Is it strange that I was offended by Anglicanism's description as "Prose" as compared to Catholicism's "Poetry?" What is Methodism then, binary? This article has plenty of lucid self-expression, but not much thought.
If you can un-ironically use a phrase like "either way, the urge got stronger and I gave in" when discussing Catholicism, then you are indeed missing one of the deep-seated moral failures of that institution.
Hi Daniel, You make a good point about the article being very much about the individual. But I am not sure what "deep-seated moral failure you are referring to. The refusal to ordain women? I don't see that as a moral failure myself, though I haven;t time to go into the theology of it. To me, the American Church's ghastly response to sexual abuse by priests represents a moral failure. Or perhaps you refer to the Church's position regarding homosexuality. I do think the Church has been to preoccupied with the mechanics of sex and not enough preoccupied with its moral dimension. But that, too, would take too long for me to explain here. As for the poetry/prose bit, the Catholic vernacular Mass is as stunning an example of banal prose can be that I know of, where as the Episcopal Church's "prose" sounds like poetry to me. I realize, as a Catholic, that many take offense at certain of my Church's teaching. But I decline to take offense at that.
I was indeed referring to the pedophiles and the cover-up and the fact of that snake Cardinal having been rewarded for it. "The urge got stronger and I gave in" sounds more like pathology than religious experience.
No, you misunderstand; I was offended as a poet. As to the merits of ritual, I've always been fond of the Quakers.
My wife is a Quaker. And my stepdaughter Gwen went to Germantown Friends. And I did some lecturing at Haverford College. So I'm pretty Quaker-friendly myself (is that redundant, I wonder?). I should repost what I wrote some years ago about the church's sex scandal.
Is it strange that I was offended by Anglicanism's description as "Prose" as compared to Catholicism's "Poetry?" What is Methodism then, binary? This article has plenty of lucid self-expression, but not much thought.
ReplyDeleteIf you can un-ironically use a phrase like "either way, the urge got stronger and I gave in" when discussing Catholicism, then you are indeed missing one of the deep-seated moral failures of that institution.
Hi Daniel,
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about the article being very much about the individual. But I am not sure what "deep-seated moral failure you are referring to. The refusal to ordain women? I don't see that as a moral failure myself, though I haven;t time to go into the theology of it. To me, the American Church's ghastly response to sexual abuse by priests represents a moral failure.
Or perhaps you refer to the Church's position regarding homosexuality. I do think the Church has been to preoccupied with the mechanics of sex and not enough preoccupied with its moral dimension. But that, too, would take too long for me to explain here. As for the poetry/prose bit, the Catholic vernacular Mass is as stunning an example of banal prose can be that I know of, where as the Episcopal Church's "prose" sounds like poetry to me. I realize, as a Catholic, that many take offense at certain of my Church's teaching. But I decline to take offense at that.
FW,
ReplyDeleteI was indeed referring to the pedophiles and the cover-up and the fact of that snake Cardinal having been rewarded for it. "The urge got stronger and I gave in" sounds more like pathology than religious experience.
No, you misunderstand; I was offended as a poet. As to the merits of ritual, I've always been fond of the Quakers.
My wife is a Quaker. And my stepdaughter Gwen went to Germantown Friends. And I did some lecturing at Haverford College. So I'm pretty Quaker-friendly myself (is that redundant, I wonder?). I should repost what I wrote some years ago about the church's sex scandal.
ReplyDelete