What the Duck Dynasty guy doesn't know could hurt us all

Migrated over from Nunblog, with slight modifiations:

You might be surprised to hear this, but until all the brouhaha about cable network A&E and Duck Dynasty, I had no idea who Phil Robertson might be. Indeed, all I knew about Duck Dynasty was from seeing the spin-off merchandise in the novelty aisles at the local Walgreens. Now all of a sudden the bearded patriarch is being held up as a paragon of plain-speaking biblical wisdom.

Except I'm not buying it.  I have no doubt that Mr. Robertson is a sincere and virtuous man, butI am afraid that the more Robertson is defended in social media as an upholder of marriage, the more the cause of natural marriage will suffer in the long run. The articles I have read on the matter quote very little of Mr. Robertson, but what is there is incredibly coarse and unreflective. There is little "biblical" to it.

As much as Catholics all the way to Pope Francis believe that complementarity is essential to marriage as such, we really can't put an "Amen" to what the White's Ferry Road Church of Christ elder said about it. Yet the more Mr. Robertson's cause is pleaded, the more he becomes established in the cultural imagination as the mouthpiece and representative of all those who stand up for the integrity of natural marriage.

Is this what we are hoping for? A reduction of the spouses themselves to their reproductive organs?  A raw, physical (not personalist) caricature of complementarity, divorced from its essential, life-giving fruitfulness and the very nature of the family built on marriage as the primary cell of society? Heaven forbid!

Somebody, quick! Invite my fellow Louisianan Mr. Robertson to the Theology of the Body program!  As a Church elder, he should really appreciate the rich, nuanced, infinitely complex biblical vision of man and woman that Pope John Paul spent so many years developing. As the now de-facto media spokesperson for natural marriage, he really needs it.

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Here's a reflection from Audrey Assad on Phil Robertson and the Theology of the Body; Audrey offers  the same point as I (in a much more elegant and comprehensive way).


For a do-it-yourself overview of the Theology of the Body, watch Discover Theology of the Body.

Meditating on a Good Death in the season of Holy Birth

Susan Windley-Daoust offers an interested approach to Theology of the Body, drawing from Pope John Paul's principles in a reflection on what used to be called a "happy death." Even though our attention toward the end of Advent is drawn more to birth, for many bereaved families, this may very well be a season of dying. Windley-Daoust's post on "The Sign of the Dying Body" is timely for all of us, though.

Review of "Fill These Hearts"

Theology professor Susan Windley-Daoust posted her review of Christopher West's "Fill These Hearts: God, Sex and the Universal Longing," which she uses in an anthropology course. Here's a sample of what she had to say:

This text electrified most of the class.  People really resonated with the treatment of desire, were open to the treatment of design, and were really thinking through consequences by the time we got to destiny.  As a professor, it struck me as an ideal first text before moving into more “academic theology” and primary sources.  Indeed, we went from this text to reading Augustine's Confessions, and they got it: Augustine wasn't an overly guilt-ridden sex addict who talks too much about his sinfulness.  He was a man with disordered desires who opened himself to a new way of seeing through grace.

What was intriguing to me was how they latched on to a piece that West has been criticized for in the past: West writing from the perspective that people have received a Christian upbringing that was cold, stoic, and rule-centered.  Some have criticized West that most Catholics after Vatican II simply have not had that upbringing: the stereotype is more “felt banner and singing about God’s love round the campfire” (which is not a fair stereotype, but moving on).

These students thought the cold stoic Church description was right on.  The Christianity they know, they say, is ALL about rules.  This “frame” (as West calls it) of desire, design, and destiny, wrapped in God’s lavish love, was seen as truly radical.

The thing is, that is not their experience—because a lot of them have no experience of being in a Christian church outside of major holidays.  The Church they “know” is a bizarre echo chamber of their parents’ apathy and fear, the culture of the mainstream press and movies, and a projection of their fears.  It doesn’t exist.  But for them, the echo chamber is keeping them from listening to the wisdom of the Christian faith.

One of the reasons West’s approach is effective is because he is talking to Christians, especially Catholics, who have fundamental misconceptions of what Catholic theology is about: and he addresses those misconceptions head on.  You shouldn’t end your reading of theology with West (does he ever argue that?  of course not), but this book whets the appetite for a faith seeking understanding that they do not know they have.  People on the inside forget that teaching theology in American culture neither builds on a solid catechetical foundation, nor a blank slate.  We unteachbefore we teach.  Christopher West’s popularity in many young adult circles—to the point of people saying things such as “the Theology of the Body changed my life!”—is attributable directly to West exposing the delusion of this echo chamber and presenting the revelation of Christianity in both the natural world of signs and the Church they clearly do not yet know.  He is a dazzling "unteacher," and this book makes space to truly explore what it means to be human.

It’s a potentially life-transformative book.

New Catholic Marriage Prep Program

After years of pilot programs involving hundreds of engaged couples, with input from the long-married, from the theologians, from the pastors, and from all those engaged couples, comes "Transformed in Love," a complete and solid program to help couples begin and live a sacramental marriage.

Listen to Kari Collela (Archdiocese of Boston Family Life office) and her husband Stephen as they talk about the program, its components, and its "success stories" over the years they spent putting it together.

Please share this information (and these links) far and wide!

Media Skills for Pro-Life Medical Professionals

Over at Catharsis, they are planning a two-day workshop on essential media skills for pro-life medical personnel. ("If a camera arrived at your door today [for statements on assisted reproduction, Obamacare, "death with dignity"], would you know how to dress, how to move, where to look, and what to say?")

COMMUNICATING THE CULTURE OF LIFE

Oct 22-23, Azusa Pacific University

Post-Supreme Court reflections

Some fine, critically reflective pieces are appearing in a number of sources after yesterday's twofer from the Supreme Court. Here's one: Sex without Bodies (it's like a prequel to TOB from a Protestant perspective).

And another: "Marriage is a Mess and Homosexuals Didn't Do It"

The Diocese of Green Bay is hosting a FB conversation on a crucial question:
How can Catholics engage everyone, as we are called to do, including people with same-sex attraction, while maintaining the Church’s consistent, loving and whole teaching that sacramental marriage is the free, total, faithful and fruitful union of one man and one woman?

Airtime

I was scheduled to host "The Winds of Change" radio show tomorrow at noon, but with the Blackhawks' Victory Parade (for bringing the Stanley Cup back to Chicago) I figured it would be next to impossible to get in and out of the city with the street closings and security measures... So I was on the air today instead.
Listen in!

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