Living With Imperfection

Halloween is a little over a week away.

Folks with a flair for outdoor decor set out artistically altered pumpkins, like the vegetable R2D2 someone showed on Google+. Villafane Studios takes jack-o-lantern carving to a whole new level; and, in one arboretum, folks can visit a patch of glass pumpkins.

Our catacorner neighbors have inflatable holiday decorations out again this year: including an improbably balanced pile of jack-o-lanterns and a huge purple spider.

Values: Halloween DVD, Addams Family, and Otherwise

Halloween-related discussions I've seen online this year have been fairly tame. One post showed a store's display of "Halloween DVD Values," questioning "...what kind of values a Halloween DVD has...."

The fellow who shared that may have been enjoying a play on words. I've done the same sort of thing, in somewhat snarkier tone:

• "Family Values: Addams and Otherwise"
  (July 12, 2011)

What I haven't seen, yet, is a rant about the Satanic horrors of pumpkins, black cats, and kids asking for candy.

Engaging the Culture?

Maybe that's because I've found niches in online communities where most of the folks aren't particularly rabid. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough to "engage the present-day culture:"

• "Disciples Called to Witness / The New Evangelization"
  Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB (2012)
  (from www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/upload/Disciples-Called-To-Witness-The-New-Evangelization.pdf (October 20, 2012))

Or maybe it's not close enough to Halloween yet.

The Usual Complaints

On the other hand, some online discussion did include folks with the usual complaints about the Catholic Church:

1. Priests molested kids
2. The Church
   • Is against women's right to chose
   • Isn't against the death penalty
3. We're hypocrites

There's some truth behind those attitudes:

1. Priests molested kids
   • Some, yes
   • Most, no
     • One would have been too many
   • Denial didn't work
   • The mess is being sorted out by
     • The Vatican
     • Bishops currently assigned to those dioceses
   • I've been over this before
     • "Pedophile Priests, Ephebophilia, and Facing Facts"
2. The Church
   • Is against women's right to chose
     • When it's the right to kill an innocent person
   • Isn't against the death penalty
     • Almost
     • I've been over this before
     • " 'A Consistent Ethic of Life,' Reality Checks About Religion, and a New Widget"
       (April 27, 2012)
     • "Capital Punishment: Killing Those Who Deserve to Die"
       (October 2, 2008)
3. We're hypocrites
   • Yes and no
     • I'll get back to that
   • Related posts:
     • "Having Good Judgment isn't Being Judgmental"
       (October 12, 2011)
     • "Loving Neighbors: Even the One Who Stole Our Gospel Book"
       (September 4, 2011)
     • "Jessica Logan, Sexting, Suicide, What Guys Want, and Malignant Virtue"
       (December 8, 2009)
       Particularly
       • Malignant Virtue and "Hypocrisy,"
         Real and Imagined

Hypocrisy: Not Approved

A dictionary says hypocrisy is:

• An expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction
• Insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have
  (Princeton's WordNet)

The Catholic Church says we should be "living in truth." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2465-2470) The idea is to be truthful - which is inconsistent with practicing hypocrisy:

"Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy."
(Catechism, 2468)

So, does this mean that all Catholics are perfect people, unsullied by naughty thoughts and nasty deeds? Hardly. I've posted about original sin before. (July 25, 2012)

I'm one of the billion or so living Catholics who could say 'God's not done with me yet.' Which isn't the same as hating myself, or putting on a show of being 'a great sinner who is now SAVED, and that's another topic. Topics. (October 26, 2011, August 8, 2010)

Life: Sacred

Like I've said before, life is sacred. (Catechism, 2258) Since I'm a practicing Catholic, I can't let that be a lovely thought and nothing more. I have to act as if it's true. Yet more topics.

Change Happens

I didn't expect the 21st century to be quite like this: but I didn't expect it to be just like 1950s America, either. This post was going to be about change, stress, and all that: but it got out of hand. I'll settle for linking to sort-of-related posts:

• Dealing with change
  • "Becoming Something New"
    (October 14, 2012)
  • "Freedom, Fear, and the Internet"
    (September 28, 2012)
  • "A 'Traditional' Catholic? Yes and No"
    (July 31, 2010)
  • "Rebellious Youth, Protests, and The Establishment: in 2010"
    (January 26, 2010)
  • "Are You a Boy, or Are You a Girl?"
    (September 26, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Change Happens: Deal With It
• Life issues
  • "An Ancient Brain, Politics, and Searching for Life on Mars"
    (October 12, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Legal, Yes: Right, No
  • "Treating Human Beings Like People, and an Impending Election"
    (October 5, 2012)
  • "Authentic Development, Kids, and the Hypothetical Case of Yougaria"
    (August 15, 2012)
    Particularly
    • No Kids, No Worries: For a While
  • "Murder at a Sikh Temple: Why I Care"
    (August 9, 2012)
  • " 'A Consistent Ethic of Life,' Reality Checks About Religion, and a New Widget"
    (April 27, 2012)
• Just war
  • "9/11, Just War, and 'Death to Mickey Mouse' "
    (September 11, 2011)
  • "Curing the Sick, Helping the Poor; Yes:
    Killing the Innocent; No"
    (June 24, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Human Life is Sacred: All Human Life
  • "World Youth Day Madrid, 9/11, and an Imperfect World"
    (August 21, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Pacifists, Warmongers, and Catholics
    • Elections, Ethics, and Decisions
  • "Oh, For the Days of Yore?"
    (March 22, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Elections, Evil Rulers, and Rules
  • " 'Just War:' Unpleasant, but Not a Contradiction in Terms"
    (March 22, 2011)
• Science
  • "Alpha Centauri, Freedom, and Me"
    (October 19, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Alpha Centauri, Planets, and Life
  • "9/11, Religion, and Assumptions"
    (September 11, 2012)
  • "Principles, Politics, Parkas, and a Robot on Mars"
    (August 17, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Messages from Mars
  • "Taking Life a Thousand Years at a Time"
    (June 10, 2012)
  • " 'In a State of Journeying' "
    (January 18, 2012)
• Holidays
  • "New Year's Day, 2012: Flannel Tongue Optional"
    (January 1, 2012)
  • "Facts, Frustration, and Fear"
    (January 28, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Holiday Stress and Murder
  • "Why I Don't Go Ballistic Over Xmas"
    (December 23, 2010)
  • "Halloween, Emperor Palpatine, Electric Eyeballs, and Getting a Grip"
    (October 29, 2010)
  • "Halloween's Coming: Why aren't I Ranting?"
    (October 29, 2009)

Coming this Monday: Halloween

Tomorrow is October 31, 2011. It's significant, more or less, is several ways. It's:

• A Monday
  • The day between Sunday and Tuesday
• The last day of October
  • Time to flip to November
    • Since I've got a 12-month calendar by my desk
• Halloween
  • Also called
    • Hallowe'en
    • Allhallows Eve
  • The evening before All Saints' Day
  • Often devoted to pranks played by young people
    (Princeton's WordNet)

I've got a few problems with how some folks act around Halloween: but this post isn't a rant about how awful the holiday is.

Satanic Plots by the Bushel

As I've said before, I grew up in an area infested with radio preachers: the sort who threw Bible trivia, numerology, and the end times prophecy du jour into a blender - and hit 'puree.'

These painfully pious folks seemed to be awfully good at hating things. And, sometimes, people. They also had a habit of identifying what they didn't like as "Satanic." As I recall, a short list of "Satanic" plots and influences often included:

• Women wearing slacks
• Rock and Roll
• Commies
• Catholics
• New technology

Then there was my favorite, from just a few decades back: a fellow on national radio, complaining about "the effete habit" of men growing beards. You can't make that kind of thing up.

Don't get me wrong. Satan is quite real. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 391-395) But that doesn't mean that everything I'm turned off by is "Satanic." Or that God's eternal law is strangely similar to the cultural mores and musical tastes of a particular American subculture, ca. 1945-55.

With Friends Like These - - -

I don't doubt the sincerity of folks who really believe that the latest 'end times prophecy' will finally get it right. By the way, we're due to read about Harold Camping's new-and-improved Apocalypse prediction in November.

I also don't doubt that, in their own way, they're trying to follow Jesus the Christ: that they're Christians. But the recurring shenanigans are sometimes downright embarrassing for the rest of us.

Unintended Consequences

Ever been around, when someone didn't keep a blender's lid on tight? That sort of food processor performance art is a pretty good metaphor for the weird version of Christianity I learned about on the radio - and sometimes face-to-face.

Happily, my parents were sensible folks, and went to a nice, normal, American mainstream Protestant church. Just the same, those nut jobs encouraged me to take a long, hard, look at religions. Eventually I became a Catholic. I'm quite certain that's not what the folks ranting about the "Whore of Babylon" and the Communist menace had in mind.

Everybody's Different

One reason I like being Catholic is that we're not expected to be poor imitations of some arbitrary 'real Christian.'

Even "identical" twins aren't quite identical, and God made each of the 7,000,000,000 or so folks alive today - including the 1,100,000,000 (give or take) Catholics - as one-of-a-kind individuals. It's that one body - many members thing. (1 Corinthians 12)

I've posted about being part of a Church that's literally catholic before:

• "Unity, Diversity, and Being Catholic"
  (August 26, 2010)
• "Not All Catholics are Like Me - Thank God"
  (March 18, 2009)

Broken Pumpkins, Broken Lives, and Getting a Grip

I'm not happy about the smashed pumpkins I see this time of year. But I don't let myself get too upset about the matter. It's a small problem, on at least two scales.

Judging from the fraction of each year's Halloween decorations that get vandalized, there can't be all that many folks who get their jollies by ruining jack-o-lanterns. It's hardly what I'd call an 'epidemic:' But then I'm not a news editor trying to pump up circulation.

Besides, the waste in resources is fairly minimal. Even in these difficult economic times, I have trouble imagining that a household will be wiped out because pumpkin rinds landed on the front sidewalk.

Compared to problems like drug addiction, disordered marital relationships, or threats to freedom, smashed pumpkins just don't stack up.

I suppose I could try to be conventionally distressed about all those awful costumes people wear, or how orange and black aren't 'nice' colors. The fact is, I *like* the occasionally-silly artwork we see this time of year:


These folks were ready early (The sign on the left says, "Treats Inside (tricks optional)." October 11, 2007.


Windy day: good thing those decorations were firmly attached. October 31, 2007.

These folks did a nice job. That looks like a serious crash landing. October 20, 2007.

My household doesn't do yard decorations very much, but I like to come up with some 'holiday' art. Like these, from 2007 and 2010:





The way I see it, none of the commandments say we're supposed to be 'sour saints.' I figure that there's quite enough grimness around: and that a bit of humor is okay.

The Decalog doesn't say "go have fun," either: possibly because that isn't the sort of thing most folks have to be ordered to do. It'd be like being ordered to breathe.

And that's another topic.

Vaguely-related posts:

• Holidays
  • "Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion"
    (April 17, 2011)
  • "Why I Don't Go Ballistic Over Xmas"
    (December 23, 2010)
  • "Millions of Dollars in Decorations on a Tree: And a Tale of Two Camels"
    (December 19, 2010)
  • "Christmas: It's an Official Birthday"
    (December 3, 2010)
  • "Halloween, Emperor Palpatine, Electric Eyeballs, and Getting a Grip"
    (October 29, 2010)
• Hell, Satan, and getting a grip
  • "Mephistopheles, Metaphysics, and Mind Games"
    (October 17, 2011)
  • "Faith, Reason, and Exorcisms"
    (May 17, 2011)
  • "Demons: The Other Angels"
    (February 20, 2011)
  • "Haiti: Voodoo, Pat Robertson, and the Catholic Church"
    (January 16, 2010)
  • " 'Catholics and Muslims along with the fake Jews all are Satanic Cults' - Who Knew?"
    (April 2, 2009)

Background:

• "Solemnity of All Saints - Homily of Pope Benedict XVI"
  (November 1, 2006)
• "Solemnity of All Saints - Angelus, 1 November 2005 - Benedict XVI"
  (November 1, 2005)
• "Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed - Angelus, 2 November 2003"
  (all souls day) (November 2, 2003)
• Praying for the dead
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church
    • 1030-1032, 1472
  • Bible
    • Job 1:5
      • An example of one person acting on behalf of another
    • 2 Maccabees 12:46
      • "Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin."
    • Matthew 12:31-32
      • Footnote 22 explains "blasphemy against the Spirit"
    • 1 Corinthians 3::11-15
      • "...and the fire (itself) will test the quality of each one's work...."
    • 1 Peter 1:1-7
      • "...so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Halloween, Emperor Palpatine, Electric Eyeballs, and Getting a Grip

Halloween's coming this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing kids from around this part of Sauk Centre come by, dressed up as princesses, spooks - or, if it doesn't warm up by then, layers of winter outerwear.

Where's the Religious Sound and Fury?

I haven't stopped being a practicing Catholic: and I'm quite well aware that October 31st is the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time. We've got the The Solemnity of All Saints and The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls), on November 1 and 2. Same as last year.

I'll be there, God willing, celebrating Mass with the rest of the parish at Our Lady of the Angels church.

But I also expect to be here, near the front door of my house, helping kids enjoy an autumn holiday: and having some fun, myself.

I don't see a contradiction there: partly because I don't think knowing, loving, and serving God requires grim disapproval of electric eyeballs. I'll get back to that.

Catholic, Living in America

I don't mind being born in America. I even think this country is okay. I also think Finland, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Tokelau are okay.

Growing up in America, I've absorbed quite a bit of the local culture. Which is a sort of good news/bad news proposition. Same, I suspect, as growing up anywhere else.

I'm also a practicing Catholic, and a convert. Which puts me outside both the American secular culture and the American Protestant culture(s).

I grew up in a nice, mainstream Protestant household about a block away from a college campus, in a place where a great many people were convinced that the Catholic Church was evil, Satanic, and un-American.

My parents didn't share that notion, but it was hard to not notice what the 'first church of holy hate' had to say.

I also learned about the Puritans. Mostly in school, and from folks who were anything but puritanical.

Definition time. "Puritanism" is:

• The beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans
  • Most of whom were Calvinists who wished to purify the Church of England of its Catholic aspects
• Strictness and austerity in conduct and religion
  (Princeton's WordNet)

There's a time and place for austerity and strictness - and I suspect that the Puritans weren't quite as bad as some feel they were. And those are other topics.

A Report from the Department of Unintended Consequences

The painfully Biblical folks who ranted on radio and railed against the evils of the Commies and the Catholics weren't, I'm pretty sure, Puritans. But they shared the passion for "strictness and austerity."

They also painted a - colorful - picture of the Catholic Church and the Commies. To their credit, they didn't confuse the two.

When it came to the Whore of Babylon, these terribly religious ranters seemed convinced that the very personification of evil threatened America, motherhood, and apple pie. Think Star Wars' evil Emperor Palpatine, without his good looks and winsome charm.

As a teen, I wondered how such utterly vile people could exist - and endure.

So, being the sort of person I am, I started learning about the origins of Catholicism. Including the claim that God had personally set up their outfit, and had been maintaining it for the last couple millennia.

There were several possible explanations. Catholics could all be crazy. They could all be liars. Or they could be telling the truth.

There was a paper trail leading back to the early years of the Roman Empire - and beyond. The Catholic Church had endured catastrophes which could reasonably be expected to destroy a large organization.

There had been times when it was profitable to be Pope, but the idea that the whole 'Jesus' thing was made up for personal gain wouldn't wash. Only one of Jesus' 12 apostles hadn't been messily executed for standing by their beliefs. I figured the least-unlikely explanation was that the Catholic Church was simply what it said it was.

So I became a Catholic. I've written about that before.

Electric Eyeballs and Getting a Grip

I can't remember a time when I didn't take God and Jesus seriously - and the Holy Spirit, of course. That's why, as a teen, I made it a habit to tune in the 'religious' radio stations. I learned quite a bit that way.

Remember: I take God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit seriously. Folks with a knack for numerology and possible emotional issues - not so much.

Loud Taste and Numbers

I was picking up toothpaste in a grocery down the street the other day, and walked by the shelves where they keep seasonal items. Which this week is Halloween-related stuff.


Halloween's coming, which means lots of orange and black on store shelves. October 25, 2010.


And, this year, electric eyeballs. October 25, 2010.

I've been told that my aesthetic tastes are a bit on the loud side. When I saw that box of electric eyeball-lights, I had an impulse to get them and string them up around my desk.

I didn't, but not because I think they're Satanic. I'm married - and my wife's aesthetic sense isn't loud-bordering-on-tasteless.

On the other hand, I remember the radio preachers. Given a running start, I could whip up a rant about ten electric eyeballs and seven heads and ten horns and all that. (Revelation 17:3)

You'll notice that there are ten electric eyeballs in the box, and that seven are arranged in a hexagonal pattern - and no, I don't take that weird fusion of numerology, American culture and marketing very seriously.

I'm not going to buy those eyeball lights. But I'm not going to rant about Halloween, either.

Around here Halloween is a time when kids and their parents and/or older siblings go around, trick-or-treating. And the grocery has some wonderfully tacky decorations on the shelves.

Maybe, if all of America was just simply perfect and utterly in solidarity with the Magisterium, and cholera wasn't afflicting anybody anywhere, and the only problem in the whole wide world was a dissonance involving the The Solemnity of All Saints and kids dressed up as spooks - maybe then I'd rant about Halloween.

As it is, I'm glad to have a break from the political campaigns. And that's yet another topic.

Almost-related posts:

• "Crowbar for Christ in Colorado?"
  (October 7, 2010)
• "Asceticism: Seeing Past Some Skinny Guy Screaming on a Pillar"
  (August 21, 2010)
• "A 'Traditional' Catholic? Yes and No"
  (July 31, 2010)
• "Wealth, the Vatican, the White House, Corporate Headquarters, and Cultural Values"
  (February 4, 2010)
• "Halloween's Coming: Why aren't I Ranting?"
  (October 29, 2009)

Halloween's Coming: Why aren't I Ranting?

Back in the 'good old days' of my youth, which I'm sincerely glad to have in time's rear-view mirror, a few 'good Christians' went in for an eldritch brew of numerology, fortunetelling and yellow journalism. They were very 'Biblical' about it, though, and probably didn't see anything odd about their beliefs.

That was then. I haven't run into anything quite like that lot for a few decades. Either 'spiritual' fashions have changed, or it was a very regional subculture. Can't say that I miss it.

What I have run into (and avoid, when possible) more recently are rants about Halloween. The holiday, in some people's view, is Satanic: along with beer and Bingo. All of which can be badly misused, of course.

Halloween and Those People

I think part of the problem, apart from the scary costumes and gory movies, is that Halloween isn't a particularly 'American' holiday.

"The celebration of Halloween has dual origins. The first is in a pre-Christian Celtic feast associated with the Celtic New Year. The second is in the Christian celebration of All Saints Day (Nov. 1st) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2). In the British Isles November 1st is called All Hallows, thus the evening before is All Hallows Eve...."
(EWTN)

Yeah: Halloween has roots in old Celtic traditions and beliefs; but its name comes from its close association with not one but two (shudder) Catholic celebrations. I know: EWTN refers to All Saints Day and All Souls Day as "Christian" celebrations - and so they are - but they're also something that 'those Catholics' do.

I suspect that the candy hit the fan in the 19th century:

"...With the massive emigration of Irish in the last century the All Hallows Eve customs of costumes, jack-o-lanterns and trick or treating, were transported to North America...."
(EWTN)

As an ancestor of mine said, about another ancestor of mine, "he doesn't have family: He's Irish." I don't imagine that Halloween celebrations' association with 'those Irish' helped its reputation.

Halloween, Beer, and Bingo

Catholicism doesn't seem very "Christian" from some points of view. My faith isn't based on the idea that beer and Bingo are works of the devil, along with a handful of other aspects of life that a particular subculture doesn't approve of.

Sure: alcohol abuse is a problem, and so is compulsive gambling. But America tried Prohibition - and most people in this country know how well that went over.¹ The Church has prohibitions, but they're against getting drunk, or indulging in any sort of excess. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2290)

When it comes to trick-or treats and other non-destructive aspects of Halloween, the Catholic Church doesn't mind. You can get an idea of what does matter in the reviews of current movies.

It might surprise you. Ten years ago, "The Canterville Ghost" (1944) was recommended family viewing for Halloween.

This year, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" (2009) got an "A-I -- general patronage" rating from the USCCB. On the other hand, "9" (2009) was rated "L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling." Or, apparently, in the case of this adult, annoying.

How Could Catholic Bishops Possibly Disapprove of an "Artistically Accomplished" Movie?

I'm a bit disappointed by that review of "9": I've seen ads for the movie and had it on my 'see it someday' list.

The USCCB isn't trying to be a killjoy with its rating the movie. The Catholic bishops are making an effort to inform Catholics - and anybody else who's interested - what Catholicism is, and how Catholic beliefs are applied in today's culture.

The "9" review gives the bottom line good news and bad news about the movie in the first paragraph:

"Artistically accomplished but intellectually problematic animated fantasy in which the doll-like titular creature ... leads a band of similar beings ... as they battle giant mechanical monsters amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world. ... implicitly contrasts a naysaying version of religious faith with enlightening science, a false dichotomy that, despite some eventual modifications, requires mature deliberation by spiritually well-grounded viewers...."
(movie review, USCCB)

Showing sophistication and 'intelligence' by contrasting "a naysaying version of religious faith with enlightening science" is firmly anchored in this culture's assumptions. But that doesn't mean that it's true.

And I see that I've drifted into another topic. Which I've discussed recently. And probably will, again.

Almost-related posts:

• "Copernicus, Galileo, Science and a Reality Check"
  (October 26, 2009)
• "Global Warming, End Times - 'We're All Gonna Die' Over the Last 45 Years Or So"
  (October 3, 2009)
• "Dinosaurs, Mutant Chickens, Evolution, and Faith in God"
  (June 29, 2009)
• "Faith and Reason, Religion and Science"
  (March 20, 2009)
• "Catholic Church, Creationism, Evolution, Facts and Faith"
  (March 5, 2009)
• "The Bible-Believing Catholic Church"
  (October 2, 2008)
• "The Pope, the Antichrist, and Fu Manchu"
  (October 2, 2008)
• "Catholics Don't Believe the Bible: Who Knew?"
  (September 26, 2008)

Background:

• "Halloween: Its Origins and Celelbration"
  EWTN

¹Actually, while it lasted it created a source of revenue for at least one monastery in this area. They made a tidy income, manufacturing stills which were in high demand between passage of the 18th and 21st amendments to the Constitution.