Searching for God # 65

A couple of posts back, I opened the subject of the unconscious, and while the issue is fraught with cultural radioactivity, it warrants much more reflection.

First, there is a level of mystery to whatever might be buried from past memories, traumas, embarrassments, shame-inducing moments, deep and profound losses. Also, there is another quite paradoxical aspect of the unconscious, as Jung considered it. For males, there is a complementary female anima, a gestalt of feminine traits of which most men are either totally unfamiliar or repulsively denying. And, for women, there is a complementary male animus, a gestalt of masculine traits, with which most women are both open and comfortable.

Given the rise of feminism and its implications for the Christian church, not only the Roman Catholic church, after two centuries of a theology that is/was male-written, male-debated, male-creed-attendant, and male-seeded throughout the world, the question of a “reverse-engineered” conscious/unconscious gender identity might warrant at least a formal introduction into what have become vitriolic conflicts between many women and men, both in general as well as in specific relationships.

The question of  by whom and how power is deployed, manipulated, exercised and organized has historically rested on the premise, in the West, that men occupied positions of authority and responsibility in all organizations, especially in the Christian church. Except for a small number of female rebels, (think Béguinists in the Middle Ages and following in Europe) women were given two options: join a nunnery, remain single and live a life of worship of God or marry, have and raise children and manage the affairs of the home for their marriage partner.

In he twentieth century, women had what appeared to be three options for a career: teacher, nurse, secretary. And the question of marriage was still used against some women given their perceived unreliability, demonstrated that they might and likely would leave to have a family. For some women, being married also disqualified them from holding some nursing positions which had been reserved for single women. In the church, the business world and in academia, still, women were a significant minority, or were excluded completely, having no access to ordination in the church. Only the occasionally female academic (Madame Curie comes to mind), rose to prominence, although names or others are slowly surfacing as more research digs up strong, somewhat individualistic and highly intelligent woman in various fields.

In the 21^st century, occupational constrictions have virtually disappeared, while the political rhetoric of ‘equality and equity of the genders’ continues to rage. After more than one ‘wave’ of feminist theory, intensity of anger and measureable degrees of inclusion in the ranks of corporate, military, academic, legal, medical and even ecclesial arenas, the question of WOKE (ridicule of the liberal tolerant and civil positions of diversity, equity and inclusion) raised its hateful head, arms, bigotry in venomous animosity.

Radical most white supremacist males, most of who detest the LGBTQ+ community, and seek to reverse any gains made under what has become know as the DEI movement, aligned too often with angry alpha male wannabe tyrants, and a conscious and unconscious battalion of angry, and vengeful men who consider themselves to have been victimized by women are actively engage in a gender war of global dimensions. Women, and minority leaders of  a more balanced appreciation of both masculinity and femininity struggle even to open the discussion with the radicals on both sides.

The church, both caught in the vortex of this cultural maelstrom and an active historical participant in its origins, has some reflection on its threshold. First, it can acknowledge the history of alienation, separation and dismissal of women from roles held exclusively by men. Then, it has to confront the politically correct response of a generation of male ecclesial leaders, outside the Roman Catholic church, who bent over as sycophants in what can only be discerned, on reflection as deference to the errors of both commission and omission from their part. Men, mostly embedded in apologies, and attempts at over-compensation, practically lay down, reverentially of course, to the tidal wave of women seeking positions of ordination, executive and leadership in the church.

Women, were, paradoxically, put in the position of being ‘protected’ from stereotype males who could and would take advantage of them, by males who considered their campaign of protection of women as both necessary and ethical. Making haste slowly, was not either written or read in the memo on which most ecclesial leaders operated. Preference to female candidates, at a time when there was little if any preparation for the differences in both attitudes, perceptions, needs and aspirations of men and women, left a field flooded with female candidates, primarily because they were women.

Consistent with the protection movement, (and thereby the weaker gender archetype), the programs of prohibiting relationships between male clergy and female laity were written, engendered, propagated and enforced. Having historically commandeered as its special and exclusive field of morality and ethics, the field of human sexuality as ‘sacred’ and defined by marriage within the church, and declared all other sexual encounters as ‘evil, sinful, abhorrent and worthy of dismissal, the church was already ‘in over its head’ on matters of male-female sexuality.

Having declared its ‘protective’ ‘alpha-male’ role, the ecclesial hierarchy found itself impaled on a two-headed monster: it abandoned males as, predictably poisonous and dangerous sexually, while it denied that women were perfectly capable, even more than capable, of looking after themselves in encounters of all varieties with men. Over-compensating weak men attempting to atone for centuries of obvious exclusion, abuse and denigration of women were both unprepared and psychologically incapable of discerning, with women (many of whom were yelling rather than attempting to negotiate, that time had long since past), a path of transition that would and could have prevented literally thousands of casualties, most of them male, as the imbalance was attempted to be set right.

In all of those debates, prior to and exclusive of the other debates over homosexuality and gender diversity, the matter of a female animus and a male anima rarely, if ever surfaced. Whether that omission resulted from cognitive ignorance, cognitive dissonance given the history of the church’s theology of gender and sexuality or deliberate conscious avoidance remains open for researchers seeking graduate degrees in years to come.

We all know, sadly even tragically, that the work of both Jung and Hillman has been consciously, deliberately and politically refused entry into the curricula of Noth American academe. Science, empiricism, literalism, positivism have come to reign in academic, corporate, political, legal, medical and even clinical psychology fields. Sadly, a similar pattern has overtaken the churches.

Of course this scribe is not anticipating a sudden surge of interest in Jung’s or Hillman’s work in the academy, nor in the theological schools. However, that such an impetus seems warranted, as the church attempts to redress the imbalance of the oscillating syndrome that swung the political, rhetorical, cultural pendulum too far to the disadvantage of both men and women.

First, letting go of its inappropriate and exclusive claim of dominance in matters of human sexuality followed by serious considerations of the human individual and collective unconscious, especially in the light of God’s openness to the ‘whole human story’ including especially all of our ‘in extremis’ moments, and the potential of various archetypes that might be wielding considerable influence, without our conscious awareness, would be a worthy beginning.

The notion of privatized sin, defined in literal, behavioral terms, is another sacred ‘cow’ long overdue for release from the lexicon of God-searching dogma, curricula and preaching. The acknowledgment of an organizational, even cultural unconscious, (including the ecclesial institution itself) would also release the tight, constrictive bindings that restrict the flow of oxygen, both literally and metaphorically from many if not all theological discussions and reflections.

The secrecy and imposed layer of authority of the of the church that has wounded many otherwise ‘highly functioning’ and highly ethical and moral men and women, not withstanding the reprehensible acts, attitudes and abuse of many men and women need not be the foundational premise of human relationships. And the concept of original sin, fomented as ‘de-rigeur’ within the church, including the church’s myopic, unnatural and unbridled attempt to reign sex into a corral into which it never can or will be fenced.

There are other applications of the original sin to human lives, especially to our attempt at relationships, that the church’s notion of a separate God, and a ‘converted’ (saved) individual, neither fit, nor even foster. Those warrant more space and time.

To be continued…… 

Searchign for God # 64

 A 20th-century Benedictine scholar, Jean Leclercq, says, “According to St. Benedict, monastic life is entirely disinterested. Its reason for existing is to further the salvation of the monk, his search for God, and not for any practical or social end.” From a talk entitled given by  Sister Thomas Welder, OSB, in September 2015 at a formation seminar for new faculty at the University of Mary on a website whose url is: primematters.com/perspectives/benedictine-life-and-search-god

The Title of the page is Benedictine Life and the Search for God, November 4, 2021, By SR. Thomas Welder OSB, Presidenta Emerita, University of Mary

The first thing I noticed about the Leclerq quote is that from St. Benedict’s perspective monastic life exists to further the salvation of the monk, his search for God and not for any practical or social end. You may recall my original intuitive impulse to enter theology was to search for a deeper relationship with God, not for any reason like ‘converting the world’.

For some readers, such a motive may sound selfish, narcissistic, and self-absorbed. Highly curious, and even more impacted by a relatively high metabolic rate, including both visual and auditory acuity and intuitive readings of most, if not all, situations. Starved, unconsciously, for deep and challenging connections of the conversational and ideational varieties (and thereby also unconsciously imposing a level of emotional intensity on family, colleagues and co-workers) I was conscious of an inordinate appetite (need?) for affirmation, applause and praise. And as an overt method to generate such ‘applause’ I was working too many hours in every twenty-four.

An objective observer would put it, in the language of the late eighties, ‘He is addicted to work!’  Or more cynically, ‘Whom is he trying to impress?’ Middle aged enthusiasm, among men of my generation, does not ‘land’ fortuitously, given the depth of the ‘competitive’ instinct embedded in so many of us straight males. Too often, I have heard, and overheard in not-so-silent behind-the-back whispers, “Who the hell is he trying to impress? And ‘what political ladder does he think he is climbing?’ Acute hearing, however, need not be enhanced by hearing aids in one’s mid-forties, as is necessary in one’s mid-eighties. Restlessness, too, comes with both neurosis and excessive ambition, even if the unconscious aspects of that restlessness annoys others. I regret that annoyance, and would like to apologize to those I offended unaware.

On reflection, I was highly dependent (reliant? needy?) on the opinions of others, rather than relying on my own healthy and mature, even if often critical, self-possession and self-assessment.

There were evidences of professional competence, and an eagerness to ‘learn’ and to ‘experiment’ and to ‘imagine’ new approaches in the classroom. I read of, and then considered highly valuable, a proposition of a university professor of education that each teacher would benefit from being his/her own researcher, so that the students’ eagerness to learn and participate in an ‘experiment’ could and would only enhance the process. What was referred to as the Hawthorn effect was the academic title for the theory. Defined by the Oxford Languages dictionary, the Hawthorn effect is the alteration of behavior by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed.

Looked at from four decades later, I would say that, in the classroom, gym and in the radio and television studios I felt confident, so long as I was doing my ‘job’. In social situations, however, I recognized, as did others, my tendency to verbosity, emotional eagerness (interpreted as ‘intensity’) and a difference from other men of my generation and background. I loved poetry, music, hockey, basketball, current affairs local, national and international, travel and, especially, deep and prolonged conversations (and the connections that emerge from such prolonged engagement. I never engaged in, or expressed an interest in hunting, fishing, guns (I abhorred all weapons!) and secretive attempts at betrayals. I was also determined to introduce three daughters to ‘a’ religious tradition, in the thought that, later as adults, they could and would find their own spiritual path, if they chose.

Conversations with clergy, both of a social and a theological/psychological nature, and with a local psychology professor were memorable, engaging, and treasured. Questions of meaning, purpose, death were opened in and through a graduate program in Educational Administration. Courses in educational philosophy and comparative education were especially enlightening. Existentialism was a prominent philosophy in a foundationally Roman Catholic university in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

Of course, I had barely heard the name of Saint Benedict, and as a child of  an evangelical fundamentalist background, I knew very little about the Roman Catholic faith, having attended one Christmas Eve Mass and one or two funerals in the Roman traditon.

I just had the opportunity to listen to Esther de Waal* speaking in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, introducing the Rule of St. Benedict. She has written on the subject, and revisited the vows from three different perspectives. First as a child, living in an evangelical Anglican home, (her father was a Vicar), she thought they were constricting in the extreme: poverty, chastity and obedience. , as an adult, she learns that Benedict, ever the pragmatist, urges first the monks, and also the wider world to eat without restrictions to drink wine and to enjoy life. At the centre of Benedict’s vision, is the image of a flowing spring along with the open, uncluttered space of the cloisters to offer the opportunity to listen to God. Morphing the original vows into:

1)    stability, hanging in, focusing on the pillars of the monastery as symbols of strength and stillness,

2)    Open to change, not remaining static in stability, (not the paradox) with which Benedict was familiar and open to

3)    Obedience: to listen intently to the word of God.

And after the breakdown of a forty-year marriage, Ms de Waal experienced deep and profound loneliness and found a new word for stability, steadfastness, interpreting it as living in reality, not romanticizing the past, or dreaming of the future, but concentrating on the present moment. The notion of continuing to be open to change, the next threshold one must face and cross….and while remaining steadfast, and open to change, continuing to pray through the activity of listening to God in silence. She speaks of the application of the prodigal son as a universal archetype seeking to return in a homecoming. “We’re lost and we want to come home to our true selves,” she said. “We want a relationship with a loving father” and as an integral notion of that aspiration we seek to ‘hold myself still before the gaze of God’ (quoting one of her mentors).

Ms de Waal recounted a story from Benedict’s life. Upon meeting a man on the road, the man exclaimed, “Today is Easter!” To which Benedict responded, “I see Easter in you!” Her explication of this story is that Benedict is telling us to see beyond labels, and categories into the resurrected Christ in the other.

She ends her talk with the question she suggests that Benedict would have us ask at the end of the day:

Have I become a more loving person?

*Esther de Waal’s book, Seeking God, The Way of Saint Benedict, was written in 1985.

The Benedictine Way has been transplanted into many sites, including 2 in Aitchison Kansas, Mount St. Scholastica Benedictine Sisters, and S. Benedict’s Abbey for men. I had the opportunity to attend a retreat in Mount St. Scholastica. I tell that story as a window into another attempt to ‘retreat and reflect’ on my search for God.

The notion of such a retreat came to me quietly, silently actually, as I walked and worked in a small town in Colorado as an Episcopal vicar. I felt culturally alien to the local frontier culture, economically supported by Basques farming and herding cattle and coal mines fueling a sizeable electricity plant. Rednecks dominated the language, the perceptions, attitudes and gun-infested mind-set. A few pieces of data epitomize the county: Trump won 87% of the vote in 2016 and 80% in 2020 and 81.49% in 2024. Contempt for ‘tree-huggers,’ for intellectual pursuits, the LGBTQ+ community was visceral. Another noteworthy piece of information, in 1999, I was asked formally if the black male friend of the granddaughter of a parishioner had permission to attend the Christmas Eve worship service and Eucharist. Appalled, shocked, and biting my lip, I answered energetically, “Of course!” I did not bother to ask why the grandmother thought it necessary to ask. In a town of 10,000, there were 23 churches and 12 liquor stores, most of them drive-through.

Knowing that I was not only a social and cultural alien, (too eastern and preppy, as if from New England) that I was not a fan of country and western music, nor of evangelical hymns, nor of  ‘old chestnut’ hymns, both of which were the expected hymnal choices by a majority of the adherents, I discovered the depth of my ‘misfitedness’ when I asked a joint youth group of two churches, if they might be interested in rehearsing and performing a musical such as Jesus Christ Superstar. Without skipping a beat, a grade eleven student at the local high school blurted, “Oh no we can’t do anything like that, we might only be able to try to do one scene!” It seemed to me that although I my heritage was Caucasian, as a Canadian alien, I felt as if I were black among white supremacists.

Attempting to soldier on, (pardon the military metaphor), I thought a silent period of reflection with a spiritual director, in a spartan and devoted spiritual community might offer some insight into the next threshold of my journey.

As it turned out, the day I was to drive from Colorado to Kansas a blizzard blew into the interstate 80 corridor. A drive that began around 8:00 a.m. in Denver grew into a 13-hour survival drive through blinding snow, high winds (these are very flat lands) and the occasional pit-stop for coffee and a cold-water face splash. When I arrived in Russell Kansas, the birthplace of Senator Bob Dole, some 3.5 hours drive (on dry roads) from Aitchison, I thought it might be advisable to call Mount Saint Scholastica just to let them know that, although the weather was bad, I was nevertheless still intending to arrive later that day.

At 9:30 p.m., in a still blinding snow storm I finally drove into the parking lot, grabbed my bag and walked up the stairs through the front door. I single light bulb, without shade, was hanging in the reception office, and behind the desk sat a middle-aged, slight, bespectacled lady. “You must be John!” she quietly and comfortingly spoke. I learned her ‘name’ was Sister Bridget, and she guided me on each and every step of my stay, evoking images of a guardian angel. Even on the first morning when I had no idea where to go for breakfast, I came out of my room, to find her waiting patiently down the hall from my room door, smiling, and walking slowly in my direction, inviting me to join her and her sisters for breakfast, followed by chapel. If at any moment I had a though of a question about what to do, where to go, it seemed as if Sister Bridget had already anticipated my need, and appeared silently and without prompting to show me the way.

I was assigned to a spiritual director, a doctoral graduate in Criminology, whose name I have forgotten. She had spent considerable time in the small towns and villages of Colorado, and in addition to advising specific reflections for private and solitary prayer she was emphatic repeating almost each time we met: “You have got to get out of there as soon as you can. I know about those places, and they will have the effect of ‘sucking your spirit dry.” It was not a question, “Have you given any thought to what you might do next?” Or, even ‘how long do you intend to stay there?’….It was an explicit “Get out now!”

Although I was a practicing Episcopalian clergy, I was at no time ever treated as ‘other’ among practicing Roman Catholic, mostly graduate women many of whom worked regularly in the town of Aitchison, some as teachers, others a health care or social work professionals. What I also noticed, happily, were the informal conversations, while some were critical of the Vatican, were consistently animated, opinionated, vigorous and engaging, not to mention highly welcoming of this ‘outsider’. These dedicated ‘religious’ women were also deeply committed scholars in their respective fields. It may not be noticeable to some readers, but such conversations were never a part of the informal conversations among clergy at diocesan meetings on either the north or south side of the 49^th parallel. Strictly ‘business’ with the occasional ‘prototypical issue’ like whether or not to welcome gays and lesbians into the church (certainly not into ordination, or marriage).

Here were women, mostly liberal in the theological thinking, likely some were also gay, although the subject never arose, whose welcome I obviously needed and deeply appreciated. And then, in one attempt to escape from that Colorado town, I applied to a parish in Nebraska, was invited to preach and meet the selection committed in person, following a telephone interview in which I was asked, ‘Do you support female clergy?’ to which I responded, “How could I even consider restricting my three daughters from a position to which I had been given access?”

And from my brief brush with Benedictine thought, I have admired and revisited the openness to change paradoxically justaposed with stability, the concentration on looking after basic needs like good food, reliable and healthy footwear, and the encouragement not to deny oneself, in order to prevent resentment. I have occasionally entertained the thought of a formal connection with a Benedictine community, as a lay person, in the firm perception that such a community would both challenge and support my curiosity and search for God.

Two features of the Benedictine approach, reading of scripture and prayer are still somewhat neglected. And, of course, what is obviously also missing from my life is such a community.

 A healthy, supportive, curious, disciplined, energetic and especially gossip-avoidant community, while it may not be attainable anywhere, is one for which I and millions of others also search.

To be continued……

Searching for God # 63

 There are and always will be issues, subjects, on which members of a congregation will be divided. Most of those concern administrative, personnel issues and occasionally matters raised in homilies. And, with the latter, the issue could well be considered both political and theological.

An example comes from a homily delivered in the latter part of the summer of 1995, shortly after the election of the then premier of Ontario, Mike Harris. A comment, from the pulpit went something like this: It is noteworthy that the provincial government has announced its cancelation of the funding for Wheel Trans, the transport service used and needed by men, women and children of varying degrees of impairment, or disability. Not a large budget item, however, this funding is essential for those who desperately need it to travel to work, to school to appointments etc. Someone simply has to put a stop to this decision!

Shortly thereafter, amid a parish discussion about whether to grant an honorarium to the homilist who delivered that homily in the absence of the then rector, a prominent member of the congregation announced in a public meeting, “We can’t have homilies like that in our pulpit criticizing the man we just elected as premier!” In the context of this honorarium discussion, someone else remarked publicly about the rector who had just recently returned from Bejing from the Women’s Conference there, about this homilist, ‘He is a leader and you’re not!”

Needless to say, the honorarium was turned down, and further assignments were dismissed.

Any direct information about the parish meeting, effectively a kangaroo court, was virtually locked in a vault of confidentiality except that the vote to retain the homilist and pay the honorarium went approximately and allegedly 9 in favour, 2 opposed and 2 abstentions.

Church politics being church politics, however, the question at the root of this mini-drama is a question of power and the retention of power. Personal agendas obviously play a significant role in the drama, as they invariably do. And as is also invariably the case, outsiders, as opposed to insiders, have little if any voice, clout or even influence. Social expectations, conventions and the residue of the judgements made about individuals by the social ‘compact’ inside an organization will linger long after the unfolding of events themselves. That is true in the secular world as it is most certainly true in the world of ecclesial sanctuaries and boardrooms.

Whether, however, such political and administrative decisions are acknowledged from the perspective of the unconscious psychic dynamics of the participants, is a different matter. Just immediately prior to the tragic act of taking his own life a parish priest is reported to have exclaimed to his secretary, “Beware of the projections!”

Two or three quotes from Carl Jung might help to open this subject:

Projection is one of the commonest psychic phenomena...Everything that is unconscious in ourselves we discover in our neighbour, and we treat him accordingly.

Projections change the world into the replica of one’s own unknown face. In the last analysis, therefore, they lead to an autoerotic or autistic condition in which one dreams a world whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d’incomplétude and the still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained  by the projection of malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation is intensified. The more projections are thrust in between subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusions. A forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off from the world once said to me: ‘But I can never admit to myself that I’ve wasted the best twenty-five years of my life!’ It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously of course—for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.

The best political, social and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projections of our shadow onto others.

The idea of a ‘soul’ separate from the world, distinct from the world  and essentially rarefied in its purity, as different from the world, manifesting a kind of cocoon  of innocence, is described also by Wolfgang Gegerich in Soul in the World (Vol.5 p.44)

If the soul in the axis of the world, we are obliged to look for it in what is really happening in the world and to reject any idea of a ‘ beautiful’ soul floating freely, disconnected and in opposition to the real world, which would then be seen as the Fallen World. But there is only one world and this is in itself the unity and tension between its perfection and its ‘being fallen.’ We must not in the style of the mannequin, dissociate in two what is a single dialectic and face a moment against another. The Mercury spirit is in matter—even precisely in ‘stinky matter’ and therefore the soul conceived as axis mundi can only be searched also in today’s concrete reality as it is. We cannot move from a preconceived idea of the ego about what the ‘soul’ should be in our eyes, se must let reality show us what the soul actually is and how it is. And we should not, with teenage innocence, give the soul a semantic definition as if it were a ‘sweet’ part of the world, a ‘romantic’ entity against other ‘hard’ parts of reality (soul in contrast with spirits, soul against the world of ego, body or spirit; that which is ‘full of soul’ vs what is rational, cold technical). Because if it is the mundi axis (which as we have seen, is not an entity in the world, but the notion of its center), it can only defined logically, syntactically, formally—as that which is its own center: an interior as such. Our soul is not a soul you want.

One of the central question of a religious faith is how the ‘soul is ‘envisioned’ pictured, and defined. And that question relates to the other, how is the world defined. From a lay perspective, it seems somewhat both problematic as well as axiomatic that, if both are considered ‘fallen’ and both are enmeshed, how does one extricate oneself from the fallenness of the world. If, however, we have a romantic, idealistic, sense of our ‘soul’ that keeps us ‘safe’ and confined’ within a mirage of reality, reinforcing and sustaining an image of a ‘fallen world, from which we are separate, then we are most likely to engage in a sabotage of our own reality.

From my experience, the church has purposed itself as an agent of God, representing a path out of the fallenness of individual, private sin, through repentance, forgiveness and that by the grace of God, into a world where one is now separate, distinct and ‘saved’ in the eyes of God, and thereby entitled to a promise of an eternal life in heaven ‘joined’ with God. The church, loyal and committed to such a theological vision, pays little attention to the nature of the ‘world’ except that in a general way it wishes there were fewer to none of conflicts, wars, disasters, pandemics, droughts, starvations, refugees, immigrants and homelessness. The fallenness of the world and the reasons, motivations and darkness of its fallenness, however, is not something with which it is particularly concerned, preferring to focus on the individual.

Beware of the projections, is such an insightful, pregnant and almost radioactive injunction that it needs both careful and imaginative unpacking. Projecting our least admirable traits onto another is a depiction of a scene, for example, that could be deduced from the life and perception of the homilist referenced above. As that homilist, I acknowledge that I was fully prepared, without announcing it publicly, to replace that rector, should I ever have been asked to do so. I projected a somewhat jealous and ambitions and even somewhat ruthless picture, unconsciously on that rector. Not realizing it at the time, of course, I was  unhappy with the decision to cease all assignments. On reflection, thirty years on, however, my own aura or even my presence, as perceived by other projections (e.g. ‘he is a leader and you are not’) might well have been my unravelling. I do not acknowledge the critique of the premier for announcing defunding of WheelTrans as a projection. 

This matter of the unconscious and its relation to what the church calls ‘fallenness’ (original sin) in a culture wrapped in the isolation, purity and perfectionism of protecting a public image, (Jung calls it a persona, a MASK) it seems is long past due of being acknowledged both formally and informally. And, as an agent of reducing, ameliorating, preventing, or even withholding what previously has been keep silent unconsciously and inarguably also erupting not only as social and personal psychic shock, the church could well have a different kind of opportunity of enlivening both its clergy and laity by having open conversations and workshops and seminars and social gatherings that for a brief time at least, took the mask off, exposed what might have been projections in the past and begun a series of relationships beyond the exclusively performative.

Such conversations, relegated to the privacy and confidentiality of the confessional, preserve the persona of both the clergy and the penitent. Not incidentally, that model also preserves and protects the unconscious of the institution and permits the avoidance of any recognition or acknowledgement of an unconscious Shadow of the world.

It might be posited that the unconscious Shadow and the unconscious Shadow of the world are highly and intimately related, without the benefit of careful, sensitive and deliberate, (not necessarily therapeutic) acknowledgment. And who, among us, is about to argue that God is either unaware or innocent or unprepared or unsupportive of an attempt to discern sensitively and compassionately and empathically? It is the mystery, both of God and of our own psyche that, perhaps, if we were emboldened sufficiently by our theology to attempt to share (we are likely already engaged in such a process in our prayer life, as well as in our confessional life).

We will never be able even to envision the surgical removal of what are called ‘the politics of organizations’ from the church. However, if we were to be less tense, fearful and constricted in our ‘self-talk’ as well as in what we both tolerate and expect from others, we might find a locus of commonality that reaches far beyond developmental age attributes, regional cultural perceptions and attitudes, and biological anatomical systems’ similarities.

Those fears, traumas, losses, what Hillman calls’ in extremis’ moments, those we call crises, are inescapably and intimately a part of each of our lives. And, where better, than in the safety, confidentiality and security of a conversation with a fellow pilgrim, beginning at least with a one-on-one, conversation, could one experience new and different perceptions, attitudes and ideas about ‘fallenness’ and romanticism, and idealism and separation of soul from other, both person and world, in a sanctuary could such conversations begin?

We are all indeed a part of this ‘stinky mess’ we call reality. And no theology or belief system is ever going to erase that truth. Being an intimate part of that ‘stinky mess’ can and would be freeing, and may not need professionally trained therapists to the extent and degree that we currently think reasonable.

Is God smiling, smirking or frowning or even wretching as you read this?

Searching for God # 62

 In the previous post about money in a parish setting, I mentioned a church form of ‘social hierarchy’ and failed to include the elevated status of the parish treasurer. As the ‘guardian’ of the purse strings, this person has a unique perspective on the affairs of the budget, administration and the potential collision of needs and a shrinking bank account. The social elevation is not connected to the character or the personality of the man or women serving in that position; it is merely a shared perception that ‘what goes on in the church community always and inevitably passes through the hands, eyes, ears and calculations of the treasurer.

And, speaking of treasurers, and administration in general, another aspect of the small and medium-sized church (perhaps of all sizes), is the kind of leadership and culture that develops. Some have offered thoughts on the role of the clergy, including one with a title something like, ‘The Impossible Profession’.

Think for a moment of the roles expected of the clergy, sketched sometimes in 2H pencil, other times in India ink in the imaginations of the men and women in the church. Homilist, celebrant, scholar, religious educator/teacher, pastoral counsellor, chaplain (to prison, hospital, college), liturgist, ‘cantor’, fund-raiser, bridge to the community, chair of the parish council, crisis intervenor, surrogate parent, picnic cheer-leader (and organizer), talent-developer, media-contact, strategic planner and liaison to a central church office (Diocese)…..just some of the various jobs many of which overlap in a perceived ‘personality gestalt’ which is either comfortable or not so much to the critical and important people in the parish.

The cliché attending many beginning clerics runs something like this,” comfort the afflicted  and afflict the comfortable” a phrase originating with American satirist Peter Dunne, when describing the role of a newspaper. The phrase has also been attributed to the Mexican poet, Cesar A. Cruz who used it in a poem about art:

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable .

Hypothetically, try to imagine such a light beacon in the midst of a specific moment of either crisis, or emergency, in palliative care, or in funeral planning…and how the adage might guide the conversation. Family members in grief do not operate on the same emotional or cognitive or social planes that would be their comfort zone outside of their grief. On the other hand, those planning celebrations such as a wedding often have highly elevated emotions as well as  their expectations. One wedding dress rehearsal I attempted to conduct the whole party had been out drinking the whole afternoon prior to the rehearsal, and I felt as if I was hearding cats, and not compliant felines. I very nearly threatened to cancel both the rehearsal and the ceremony itself, and politely recommend the party find another celebrant. Nevertheless, I bit my lip, turned my head, counted to 10 and attempted to finish the task.

The perception that is/was reinforced each and every time I entered a situation with a family or an individual, surprisingly especially to a neophyte, is that the situation had its own ‘special’ and heightened aspects, perhaps of a family history, or a personal dream or fear, or a previous unpacked memory that spoke new insights for the very first time, or….Naturally, in each and every private personal encounter, not so much in groups, the clergy is legitimately expected to observe the letter of the expectation of confidentiality. And, given that such a perception is shared by both the parishioner and the clergy, there is the potential for a moment of self-disclosure for which neither was or could be fully prepared.

C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled, Surprised by Joy, as part of his renowned series of religious, spiritual text. I would reframe his title, when reflecting on a dozen years in active ministry, to something like ‘Surprised by Surprise!’…..Nothing could be more surprising that to enter a hospital room of a dying woman with her husband and the chaplain trainer/supervisor, as the husband politely intoned, ‘Ruth, John is here to say a prayer.’ Instantly, the previously sleeping woman opened her eyes, and quietly yet pleasantly responded, “Oh, it’s so soon; I haven’t said my goodbyes.” To which the shocked husband attempted to lower the tension: ‘No, no, it’s just a prayer, dear!’ Ruth died later that day, and the chaplain supervisor, while conducting the funeral, noted that that moment was the moment Ruth ‘let go’ into a peaceful death.

Surprised by surprise also attends to the memorable, penetrating and soul-shifting experience of attending an autopsy, for the purpose of observing, reflecting and ruminating about the meaning, the theology and the divinity of that life and the whole of life itself. Nervous, anxious, filled with trepidation, and fear of the unknown, the experience of disclosing my apprehension to the supervisor, (written about previously in this space) has been a line of relief, sensitivity and empathy that has served in multiple moments in the intervening three decades: “Just go to the autopsy and give yourself permission to leave at any time when you are in there!” were his words.

The surprise, partly that the supervisor was formally granting permission to leave, if the experience became too much, and partly that the experience, which he already knew would be a dramatic, if not a traumatic one, for chaplain trainees, needed to be broken into ‘smaller’ bites to be absorbed, integrated, and withstood. It was a brilliant piece of professional, pastoral pedagogy and mentorship, likely the best of my eighty-plus years. The experience itself was unforgettable, and  moving and humbling, as one came face-to-face with the intricate complexities of multiple interconnected and mutually dependent systems that had sustained the life of a 61-year-old woman who had died suddenly of a brain tumor. No biology class, or anatomy class, without the experience of the ‘wholeness,’ the totality of the human being, could bring one up short as that afternoon did for this naïve candidate.

Engaged in the lives of others from birth to adolescence, to young adult, to middle age and then into the grey-beard stage, evokes one’s person, not merely some skill set or sets, but the whole of one’s person: one’s ability to perceive, to listen, to digest, to embrace, to imaging and to wonder….it is the aspect of wonder that is so reinforced by the opportunity to share in those lives, especially when they are often ‘on the edge’ as it were.

The notion of a human life, not from the perspective of the pathologist who conducted that autopsy, but from a ‘whole’ perspective including thoughts, feelings, dreams fantasies, finalities and identifications cannot help but fill one’s life’s ‘cup’ to overflowing with awe, wonder, amazement, astonishment and ….what are other words to say what is unspeakable?

No reductionisms there, no medical diagnosis or legal arguments, and no objectifying of human life into a physical entity only! Such a perception is neither warranted nor even contemplated in such an experience. Of course, the pathologist was charged with determining the cause of death (a lung tumor that metastasized to the brain); that analysis, however, did not in any way compromise the awe and the wonder and the surprise, nor could it!

And then there is the parishioner who becomes quite angry, disappointed and withdrawn from the affairs of a parish, after years of active participation and tells the church council that the clergy has ‘yelled at me’ over the phone. Sadly, that was neither true nor necessary, although I had made some tutorial remarks about attempting to inject more grace into my own life and modus operandi. And when the council demanded that I visit that woman, I immediately agreed on the condition that one of them accompany me, so that there would be a witness to whatever might transpire. Of course, no one would agree to such a boundary. The visit never took place and my stay was cut short, shortly thereafter.

Of course, there is a very old man nearing the end of his life here, lying in the hospital bed and whispering to one of his friends and me, “I am not ready to meet God because I am not good enough. I have been dreaming and in my dreams I am throwing bales of hay up into the hayloft. And the more bales I throw, the more empty is the space into which I am throwing them. And that tells me how inadequate I am, and how disappointed God is going to be with me.”

And the instincts of one who legitimately counters the stated import of such a dream and God’s anticipated rejection of this man’s spirit and life, the clergy, are instantly magnetized. “God is not seeing your dream in the same light that you are describing it,” I lamely muttered, and “I have no doubt that your welcome will be one of love and comfort.” A prayer attempting to comfort the man followed, irrespective of how meagre and insignificant it was. It was an honest attempt to ‘be’ with him in that moment.

This space is filling, not with the administrivia of the role, and the experience, but with the less-talked-about and yet the more significant moments of one’s encounters with the mysteries of life.

And it is in and through the mysteries that this scribe contends we come closest to anything remotely associated with the divine, God, and the question of the meaning, purpose and fullness of life.

And, so, disturbing the comfortable, at least for this scribe, was to gently, relentlessly, persistently and almost incorrigibly, introduce questions about the unconscious, those thoughts, images, tears, fears, hopes and dreams that someone might be imagining without actually bringing them into consciousness. ‘What might those tears be saying, if they could talk?’ was a sample question that, for some, brought irritation, for others, a quizzical look, silence and then….a potential, insightful and surprising response.

A conversation with a former warden, prior to my appointment as a student intern to his parish has jumped into my head. I was curious about his relationship with God, and how he saw the parish contributing to that relationship. One of the words he uttered comes back, “I am a fatalist!’ and quite comfortable with that. I rarely ever am surprised or shocked by whatever might happen; it happens because of fate. After the conversation, over breakfast in the King Edward hotel in Toronto, he reportedly commented to the bishop, “That guy is scary, he got to know be better than I was comfortable with in very short order.”

And therein lies a great conundrum for any even thinking or imagining a life as a practicing cleric. Seeing into the lives of men and women, into places that they would definitely (and perhaps defiantly) wish to keep private is almost inevitable. The opportunity for sharing is conditioned by a mutual (if unwritten) perception of confidentiality, lends itself to men and women feeling less constrained than they might otherwise be, in a conversation with someone over coffee about the weather or the sports scores or the political scene.

So, in a not-so-insignificant-manner, the clergy can become a surprising mirror and echo chamber to another person caught up in his or her own affairs. And, often when that realization comes to the surface of consciousness, perhaps for the first time in that person’s whole life, the reaction can be quite unsettling. It is not that the cleric is attempting overtly to disturb; the context and the intensity of the listening, and the surprising new insight that might come to the forefront of the mind of the man or woman, can be troubling. And the only person, unrelated to family and loved ones, that might be associated with that discomfort, is that damned cleric.

We need not be the world’s most highly efficient, highly effective executive administrators; indeed, if that is our forte, then perhaps we might be better off in some corporation. We need not be the world’s best plumbers, electricians, doctors or lawyers. It is our lot to be the most attentive ‘other’ that each person can or could meet (given our own capacity to enter into the fears, hopes, dreams and fantasies both of ourselves and of the other, because that capacity is linked).

Clerics are not looking for honours here, reputations of growth of dollars or even of bodies in pews. Clerics are sharing their most intimate, private and spiritual fears, hopes, dreams, fantasies and anxieties, especially around important questions like meaning, purpose and mortality.

It is as hard, if not impossible to ‘train’ for such a role as it is hard and possibly impossible to incarnate such a role, given to the degree each of us is and always will be a ‘work in progress.’

 

 

Searching for God # 61

How could such a series in search for God not have a piece dedicated to the issue of money, filthy lucre?

Of course, there is the proverbial 10% tithe, prescribed in the Bible, and the message behind that is that to be a Christian effectively means changing how one manages one’s life, including one’s financial affairs. Words like stewardship, generosity, compassion, and a spirit of ‘giving TO God’ are used in the petition to enhance the flow of cash into the church’s coffers.

And then, there is the reality of the ‘big donors’ who write cheques for Carillon Bells, and new organs, and stained-glass windows, as well as new heating systems, new air conditioning systems, new paint, new bell towers, and the like. Invariably, such donors are treated, both by the hierarchy as well as the men and women in the pews, as ‘highly respected, highly honoured, and extremely important to the life of the parish. From an objective perspective, without such donors, and many more of smaller sized contributions, the church would cease to operate. And, over the last two or three decades, churches have been closing at a rate significantly higher than over the last century.

In Canada a CBC news report, dated March 10, 2019, by Bonnnie Allen, entitled, “From sacred to secular: Canada set to lose 9,000 churches, warns national heritage group’ we read:

A national charity that works to save old buildings estimates that 9,000 religious spaces in Canada will be lost in the next decade, roughly a third of all faith-owned buildings in the country…..As of 2009, there were 27,601 buildings for worship, training or promotion owned by religious organizations in Canada, a statistic found buried inside a Natural Resources Canada energy audit.

From Axios in a piece entitled, 15,000 churches could close this year amin religious shift in U.S., by Russell Contreras, October 3, 2025, we read:

The U.S. could see an unprecedented 15,000 churches shut their doors this year, far more than the few thousand expected to open, according to denominational reports and church consultants….The decline fo traditional brick-and-mortar churches comes as a record number of Americans (29%) are identifying as religiously unaffiliated, and as 62% identify as Christians--down from 78% in 2007, according to the Pew Research Centre.

And while we can assume that shuttering churches results from significant drops in both attendance and in financial contributions, the question of how the churches have traditionally ‘dealt’ with money may have something to do with those deflated numbers of people and dollars.

Silence, skirting around, contextualizing as ‘giving to God,’ and the mood, tenor, ethos, and the nature of the theology of the homilies, the liturgy and the music are all factors in the church’s ‘bottom line’. Cutting through the ecclesial ethos and culture, too, is the proverbial maxim about ‘looking after our own people and letting the world take care of its own,’ a deeply embedded flag of parochialism. If we look at church history, for example, in the United Kingdom, there is a church in each and even village, hamlet, and almost every crossroads. The idea of a church as a focal point for a community, especially a rural, agricultural community, in and around which travel was restricted to horse and carriage, on roads virtually unpassable in heavy rain, snow or sleet, pay have made some sense both theologically and sociologically, as a kind of ‘warm-fuzzy’ in times of pain, distress, loss, sickness and death.

Such edifices housed baptismal, confirmation, marriage and death records for literally centuries. Many of those records having been taken over, or supplemented, by the public secular authorities of the town, village, or county. Liturgical ceremonies for those pivot moments in the life of a family also commemorated their religious link to God, elevating the events as both serious moments worthy of special reflection, worship, prayer and often the Mass or Eucharist. The relationship between the people and God nevertheless, whether openly discussed or not, lies at the heart of the original ecclesial and secular planning.

Nevertheless, from the perspective of those ‘in charge’ including both clergy and laity, the unspoken issue around balance sheets, is to put it bluntly, ‘evangelizing,’ getting more butts in pews, and generating more cash flow into the coffers. I had not realized the degree of importance that is either on the surface consciously or ‘beneath the table’ of consciousness, such a motivation exists to engage those in leadership. Indeed, from my experience, in both rural and urban churches, the ‘money status’ was a hypothetical time line that paralleled, or even mimicked the attendance line over the months and years.

Having been assigned to churches in dire straits, fiscally, as well as in attendance, for multiple reasons, some of these presumably out of sight and out of mind of the hierarchies in some urban office somewhere, I found that the motive to ‘revive’ them and bring them back into whatever was considered ‘successful’ in their past drove the organization. Effectively, without selling goods or specific numbered and metered services, yet while offering opportunities for worship, home and hospital and nursing home visits, liturgical services including baptism, confirmation, marriage, funerals, and weekly worship services, the church operated in a manner similar to how a commercial enterprise operates. None, not a single one, of  the multiple meetings in which I participated to operate the church ever really entered into a discussion of the aspects that were important to those attending. Each person had a different idea on how to ‘attract’ new-comers. Some of those ideas, based on a new neighbour who had just moved in, or a new friend someone had just met in another activity in the community, or a new business associate were quite relevant. One corporate businessman of my acquaintance, in a private interview, asserted proudly,” I am proud to have been very instrumental in driving the last priest out of this parish; he was not ‘spiritual’ enough, and neither are you!” As someone who has marked the products of his technology company in foreign lands, he was very confident that he knew the full meaning of spirituality and essentially substituted it for ‘marketing’ in my view. Anti-intellectual, pro-contemporary band music, pro evangelical hymn selections, and a ‘business-mentality’ for marketing were his criteria for ‘spirituality. Oh, and in typical ‘crony-style,’ he was very careful to point out that he was a ‘friend of the bishop’.

Just as in the secular society, perhaps even more so, although less commented on, is the status of money, fiscal stability, trusts funds, along with the regular giving campaigns where churches formally ask people to consider ‘upping’ their regular contributions. A state of perpetual fiscal scarcity, (the image of the poor church mouse) seems to reign like a permanent grey cloud over the mind-set of those who have a sincere interest in ‘my church’. (The possessive pronoun is often from having attended for their whole lives, and their parents, and even possibly their grandparents were original members.)

And that ‘my’ is deeply felt, profoundly honoured, both by the individuals and families who use such language, but also, more importantly, by the others in the congregation. And this ‘ownership’ model is one to which any new cleric must become intimately familiar with, honour, and revere in humility, without which there is considerable risk of a very short tenure. There is a scent of the arrogance of ownership, proprietorship, executive board-room possessiveness, and personal identification as ‘high status’ (from a political perspective) within the organization. And that ‘ownership’ has to capacity, and the cutting edge of a knife to welcome or to exclude whomever it chooses, for whatever reasons, with impunity. That ownership, too, is very often honoured sycophantically by the hierarchical structure, as if there were an ‘old boys club’ operating behind the public view.

This commercial aspect, conflates with a political ‘status’ so important that those running for political office in small towns, villages, or even urban centres, consider it both wise and opportunistic to appear just prior to elections, often even to volunteer to collect the collection so as to be highly visible, and then disappear for the full length of the political term. Power-structures, designated by specific ‘criteria’ such as significant monetary contributions, and/or significant network connections’  or perhaps a significant social status outside the church….these all play extensive roles in the manner in which the church operates. Where power lies, and whether it is or has shifted, is a matter of which each clergy must be fully aware, least s/he risk stepping on a mine-field (could be dubbed a mind-field in this case).

The social caste system, as such, is not formally or officially operating in the churches in North America; yet a similar indelible and inescapable influence is always lurking in the background in all churches. Indeed, giving reverence to the past, including the scriptural narratives, is another of the operating psychic archetypes within the ecclesial institution. The only future that seems to have any influence might be the ‘second coming’ and the AGM where accounts are shared, and the specific repair or renovation, removal and replacement required by the building or staffing.

Could the negative and repressive influence of the ‘hierarchical’ social system be transformed, through good theological teaching, and exploration of biblical example? With the parable of the workers, for example, perhaps. Paradox, however, although integral to Christian theology is almost absent from the individual and shared mind-set of the people in the pews, as well as in the conversations with people in the hierarchies. Unless it is considered only as an anecdotal surprise, as a matter of a literary device, paradox is disconnected from all perceptions, attitudes, conversations and deliberations about God, the divine and the relationship of humans to God.

And in the light of the literal attempt to operate in a politically correct (as well as ethically and morally correct) universe, under serious and mature and adult thinking, corporate establishment ‘think’ abounds. And this ‘lens’ applies especially to matters of money, financial statements, financial campaigns, and ‘growing’ the church. The corporate ‘think’ if you don’t grow you decline’ is a cornerstone of the modus operandi. And individual or even community spiritual interests, anxieties, hopes and fears are, save for the scarcity of numbers, virtually omitted from the scene, at least in my limited experience. Occasionally, a new organ will be purchased through the beneficence of  an altruistic donor, offering another opportunity for special liturgy of thanksgiving. The humility and surprise of such a donor at his financial bounty is shared only privately, when that might be the more important theological moment, and not the organ, however large an improvement over the ‘old’ instrument.

Money as a measure of ‘success’ in churches, is, from this perspective, a mirage. And it is a deceptive mirage at that. It can and likely will distract from the deeper issues of how people relate to each other and to God, and to those in oppression within their awareness. The adage of the church financial consultants to ‘grow your financial resources so you can grow your ministry, is reverse of the appropriate equation.

Look first to the ministry needs, without even considering whether or not they are attainable, or even worth considering. If they are authentic needs and cry out for healing and comfort, given the extreme degree of oppression,  even if, or especially if their origins lie within the politically and/or fiscally elite, those needs must be creatively, reflectively and prayerfully considered, exclusive of their impact on the financial resources of the church. Indeed, paradoxically, it is a matter of faith, that there is a very high probability, that in attempting to meet authentic needs, those questions of fiscal ‘resources’ will be more than taken care off.

That paradox, however, is a very tenuous proposition in the Christian churches where I have served. Money first, and then ministry has been the ‘conventional norm’ sadly.

Searching for God # 60

Why is it that we all feel so much more confident with and in our own convictions?

What actually is a conviction anyway?

Under the umbrella, ‘religious/moral convictions: a strong opinion or belief. (from dictionary.cambridge.org)

However, considering its primary, conventional definition, we read again from dictionary.cambridge.org:

The fact of officially being found to be guilty of  particular crime, or the act of officially finding someone guilty.

In this space, many times the point of the incursion of culture into theology has been pointed out, and this may well be another example.

In American culture, legalized to the degree that no other even democratic culture has been, sustained by the mind-set of writing and then passing laws of encyclopedic depth and detail, and then trying to enforce them, the deployment of the word conviction is featured in virtually every newscast and daily paper. Someone, somewhere, has been found guilty, convicted, of some crime. With the abhorrent inception of ICE on the streets of several urban centres, now reports of many men and women who are not guilty or convicted of any crime are being deported, almost as a sycophantic execution of a whim and at the pleasure of the occupant of the Oval Office. Dominating Washington politics for the last several weeks has been the potential and now partial release of what have become known as the Epstein files, purportedly loaded with photos of prominent men who, as associates of an already convicted man for sex crimes against young women, whose reputations unfortunately are besmirched merely by photographic evidence, whether or not they had anything to do with the heinous acts.

Homeland Security, established following the 9/11 attack has effectively become another police force, looking for anyone who poses what is considered a threat to the homeland. Their website lists: Border and Immigration (CBP) secures ports of entry, while ICE handles interior enforcement and investigations, cybersecurity, counterterrorism. The FBI, another highly visible and extremely active, if clandestine, agency seeks to find, charge and ‘convict’ all those committing crimes under several headings: violent crime, International Violent Crimes, terrorism, counterintelligence. Their website lists ‘key threats’: gangs, Violent crimes against children, Indian Country Crime, Human Trafficking/involuntary Servitude, Bank Robbery, Art Crime. And then there are the state troopers, Sheriffs, and city and county law enforcement officers. Little wonder convictions dominate the public consciousness. There are literally whole armies of men and women trained, paid and deployed to seek out and to find, charge and convict wrong-doers. And we have not even mentioned the Justice Department the home of federal prosecutors, parallel to the state prosecutors.

Little wonder too that the various layers of courts have agendas jammed with cases, so many that some never even come to trial. However, this is not a critique of the American justice system, per se, merely a note to introduce the American dependence, reliance and elevation of the pursuit of convictions, based on millions of pages of laws, both state and federal, that seem to exact what might be called an national historic conviction (strongly held opinion, belief) in the literal and absolute meaning and interpretation of the Original Sin of Genesis.

Conflating ‘convictions’ when used the legal, criminal universe (a universe that experiences exponential growth, parallel to the growth of the insecurity of politicians and their laws) with ‘conviction’ used in a religious sense, signifying strongly held opinion and/or belief, is a pattern to which many millions have complied.

(Side bar)The argument for enhanced literacy, both learning and practice, is so desperately needed in North American culture that, as a former English instructor, I am embarrassed at the paucity of language skills, vocabulary depth and range, and the degree to which superficial, reductionistic literalisms abound, indeed pervade the consciousness of the culture.

It is not only in the steroidally infected legal system that a mind-set of ‘convictions’ pervades; there are other equally nefarious cultural and familial sources of ‘judgemental opinions’ that reinforce, enhance and sustain the perspective of ‘judgement’ (and its concomitant, conviction, guilt, shame). Starting with our parents, then our elementary teachers, secondary teachers, and employers, we have, each and every one of us, deeply buried in our unconscious, the voice of the critical parent, some have referred to it as the ‘crow’ perched on the shoulder of everyone.

The church has a significant archetypal role to play in the drama of the application and implications of the concept of ‘conviction’ in the environment in which we live. Morality, that ubiquitous, pervasive and highly imperceptible ‘guard dog’ of public order and decency, (at least the minds of those in authority) has been subsumed by the church as its exclusive domain. “Let the state take care of the fractures of the legal system, and we in the church we take care of the fractures in moral and ethical behaviour” seems to be the mind-set of the church taken together as an institution of many sects, denominations and faiths. Common to both is the word, ‘behaviour’ as human  beings, in this culture has also been reduced and too often defined by ‘their individual behaviour. Sad and tragic is this last reality given that behaviour has so many root sources, most of which can be fenced into ‘human will’.

In a culture dominated by literalism, empiricism and also behaviorism all of that governed by a reductionistic binarism, everyone comes to consider him/herself as either a judge or a defendant. And, add to this sulphuric mix in the cultural petre dish the insidious, intoxicating, mind-numbing, universal, fashionable and globally demanded by all generations, scourge of social media, where one can be a ‘judge’ convicting others anonymously, and thereby with total immunity. And this power in the hands and finger-tips of youth, adolescents, and even angry, immature and unreflective adults, has secured so many ‘faux convictions’ and unnecessary and preventable suicides, as well as emotional and social injuries, for which the corporate monsters will never have to be accountable or responsible.

(Incidentally, the legislators who like to champion the latest ‘bells and whistles’ that can generate billions of income (and potential tax revenue) without stringent and prior ‘quality control’ are complicit in those social media deaths, just as they are in the illicit and prescription drug deaths from drugs that were not subjected to extensive clinical trials prior to distribution.)

Even, or should I saw especially, the church, with its behavioural perspective that is congruent with the culture’s fixation, is shamefully a participant in the evolution of an ethos of judge/jury/conviction. Even the psychological archetype of Freud’s super-ego, as a name for that internal psychic critical parent, is another of the social archetypes that embed and almost justify a widely-held normalizing of such attitude.

Parenting in and through exaggerated swings from excessive and highly caloric menus, and an operating room hygiene as intimate components and billboards of ‘love’ linked with excessive and inappropriate punishments for minor demeanours, a pattern with which many can identify, tends to lead to a perception of instability, uncertainty, enhanced and critical judgement of authority, and that old adage, ‘a chip on the shoulder’ (for some even a whole tree). If that last sentence sounds ‘grounded in experience,’ it is.

And, amidst all of the mind-set of convictions, commonly known more recently as ‘political correctness gone wild’ or WOKE,  there is the inevitable backlash and with that the predictable ‘collateral damage’. Like an oscillating pendulum, look for example at the viscious and exaggerated and unjustified attempt to erase all evidence of social programs under the rubric, DEI (Diversity, Equality, Inclusion). WOKE is an originally African-American  term meaning awareness of racial prejudice, which has been arrogantly, and condescendingly and poisonously inflicted by MAGA as if it were a verbal ‘bullet’ against African Americans and others, especially the LGBTQ+ community.

It is on the cusp of this last ‘divide’ on which religion has become impaled. Those preferring the conservative derisive WOKE whether publicly admitting their preference or not, are reaping recruit rewards, (Anglican priests converting to Roman Catholic in UK, for example). Those trying to walk a moderate, even reflective path are considered by many to be ‘spineless, weak, and untrustworthy.’

Think about a culture drowning in a legal and national security ‘obsessive-compulsive’ mind-set of ‘fear of risk’ from both inside and outside, multiple bureaucratic edifices dedicated to ‘protecting’ the public from risk, a media gorging on the stuff of such stories, (especially the tabloids), a social media that devours ‘clicks’ for sensational, salacious deluges of stories, whether true or not, that ‘convict’ a subject of heinous behaviour, a geopolitical environment rife with cyber-criminals and state actors highly reliant on their spread of propaganda lies, and an underlying ‘behaviour’addicted’ binary perception and attitude, and imaging attempting to discern what is both important and relevant and authentic as both state and faith ‘interventions’ as  amelioratives and neutralizing and perhaps even reducing the shared risks.

And then, try to tell this scribe that it is both feasible and justifiable to maintain a ‘separate church and state’ philosophy. On this one the Muslims have some perspective worthy of consideration….without deferring to a Caliphate, one of the more dangerous of all the insidious forces plaguing the planet, along with rising temperatures and political insouciance.

There can be little doubt that the ‘specifics expectations of Muslims’ especially with respect to their marriage of their faith and their political life has emboldened many fundamentalist Christians as a response to the ‘fear’ of any and all iterations of ‘taking’ or losing control.

Indeed, those on the far right, consider this as a moment of inflection risking the withering, or the reduction or even the elimination of the Judao-Christian culture of Western civilization. Strident, and deliberate disregard of laws, norms, conventions and previously enshrined values and expectations of how people treat others are all part of the ‘war-room’ thinking and execution of the far right in America, and elsewhere.

Opportunistic state actors can readily see the advantages of joining this movement, enhanced and injected with energy to restrict immigrants and refugees especially from North Africa and like each one of us, the churches are caught in a catch 22. If they support the Christian, nationalism of the white supremacists, they will ignite a back-lash from moderates, liberals, and migrants and minority populations. If they reject the far-right Christian nationalism of the white supremacists, they will be accused of being spineless, weak, accommodating and appeasing.

The cultural war in which we are already engaged, wants the world to break into another binary choice. To succumb to such a simplistic, reductionistic, literal, empirical behaviour and binary choice is to abandon our inherent, God-given, creative, sensitive, resilient, imagination as well as that hope of which Moltmann has written, the hope left after all evidence for hope has disappeared.

Rather than focus on personalities, on specific crimes and savage behaviour, we might take a step back and recognize the trap into which the ‘war-monger’, tyrannical wannabees, and white supremacist Christian nationalists, of all stripes, along with the radicalized fundamentalists of the Muslim and Jewish faiths.

Our mystic, mysterious, puzzling and enigmatic, yet searching and probing and hoping and apagaic loving for a reasonable, attainable and imaginable reconciliation, not only between and among the major faiths communities, but also, for the sake of our children, grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, a reconciliation into a more subtle, more nuanced, more creative, and collaborative, and co-operative mind-set.

The mind-set of violence, war, evisceration of laws and norms and institutions, without creative, muscular and collaborative (with surrendered  agency from all, including the various faith communities) alternatives, arrived at in a spirit of co-operation, respect, dignity and integrity, is predictably one that victimizes each and every one of us currently living on the planet.

The spectre of a God within, among, as an integral part of each of us, need not remain as an intellectual spectre.  It can and must shift to a ‘conviction’ in the religious sense, helping to remove the legal, moral, ethical, intellectual and philosophical and political and military shackles in which we have become ensnared.

First step is to recognize and to acknowledge that we are all currently, some more voluntarily than others, in an economic, political, ideological, literal, empirical binary and highly constricting template. We can all paint by number in this template. And as Leonard Cohen prophetically reminds us if we are prepared to listen, to repeat, to play again, to listen again, to repeat as we begin to thaw this frozen template that has gone far past its ‘best-before-date’:

Everybody Knows

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

Everybody knows the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor the rich get rich

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows the boat is leaking

Everybody knows that the captain lied

Everybody got that broken feeling

Like their father and their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets

Everybody wants a box of chocolates

And a long-stem rose 

Everybody knows…….(verse omitted)

Everybody knows that the Plague is coming

Everybody knows that it’s moving fast

Everybody knows that the naked man and woman

Are just a shining artifact of the past

Everybody knows that the scene is dead

But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed

That will disclose

What everybody knows

And Everybody knows that you’re in trouble

Everybody knows what you’ve been through

From the bloody Cross on top of Calvary

To the beach of Malibu

Everybody knows it’s coming apart

Take one last look at this Sacred Heart

Before it blows

Everybody knows