Various and Sundry

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday

Strictly, today marks the secular holiday, despite local commemoration in church yesterday. King ought to be commemorated by the Church on the anniversary of his martyrdom (4 April). I can't say I ever am very enthusiastic about this particular holiday, though this has very little to do with King himself, whose sanctity of life may be controverted but whose sanctity of purpose cannot be denied. I dislike this holiday, because I fear that King's legacy has been abused by both sides of the political aisle. On one hand, the abuse by one side is rather obvious. Today, the President visited a Washington area high school, where there was a Service Day commemorating Dr. King. The President used the occasion as an opportunity to discuss how those sprucing up the school are continuing in King's footsteps. Considering that King was one of the strongest critics of American intervention in Southeast Asia, one wonders whether the President's own critics are following Dr. King more closely than these civic-minded individuals. Or whether Dr. King might have something challenging to say about the postcard writing to victims of Hurricane Katrina. I really don't think you can reduce King to a promoter of civicmindedness or volunteerism. There was far more Tocquevillean public spirit in his age than our own. Indeed, I think King's path represents a departure from those kinds of social institutions, of which the church, especially in the African-American community, had become a launching pad. At the turn of the 20th century, W.E.B. DuBois describes the African-American churches as the largest black-"owned" corporate bodies and as a catch-all for social service within the African-American community. Indeed, I know examples of African-American churches and voluntary organizations sending rather sizeable sums of money to victims of disasters who were very unlikely to be of their own races. The world King knew as a child within his own immediate circles was one of open hands, open hearts, and open backs. King himself came from an intellectual family but was quite comfortable in overalls, suggesting that he knew how to work with his hands. If the President were successful in restoring the Tocquevillean ideal wherever it used to be, he only would succeed in restoring the formative world of King.

And thus King easily could have lived his life as a pastor, facilitating these intraracial voluntary organizations and self-improvement initiatives, the so-called Atlanta Doctrine of Booker T. Washington. But King chose otherwise. He chose to diagnose the illness of the system. He fought the disabilities in law and culture that kept African-Americans from reaching their full potential in American society, and he also questioned the effects of American power over the rest of the world, the conflict with the Soviets, etc. King identified and resisted systemic evil. That's a road that many of us can't follow. But it is best to admit that was his road.

On the other side, we hear from the NAACP and other organizations with a history of association with King telling us, "the civil rights movement isn't over. Racism isn't yet vanquished." Well, of course not. But these organizations don't seem to understand why they're becoming irrelevant to my generation, particularly African-Americans. One wonders if King might become a cultural critic in the vein of Bill Cosby or whether he might be inferring some interesting things from the popularity of African-American popular culture among economically disadvantaged youth of other races. Why is racism an acceptable bugaboo of our discourse but class disparities are not?

Two Candidacies

A few days ago I learned that Randall Foster (Texanglican) had passed his canonical exams and therefore was admitted to candidacy in the Diocese of Ft. Worth. Today, I learned that the Postulant has been the Candidate since Michaelmas. These two (along with two others in the Process) are daily in my prayers and I'm happy that God is speeding them toward further dedication to His service.

Lutherpunk Asks Why We Go to Church

He also asks why we practice the Faith. He also asks us to think about those we know who don't go to church and why we care so much that they don't. So here's my answer:

1. The world is not right. The cosmos is not right. I am not right.

2. The majority of people throughout the ages have concluded (1) by inspection and intensely desired that they and the rest of the world be made right.

3. I have concluded that Jesus Christ is the way to rectitude for me and everything else, fulfilling our desires beyond our imagining.

4. A lot of other people have concluded (3) and come up with some sort of framework that explains (1), (2), and (3) and is summarized in three Creeds composed by a bunch of DWEMs and thus sounding quite DWEMish.

5. The unsummarized framework has some holes.

6. The unsummarized framework also poses my professional life as more than some independent and selfish inquiry into truth or a colossal waste of societal resources but as a way to stronger relationship with God and to my neighbor.

Many people I know who don't go to church spend their whole lives thinking but would prefer not to think about religion, so they feel very turned off and intimidated by those like me who do or else think that I don't think enough about religion. Others find themselves alienated by the facere of the church, where the mysteries at the heart of our faith become lost in the lust for mastery. I find myself often troubled by the facere of the church but strive to seek those things in which there is life and immortality. I seek God in the Word poorly proclaimed and the Eucharist poorly said, if this is necessary. What makes me happy is that many of my generation who do attend church very much strive to cultivate some humility about their practice and the state of their souls.

I can't say the life of the community is very easy for me. I am not a particularly social person. I dislike being the youngest person (usually) in the Adult Forum. I feel uncomfortable being young and single. I feel most uncomfortable about my inability to feel part of my particular church, when I was very used to feeling a part of my previous three communities. But I go every week and practice the Faith as best I can, because this is the way God has ordered me to be. I am meant to be uncomfortable in the human world.