Activist Frida Berrigan and her uncle - Daniel Berrigan. GNU Free Documentation License. Image via Wikipedia

I recently read a quote from Daniel Berrigan, an 89-year-old Jesuit priest and long-time peace activist best known for his unwavering opposition to the School of the Americas, currently known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The quote really struck me as profound, and then last night I heard a sermon about putting your life where your belief is and it brought Berrigan’s quote back to mind.

“Your faith is rarely where your head is at and rarely where your heart is at. Your faith is where your ass is at! Inside what commitments are you sitting? Within what reality do you anchor yourself?”

In other words, if you say you believe A, are you putting your body in that place? Are you committed and acting on that commitment? Are you on the frontlines of faith? The homily I heard was along the same lines. It was about Luke 14:26-27, where a no-Kumbaya-Jesus is quoted as telling his followers that they really aren’t his followers if anything gets between them and God:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Harsh words, the priest pointed out, and then told his own story of leaving a military academy when he was young and had decided it didn’t fit with the tenets of Christianity.  (This contention, of course, would be news to the many Christians who sincerely believe that working for the military dovetails with serving Jesus.) He went on to encourage parishioners to not be Christians in name only, but through everything you do in your life – much like Dan Berrigan has put his life on the line protesting the SOA (actions which irritate some of his Jesuit brothers, by the way, who have to keep bailing Berrigan out of jail and resent the fact that he doesn’t bring money to the order through a regular job…. but that’s another post).

Anyway, I’m as guilty as many lay Christians are in not putting myself in the game as much as perhaps I should. I want to focus on “lay Christians” here because folks who work for churches as priests, sisters, nuns or pastors are paid to live their Christianity.

In other words, it is easy enough to live a life of poverty when you don’t have kids to support. Or, it is easy to not to worry about where your next meal is coming from when you are paid by your parishioners, you don’t have to worry about rent, and you are guaranteed a job for life. (The latter does not apply to Protestant clergy, who, like most lay Christians, can be fired at a moment’s notice and often have families to support.) It is a little more difficult when you have bills to pay and mouths to feed and are one of the more than 500K Arizonans who are unemployed.

Still, a Christian should ask the questions: Is faith the driving force in my life? Is, as Berrigan puts it so spicily, my ass in the place Jesus would be? Am I at nursing homes every week visiting the sick and the lonely? Have I visited a jail recently? Do I protest abortion, war, capital punishment? Am I willing to go live in complete solidarity with the poor? (Honestly, no. And not just because I really like sleeping in a bed that doesn’t have fleas.)

Yet, in spite of inspiring sermons and the inspiring lives lived by some priests and sisters (you’ll note there are not 100s of Dan Berrigans or Sr. Helen Prejeans), I tend to think God must know life is not as black and white as we would like it to be.

For instance, I know two young people who recently graduated as engineers and both wanted to work in sustainable energy, partially because they felt it fit with their call as Christians (to take care of the earth). But reality set in when they couldn’t find jobs and one ended up with Raytheon, the largest private employer in Southern Arizona, and the other with a traditional (i.e. dirty) power company because there were no jobs in industries that would have fit better with their values. Is it was better for them to be employed or to be homeless?

Or what about my former colleague, a Christian woman who gives more time than God to her parish, who spent a year looking for work that dovetailed with her faith until finally accepting a job in the military industrial complex because, frankly, she was going to lose her home if she didn’t. (Note to Christian employers out there, especially the Catholic Church:  She applied for multiple openings, but was never offered anything close to a living wage.)

I’ve been unemployed for more than a year. I’m currently nearing the end of my teacher certification process – just in time to enter a job market that just shed 750 teachers. I’ve been told about a non-teaching job at the University of Arizona, Southern Arizona’s largest public employer, but since I covered that beat as a reporter, I know all too well that the job will be one of the first chopped if UA takes another hit from the state this year. Even if I were willing to take the risk, I also know that some of the research UA does skirts the bright line of ethics that usually burns in my mind — making me wonder if any “real Christian” should work there. Then again, see me in December, when I’m done with my retraining as a teacher, fully certified as Highly Qualified in journalism and English. If I don’t have a job in the K-12 educational system, I’ll probably take just about anything that I can get.

In other words, it is easier to live completely authentically as a Christian – to only work for pro-life industries, to never shop at Walmart, to only buy fair-trade coffee or eat food from local farmers – when the economy isn’t tanking, jobs are plentiful, you don’t need health care, you aren’t pinching pennies and (most importantly) you are single and have no one depending on you. It’s much harder when you’re spending Labor Day looking for jobs while others are out barbecuing and drinking beer (which was most likely brewed by a corporation that invests in dirty bombs.)

In spite of our truncated income over the past year, we’ve refused to stop contributing to the charities we give to. We’ve provided a home to exchange students, traveling doctors, and seminarians through our hospitality. I’ve spent vacations rebuilding houses in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, we comfort the dying and their caretakers, and we’ve sent money directly to families that are worse off than we are right now. (Our motto: At least we have a house and one job. Even if that house is too big for us now that our children are grown and we can’t downsize – something befitting Christian values – because we’ve only owned the home 10 years and have too little equity to sell and be able to afford even a much smaller home. Details, details.)

All Christians are not Daniel Berrigan – or, in Tucson, we’re not all my friend, Brian Flagg. In fact, truth be told, when we meet people who really do put it all on the line in the name of Christ, who give up everything to serve the poor or live among the lepers, we tend to think they’re just a little bit odd or we think they’re saints. Mostly, we think they’re crazy – in fact, I heard someone refer to Flagg with that word just this weekend.

But maybe we’re supposed to work toward being a little more like Berrigan and Flagg, even in small ways, if we really want to live our faith. Maybe we have to decide to count the cost of living as a Christian and decide to pay or or decline the label of Christian. I’ll let you know what I decide after I find a job….

Primary commandment the Hutaree group is breaking

Where to start on this Tuesday morning? How about the insane “Christian” militia group trying to jump-start Armageddon out of a Michigan base? Granted, living in Michigan’s weather might make one cross over to the dark side, but I’ve never known snow drifts to cause folks to gird up in weapons and plot to kill a police officer. Who are these weirdos and how on earth do they get “kill a cop and start a violent standoff with the law” out of anything in the Bible? Fact is, of course, they can’t, as their website demonstrates by grasping at straws. The biblical quotes the group (named Hutaree, whatever that means) posts on the site have absolutely nothing to do with killing or bringing about the end times courtesy of a sniper scope. These guys may claim to be Christian, but as JC himself said, you’ll know Christians by their love – not their insanity.

The battle for the hearts and minds of agnostics has heated up with the atheist billboard message that was hoisted in mid-February being plastered over by a “God-country-family” billboard, courtesy of Raul Robb, a Tucson financial adviser. I didn’t like the billboard from the Center for Inquiry because I think they should come up with a better message. Their billboard read, “Are you good without God? Millions are.” Well, duh.

The billboards are popping up across the nation

There are plenty of people who argue that the only way you can be good is if you have a belief in a higher power or religion in your life, and it is certainly borne out in many ways. Who, for instance, is the first on the scene of a natural disaster? Usually not Atheists Are Us. But just as many believers do good because they feel called to it by their religious upbringing, there are also nonbelievers who do good because they believe their humanist stance requires it. Point is, we should be nice to each other, God or not, and far too often, we aren’t. Which, if you’re an atheist is no big deal, but if you’re a believer whose religion preaches loving one’s neighbor and you don’t do that – well, you give your religion a bad name.

Finally, for people who are still confused by the health care overhall, particularly in the issue of federal (aka your taxes) funding for abortion, Kathleen Parker has broken down the bits and pieces to show why the health care bill probably will fund abortion. Sadly, it doesn’t explain why legislators (and the general public) who call themselves pro-life do not object (at least not strongly enough) to further funding a war that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, including children and pregnant women, and was never considered “just” in terms of the loophole allowed pro-lifers under just war doctrine.

Whenever someone argues that the Catholic Church’s celibacy requirement of clergy is the reason sick, twisted men molest defenseless children (or confused adolescents) I want to smack them in the shoulder. Celibacy doesn’t cause child sexual abuse; if it did, all the Demented Daddies out there wouldn’t be grabbing after their own sons and daughters (or more likely, their step-sons and step-daughters). The practice of celibacy is the argument given in this op-ed in yesterday’s NYTimes and it is an argument that lets the Church off the hook in a number of ways.

The sexual abuse of children happens because certain people (I like to call them criminals) get their jollies off of a power differential in sexual encounters. And, frankly, aside from the power differential between a parent and child, the most powerful of these differentials is between clergy and child. (Followed closely by teacher and child and Boy Scout Leader and child.)

Ergo, what we’ve got blowing up (again!) in the Catholic Church – this time on the other side of the Atlantic – ain’t a celibacy issue, it’s a power issue. First there is the power differential between the priest and child, of which the Roman collar-wearing snake takes advantage. But then – and far worse – is the power present in a Church hierarchy that is beholden to no one except (shock!) other men in the hierarchy. When you’ve got a closed system, bad things happen. When you’ve got a system that survives on making sure that the only people who rise through the ranks are “loyal to the Magisterium,” you’ve got yourself a problem — because anyone daring enough to call a spade a spade is quickly marginalized. (Note: Some people are taking responsibility for the abuse in Ireland; a bishop resigned today, begging forgiveness from the children harmed in his diocese.)

Each parish is a little fiefdom with Father in charge. Each diocese is a little fiefdom with Bishop in charge. And Holy Mother Church is a fiefdom writ large with the Pope (and some Cardinals) in charge. Until we make it so that the People of God are in charge, we’re going to have issues of abuse because a closed system protects its own, instead of protecting the vulnerable.

But, you might ask, what about all those diocesan commissions set up after the sex abuse crisis got press (all hail the Boston Globe!) 10 years ago? Aren’t they helping bring more transparency to the system? Well, let’s see – are the people on those commissions elected by the people? Can anyone who wants join the commission? Or are all the members appointed by local bishops and is one of the requirements (save for exceptions made for a handful of survivors on commissions) fidelity to the Magisterium? See the problem?

So, let those who dare, say it out loud: Sexual abuse by priests is not due to celibacy, it is not due to a secularization of society – as Pope Pope Benedict XVI said in his scathing letter to the Church in Ireland last week (see #4 here) – it is not due to poor seminary formation, it is not due to a rise in child pornography and the sexualization of children (where are their parents???!!!). The sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church is primarily due to an institution built as a monarchy, full of male-only power and privilege, that marginalizes those who challenge it and is steeped in a culture of what one priest calls, “I don’t call you on your sins and you don’t call me on mine.”

The aforementioned (celibacy, porn, etc.) can and do contribute to situations in which sexual abuse occur, just as allowing any Tom, Dick or Harry into seminary because of the priest shortage does. (Segue: That problem could be at least partially solved by returning to the Catholic roots of married priesthood or ordaining women, but God forbid we think outside the closed box.) But while those things might “trigger” a beastly response from a sinful man, those things are not the reason sexual abuse of children in the Church lasted as long as it did. That continuation – through many years for some of the victims – was/is caused by a powerful, closed system that protects its own in the name of protecting the Church.

B16 does shame the abusers in no uncertain terms – and the bishops who protected them – in his letter to Ireland. Yet he remains silent on the allegations in Germany and, even in his Ireland letter, refrains from doing what would really help people come to trust the Church again: He doesn’t demand resignations, he doesn’t even demand the bishops spend one day each week meeting with victims – for as long as those victims want – to hear their pain and attempt to heal the soul-murder committed in the name of God. (He could be doing these things in private – but they need to be done in public for transparency’s sake.) And most notably, he doesn’t say, “After careful thought, I’ve realized we’ve obviously screwed up and we need some outside advice, so I propose we rework Canon Law to involve the laity in our operations, particularly parents, and particularly those who have proven to be prophetically challenging to the Church. Maybe we should be listening to them.”

Instead, it is just more of the same – seminary visits by (who else?) priests and bishops (let’s keep it all in the Club, fellas) to see if the problem is seminary formation and a further call for people to return to practices that will lead them closer to God (and, by inference, more “in union” with Rome). Has it ever occurred to anyone in the hierarchy that maybe people aren’t in union with Rome because they think Rome is wrong? It is enough to make me want to bang my head against a wall.

I’m hot under the collar about this because I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and know the damage abuse by an elder does to a child. It is the gift that keeps on giving, and when I hear of children being abused, I lose all sense of mercy for the abuser and those who might protect him/her. You harm a child, I believe you should be harmed. This doesn’t fit with the Christian tenets of repentance and forgiveness, but research shows child abusers rationalize their actions, they don’t repent for them. And, as any good Catholic can tell you, without true repentance, there is no forgiveness – a fact the Catholic heirarchy should keep in mind when figuring out how to respond to yet more revelations of sexual abuse.