Christianity in America today

 

At this point, it seems that traditional understandings of the Bible, especially of the gospels, and right- wing understandings are so different that people who call themselves Christian actually seem to be in two very different religions. The diffences are far greater than those from different translations.  I read two articles this week touching on this.  I hope the gift links work as I would like to know your reactions to these articles.  What does being Christian in America actually signify these days? 

https://wapo.st/4nXZZLr

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/charlie-kirk-christian-trump/684394/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Gospel of Luke: The Greek Word for Riches

The Greek Word (plusios) which Luke uses in his Gospel is NOT present in the OT, NOR the Gospel of John and rare in Mark and Matthew. From the list of verses below it can be seen that Luke portrays that difficulty of the rich entering the Kingdom of Heaven, the one verse from Mark that is common to Matthew and Luke. 

One might say that Luke illustrates that nothing is impossible with God in the story of Zacheus. Luke also transmits Mark's story about the poor woman in the Temple which Matthew does not. However, neither Mark nor Luke have Matthew's story about Joseph of Arimathea. 

Because of the presence of "camel" metaphor, I think we can say that Luke's teaching was in the mainstream of early Christianity. However, his repeated emphasis upon this teaching suggests that he wrote in a time and place where "riches" and/or its inverse, "the poor" might have been a more important topic than for Mark, Matthew, John.

You cannot serve God and mammon

In my opinion, the first step in reading any Gospel text is to situate the text within the context of the organization of the Gospels. Most scholars agree that Matthew and Luke had before them the Gospel of Mark and another source Q.  The only evidence that we have for Q are the common passages in both Matthew and Luke. Both Mark and Luke draw on sources which are unique to each of them.

All the material in last week's parable on the Master and Steward and this week's parable on the Rich man and the Poor Man are from Luke's sources.  Nothing from Mark at all! However, there is one very significant passage from Q: 

 Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

If we look at where this passage occurs in Matthew (below the break) we see that it occurs in a whole series of Q passages in Matthew. We know they are Q because Luke has brought them all into different places in his Gospel.  It is likely that Matthew just copied Q, while Luke used the passages in various places to shape his Gospel 

When we study or preach upon the Gospels for last week or this week it should be within the context of them being interpreted in the light of Q presented likely in its original form in Matthew, i.e. the contrast between Heavenly Treasures and Early Treasures.

In last week's Gospel the steward was so concerned for his self-interest and earthy treasures that he was criticized for neglecting his master's interests. In this week's Gospel the rich man is so concerned with his earthly treasures that he neglects storing up heavenly treasure in the form of taking care of the poor on his doorstep.

I would begin preaching this week's Gospel with the Luke 16:13 that ends last week's Gospel and then articulate simple lifestyles that focus upon placing the heart where true lasting treasure abides in contrast to those of the rich and famous.  

Podcast, "Mysticism is for everyone"

I don't know who, besides me, needs a break from politics. I came across this episode of Father Jim Martin's podcast on America Media. In this one he talks with Mirabai Starr, who is the author of several books. She discusses mysticism as something which is attainable by everyone. It is interesting that she comes from a secular Jewish background, but has explored the mysticism of many religions, and was particularly drawn to the Catholic mystics such as John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0bNQiLE7jg&list=PLFA_2Z1L-3tq0x873_jc5I9lDhuC3V9P4&index=1&pp=iAQB0gcJCesJAYcqIYzv

I found it interesting, maybe you will too.

White Christian Nationalism

 Charlie Kirk has now been turned into a national hero, given what amounted to a state funeral, and has also been effectively canonized by Bishops Barron and Doyle.  He was racist, misogynist, and an open white Christian nationalist who opposed separation of church and state. He felt the Constitution could be disregarded when needed.  He was often anti- Jewish (in spite of supporting Israel - I guess for him Israel was the lesser of the evils) and anti- Muslim in his rhetoric. All in all, he did not promote Jesus’s teachings in the gospels. Where is our country headed now?  Are we reliving in our own country the events that took place in Europe in the 1930s?  How will Americans respond?

A homily on that puzzling Gospel parable

I dug into my archives and found that I had preached once on Luke 16:1-13, the parable of the dishonest steward which we're discussing in another thread.  This homily is from 2010, when I had been ordained about six years. I don't think I've looked at it since I gave it back then.

 In its basic themes, the 2010 homily touches on some of the same ideas I've been sharing in our other thread.  So it's a little surprising to me how little my thought has changed in the last 15 years :-).  The other thing that struck me is: it's a really long homily!  This would have taken at least 20 minutes to preach.  I can't imagine what people were thinking, other than, "I hope he finishes soon!"  

Take it for what it's worth, it's below the break.

Today's puzzling Gospel passage

In my opinion, today's Gospel reading is the biggest head-scratcher in the three-year Sunday lectionary. 

FWIW - our parish did something today which I've noticed it frequently does when this reading comes around: rather than force its clergy to come up with a homily, it scheduled some special-event preaching with outside visitors.  In today's case, we had seminarians come in and talk to our parish about what it's like to be a seminarian.  And then during collection time, we took a 2nd collection for the Seminarian Education Fund.  So nobody had to craft a homily on today's Gospel reading.  Whew!

 What spiritual lesson(s) do you think should be drawn from this reading (Luke 16:13)?    Here is the passage:

Birthdays

Earlier this week, I turned 64.  No longer can I credibly claim to be in my early 60s.

The previous week, my wife and I had taken a week off from our jobs and driven up to Door County, WI for a quiet wedding anniversary getaway.  Originally, we had planned to go to Canada, but have been socked financially by some home repairs this year - have had to have two bathrooms remodeled and have a crawl space that needs to be watersealed.  So we scaled back the vacation plans.  

We had a wonderful week in Wisconsin, but we both knew that the emails and the work were piling up while we were gone.  My birthday happened to fall on the first day back, so I spent my birthday paying the price for being away from work for a week.

On the spectrum of birthday celebration expectations, I land on the low-key end.  I'm really not very comfortable being the center of attention, so I don't want everyone to make a big fuss over me.  Well, it's not bad for a few minutes.  But I'm really not looking to have a "special day".  I never take my birthday off from work.  

My wife is different: she wants more of a fuss on her birthday.  She will happily take her birthday off from work, and would be even happier if I would take it off, too, and whisk her away to an art museum or a botanical garden or some other indulgent day-long activity.  She'd like to be taken out to dinner, too.

It's not that I don't have any expectations.  I want a birthday cake and ice cream, and greeting cards are nice.  I actually don't feel that strongly about gifts.  In fact, gifts are a source of annoyance for the rest of the family, because they want me to send out a birthday list of desired gifts, and I can never think of anything to ask for.  We have what we need, and material things do not excite me very much.  I usually end up asking for gift cards, which is boring for everyone (including me).  

I've found that, when I don't put together a list of gift suggestions, my family comes up with interesting and thoughtful gifts.  This year, my wife had a piano tuner come in to tune a piano that hadn't been tuned in years - a terrific gift, which I never would have thought up on my own.  Two of the kids are going to pool resources to get us some theater tickets - how wonderful it is to look forward to a theater outing with them.     

Meanwhile, every year checked off brings me deeper into the last third, or quarter, or tenth of my life.  On my birthday, the mail brought two invitations to Medicare seminars in my area.  I'm going to have to start taking Medicare enrollment seriously.  Retirement sounds a little better these days than it has in the past (work is too stressful these days - I wish our society would come up with a way to ease up on the stress for us older workers).  I'm still three years away from "full social security", and six years away from maxing out my social security.  But there is no guarantee my employer will want me around that long.

So on the whole, my birthday was some combination of very nice, and quiet, and depressing :-)

What is your birthday attitude?

The Cross and our crosses

 This is my homily for today.  Today's readings are here.

*** NOTE *** Today is one of those infrequent Sundays when a Feast of the Lord supersedes a Sunday in Ordinary Time.  September 14th is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.  (It used to be called the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.)  Had this Sunday not landed on September 14th this year, today would have been the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Here is today's homily:

Dear State of Utah: Please don't execute Tyler Robinson

 Within the last hour or so, President Trump and others have announced that law enforcement officers have apprehended the man who allegedly shot Charlie Kirk.  The suspect's name is Tyler Robinson.  Reporters are now scrambling to learn all they can about him.  From what I am seeing, he has no previous criminal background.  Officials have stated they believe he was acting alone.

Assuming they charge and try this young man, and assuming he is convicted, I would simply raise my voice here to beg the state: please don't execute him.  The governor of Utah made a point in his initial press conference of stating, "We still have the death penalty in the State of Utah."

Many politicians and public figures from both left and right have said wise and true things since Kirk's assassination: that violence is never the answer; that it is not the way we solve problems in the United States.  Can we not say the same about the death penalty?  It comes across as an act of violent vengeance, rather than a meting out of justice.

State of Utah: please don't execute Tyler Robinson.

Washington Post and New York Times Editorials About Charlie Kirk

New York Times Concluding Paragraph 

This is a moment to turn down the volume and reflect on our political culture. It is a moment for restraint, rather than cycles of vengeance or the suspension of civil liberties, as some urged on Wednesday. It is also a moment to engage with people who have different views from our own. When societies lose the ability to argue peacefully and resort to violence to resolve their political debates, it usually ends very badly.

Washington Post Concluding Paragraph

The Utah event was supposed to be the first in a series of university visits this fall as part of Kirk’s American Comeback Tour. His voice might be gone, but his millions of fans will make sure his message is never silenced.

"Was it something they said?"

 Michael Sean Winters has an interesting article on the NCR site today: Can Democrats learn to speak like normal people? | National Catholic Reporter

He writes about the necessity for the Democratic Party to form a coalition.  "The fight for the soul of the Democratic Party continues to percolate, mostly beneath the surface, as Democratic leaders try and discern a way forward. The party must ask itself: How did we lose to Donald Trump? How can we win in rural states again, without which, we will never secure a majority in the Senate? Most immediately, Democrats need to figure out how to take back the House of Representatives in next year's midterms."

Catholic enclaves and Pew Research on the “ Nones”

 The religious professionals (and, maybe the Church Ladies) continue to wring their hands about the defections from Catholicism.  Pope Benedict’s “smaller, purer” church does seem to be becoming the reality. The RCC in the US now seems to mostly hang on to old Catholics, unwilling to give up, and young "trads" who long for an era they never knew.

Paul Baumann in Commonweal discusses an article about the increasing rate at which the RCC in America is losing active Catholics.  The article he references apparently advocates something along the lines of Dreher’s Benedict Option - creating enclaves of co-religionists that keep their distance from general society. 

Disney: Model of the Upper Class Economy

Disney and the Decline of the Middle Class 

In the midst of its fixation on Trump, I found a great article in the NYTimes.  It is a beautiful illustration of what has happened to the American economy in the past decade or two.

The recently renovated 1,863-square-foot King Kamehameha suite at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, which offers a huge bi-level great room, views of Cinderella Castle and a soaking tub, can go for $3,000 a night. The sleek GEO-82 Bar and Lounge in EPCOT offers a package that includes a tower of small bites, champagne or cocktails and a table with views of the park’s fireworks show for $179 a person (entry to the park not included but required). A wine-paired prix fixe meal at the Michelin-starred Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian hotel starts at over $1,200 for two. And so on.