Wednesday, July 25, 2007

HALLELUJAH! Pope rebukes Twits for Jesus

If you were a space alien beamed over from the planet Zorkon to observe the "Christianity phenomenon," what would you conclude -- absent any extensive knowledge of historical Christian belief, liturgy, music and art? How would you evaluate the bad lounge-lizardry that passes for liturgical (or "praise") music? What would you make of the banal, Stuart Smalleyesque lyrical content?

What would you think if you went to your neighborhood Lifeway or local Catholic bookstore to peruse what Christians were reading about? What would you make of the gaudy, tacky and superficial "Jesus junk" cluttering the display space?

What would you think of this "Christianity phenomenon" by observing how it interacted -- both intellectually and on a grassroots, practical level -- with the secular spheres of letters, philosophy, science and art?

What conclusions would you draw when you compared and contrasted "Christian" contemporary music, books, television and film with the best of their "secular" counterparts?

AND HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN the phenomenon of "Bible-believing" Christians -- and their counterparts among "orthodox" Catholics -- who can look at almost two centuries of the fossil record supporting the evolution of species and the antiquity of humanity and its humanoid ancestors -- and find it easier to believe the Earth is 6,000-odd years old and all of science is out to get God rather than that perhaps they've been taking Genesis literally when it was meant to be taken metaphorically?

Then again, some of these folks are just as adept at taking parts of the Bible -- like John 6 -- metaphorically despite numerous clues it was meant to be taken quite literally.

It would appear that, when it comes to the whole evolution-creationism debate, Pope Benedict XVI has been thinking like a Zorkonite, concluding that a lot of us are just plain goofy.

According to
this MSNBC story, Benedict has declared "the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an 'absurdity,' saying that evolution can coexist with faith."

HALLELUJAH! The Church has been saying this for a while now, but it's always nice to have the Holy Father restate -- forcefully -- the freakin' obvious. When we've taught religious education to eighth-graders, Mrs. Favog and I have gotten used to the disbelieving looks when we tell the kiddos that the Church has no particular problem with the concept of evolution . . . so long as there's room for the Almighty in there somewhere.

Which is what the pope has just restated (while making sense on climate change as well):

The pontiff, speaking as he was concluding his holiday in northern Italy, also said that while there is much scientific proof to support evolution, the theory could not exclude a role by God.

“They are presented as alternatives that exclude each other,” the pope said. “This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.”

He said evolution did not answer all the questions: “Above all it does not answer the great philosophical question, ‘Where does everything come from?’”

Benedict also said the human race must listen to “the voice of the Earth” or risk destroying its very existence.

The pope is wrapping up a three-week private holiday in the majestic mountains of northern Italy, where residents are alarmed by the prospect of climate change that can alter their way of life.

“We all see that today man can destroy the foundation of his existence, his Earth,” he said in a closed door meeting with 400 priests on Tuesday. A full transcript of the two-hour event was issued on Wednesday.

“We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us,” said the pope, who has been spending his time reading and walking in the scenic landscape bordering Austria.
NOW THAT THE CHURCH has spoken common sense -- again -- about the Evolution Wars, can we start working on how we engage the culture as people of God?

Jesus, being fully God, happened to be the smartest and most cultured human being Who ever lived. With that as a given, can we as His followers now just stop acting like the half-witted side of the human family, all too eager to show up to the fancy cocktail party wearing our ABREADCRUMB AND FISH T-shirts and telling people to pull our cross?

No comments: