics lie the seeds of that same vile oppressive bigotry.
In the south today, save in the darkest corners of redneck bars far from civilization, you do not here the truly perjorative terms anymore - the "n-word" for example. No, the racist attitude expresses itself in a tone, in a look, in the idea that "they are not as good as us and they simply cannot be."
There is more, I think, to the declarations that Catholics are not real Christians than a simple theological distinction. The declarations are made too often, too vigorously, and with a bit too much enjoyment to be a simple academic statement. When you read them, you get the feeling that when the people that "really" know the truth get together in the dark corner of a sancturary far from civilization, the analogies to the "n-word" are uttered.
They also smack of the same adolescent rebellion from Catholicism that one sees in Catholicism as it relates to Judiasm. The Catholic thinking started simply enough, but through the centuries it grew to the horror that was the Holocaust. Not, mind you, that the Catholics are responsible directly for the Holocaust, but they kept anitsemiticism alive for centuries for Hitler to find and worsen.
The attitudes we harbor concerning others hides in our hearts and eats at our souls. Eventually they will eat our heart itself and leave us loveless - an empty husk filled not with the love of Christ, but only a disapproval, if not downright hatred, of all those we consider "the other." It is an ugly way for a person to end up.
My concern about these uttereances is not only a defense of my Catholic brethren, but also a deep concern and love for my fundamentalist brethren. I do not want to see them end up ugly and loveless.
Related Tags: bigotry, racism, antisemitism, discrimination, Catholic bigotry
