July Fourth

posted July 28, 2009

I have to admit that there was a tear in my eye and a catch in my throat as I heard Kate Smith belt out "God Bless America" on the radio while driving across the Indiana countryside on a gorgeous Fourth of July. Smith had a powerful and clear voice that could rouse the most lethargic of us in any event, but her version of that song lent it a unique majesty and power. She stirred in the breasts of listeners a strong emotion for the society known as America and the country known as the USA. This is especially true with those of us who gave so many years of service to the US military or who grew up being taught about America by those who loved America.

But such a rare moment cannot blind us to Reality nor can it justify ignoring Truth.

Just a few hours earlier I had gone to meet old friends of mine from California, and I had to drive through the streets of a small Midwestern town that in the early evening was preparing for the Independence Day fireworks. People were gathering or sitting out on their lawns or on large fields. Some stretched out on blankets, others reclined on aluminum lawnchairs, and still others just sat in their motor vehicles. A few were barbequing, most had a drink of one sort or another in their hands, and everyone seemed to be talking or listening to music.

And as I looked closer I saw SUVs and 4-wheelers that were positively huge. I saw tons of human fat and sagging flesh hanging out of shorts, and T-shirts. I saw women who wore shorts or jeans and tight shirts, men who had long hair, and children who yelled and danced and showed off for no one in particular. And no where was there a cross to be seen. That’s when I started to think that there was a sickness here. It’s a spiritual sickness that says the individual – with his or her wants and desires – is the highest authority there is. And that is the sickness these people have.

It’s the same sickness that leads to miles and miles of "strips" – one plot of land after another in which each building houses one business and each business has its own parking lot, driveway, and large sign. When the business fails or the owners tire, the place gets shuttered, the weeds grow up, and eventually the wrecking crews arrive to knock it all down and start all over again with someone else’s parking lot for someone else’s building, to house someone else’s business. For a while at least.

It’s the same sickness that fills restaurants with obese people stuffing their faces. I mean obese, not fat. These are people – male and female alike -- who cannot possibly be hungry for food because they are 30 to 100 pounds overweight. But there they sit eating, and eating, and eating, like some animal, perhaps hoping in an inchoate way that by filling their belly the sense of emptiness in their souls can go away.

It’s the same sickness that allows hours of "music" called rock and roll, or hip hop, or rap to be blasted. All this stuff does is to focus the listener on themselves with their thoughts and feelings and desires and more, because there is no way to ever dance or relate with someone else with this kind of "music".

It’s the same sickness that makes business cutthroat and impersonal. So, you always have to "cover your ass" because if you slip up just once, in just the smallest way, you’ll be sued. Or, you are always trying to come up with a better product or a cheaper item or something different that people can spend their money on so that you can "corner the market" or even just get a "market share" to keep from losing your livelihood to the omniscient and all-powerful deified "unseen hand." Or, the cashiers and managers and customer service men and women coldly intone the perfunctory "have a nice day" or "may I help you" when they don’t mean it, don’t know you, don’t care to know you, and never will get to know you. Or, the legions of businessmen and bankers and government officials who look at human beings as "consumers" – cogs in some vast economic machinery. It’s the same sickness that gave rise to a system that guarantees a right for women to have abortions, or couples to contracept, or people to choose leaders, or people to live wherever they want regardless of family or people or duty. It’s the same sickness that says you can be part of any religion you want and it’s the same sickness that unjustly denies the One, True Faith, and the One, True Church their rightful places in society.

It’s the same sickness that leads people to keep shopping, to pack into malls, to keep buying and buying and buying. It’s the same sickness that makes everything vacuous entertainment. It’s the same sickness that turns what should be serious discussions into soundbites. It’s the same sickness that results in one person in most of the automobiles on the road. It’s the same sickness that leads people to live in splendid isolation in their houses in the suburbs surrounded by bushes, and gardens, and yards, and fences that keep them away from other human beings living the same way. It’s the same sickness that keeps people seeking after more knowledge or education without ever discovering Truth or acknowledging Reality.

It’s the same sickness that has crept into the Church from America so that priests won’t even say the word "man" when saying Eucharistic prayers but will instead say "us" or "the people". It’s the same sickness that puts women in the sacristy and strives to make women priests. It’s the same sickness that has people going to Mass wearing shower shoes, tight shorts that barely cover the buttocks, and sportshirts. It’s the same sickness that requires all the Church singers to be rock stars, and not worshippers of the Triune God.

America is sick. Really sick. But it has been sick for a long time. It was a sickness that caused the American forbears, the British colonists, to provoke and slaughter and infect the Native Americans so as to take their land and destroy their societies. It was a sickness that lead Americans to fight one war after another against the British, the Mexicans, themselves, the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Iraqis, and on and on and on. It was a sickness that gave rise to Hollywood and one bursting economic speculative bubble after another.

The illness is always cloaked in respectability. Indeed, slogans like "freedom", and "humanity", and "democracy", and "equality", and "free markets" are tossed about or repeated endlessly as though like some magic talisman they will do away with all the evils in society and the pain in so many hearts and souls. It’s as though we are to believe that these things, these empty slogans, are the highest reason for living. Or that humanity is on an ever-ascending road. But to believe that, one would have to believe that we are God, or gods. And, we are not. Nor will we ever be. Thank God.

The children are impudent, the young men and women are immodest, the adults are cold and clueless, the leaders are vain, and so there is growing poverty, and millions of abortions, and endless strife and empty toil, and mental illness skyrockets. Such a society and such a people are their own worst enemy, and certainly will come to destroy themselves. It is not worth preserving this sort of institutionalized narcissism, just like it is not worth keeping milk that has gone sour. It is not good spreading this goop around the globe, just like it is not good to keep the apple while it is rotting.

This is where error leads. This is where a lack of charity leads. Truth and charity are intimately interconnected as Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in Veritate, and failure of one means failure of another. Breaking from the Catholic Church is a sin against charity. Refusing to give primacy to the Faith and to the Church because of some false notion of human nature is error. The false view of human nature that Locke and Rousseau espoused has come about in America – and it is destroying a lot of lives and killing a lot of souls. These two "philosophers" wrote that man’s natural state was to live isolated and alone without the true Faith – without anyone in their lives. Radical, individual autonomy – that is what America was based on and that is the false dream, er nightmare, that is being realized. Every individual is free, or independent of, all other beings and from the Truth.

And to see where it all leads, just look around. Pity the Americans because they are so utterly lost and abandoned.

When Independence Day rolls around next year, just remember that the fireworks are about a lot more than just changing flags.

JMJ

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July Fourth posted July 28, 2009 I have to admit that there was a tear in my eye and a catch in my throat as I heard Kate Smith belt out "God Bless America" on the radio while driving across the Indiana countryside on a gorgeous Fourth of July. Smith had a powerful and clear voice that could rouse the most lethargic of us in any event, but her version of that song lent it a unique majesty and power. She stirred in the breasts of listeners a strong emotion for the society known as America and the country known as the USA. This is especially true with those of us who gave so many years of service to the US military or who grew up being taught about America by those who loved America. But such a rare moment cannot blind us to Reality nor can it justify ignoring Truth. Just a few hours earlier I had gone to meet old friends of mine from California, and I had to drive through the streets of a small Midwestern town that in the early evening was preparing for the Independence Day fireworks. People were gathering or sitting out on their lawns or on large fields. Some stretched out on blankets, others reclined on aluminum lawnchairs, and still others just sat in their motor vehicles. A few were barbequing, most had a drink of one sort or another in their hands, and everyone seemed to be talking or listening to music. And as I looked closer I saw SUVs and 4-wheelers that were positively huge. I saw tons of human fat and sagging flesh hanging out of shorts, and T-shirts. I saw women who wore shorts or jeans and tight shirts, men who had long hair, and children who yelled and danced and showed off for no one in particular. And no where was there a cross to be seen. That’s when I started to think that there was a sickness here. It’s a spiritual sickness that says the individual – with his or her wants and desires – is the highest authority there is. And that is the sickness these people have. It’s the same sickness that leads to miles and miles of "strips" – one plot of land after another in which each building houses one business and each business has its own parking lot, driveway, and large sign. When the business fails or the owners tire, the place gets shuttered, the weeds grow up, and eventually the wrecking crews arrive to knock it all down and start all over again with someone else’s parking lot for someone else’s building, to house someone else’s business. For a while at least. It’s the same sickness that fills restaurants with obese people stuffing their faces. I mean obese, not fat. These are people – male and female alike -- who cannot possibly be hungry for food because they are 30 to 100 pounds overweight. But there they sit eating, and eating, and eating, like some animal, perhaps hoping in an inchoate way that by filling their belly the sense of emptiness in their souls can go away. It’s the same sickness that allows hours of "music" called rock and roll, or hip hop, or rap to be blasted. All this stuff does is to focus the listener on themselves with their thoughts and feelings and desires and more, because there is no way to ever dance or relate with someone else with this kind of "music". It’s the same sickness that makes business cutthroat and impersonal. So, you always have to "cover your ass" because if you slip up just once, in just the smallest way, you’ll be sued. Or, you are always trying to come up with a better product or a cheaper item or something different that people can spend their money on so that you can "corner the market" or even just get a "market share" to keep from losing your livelihood to the omniscient and all-powerful deified "unseen hand." Or, the cashiers and managers and customer service men and women coldly intone the perfunctory "have a nice day" or "may I help you" when they don’t mean it, don’t know you, don’t care to know you, and never will get to know you. Or, the legions of businessmen and bankers and government officials who look at human beings as "consumers" – cogs in some vast economic machinery. It’s the same sickness that gave rise to a system that guarantees a right for women to have abortions, or couples to contracept, or people to choose leaders, or people to live wherever they want regardless of family or people or duty. It’s the same sickness that says you can be part of any religion you want and it’s the same sickness that unjustly denies the One, True Faith, and the One, True Church their rightful places in society. It’s the same sickness that leads people to keep shopping, to pack into malls, to keep buying and buying and buying. It’s the same sickness that makes everything vacuous entertainment. It’s the same sickness that turns what should be serious discussions into soundbites. It’s the same sickness that results in one person in most of the automobiles on the road. It’s the same sickness that leads people to live in splendid isolation in their houses in the suburbs surrounded by bushes, and gardens, and yards, and fences that keep them away from other human beings living the same way. It’s the same sickness that keeps people seeking after more knowledge or education without ever discovering Truth or acknowledging Reality. It’s the same sickness that has crept into the Church from America so that priests won’t even say the word "man" when saying Eucharistic prayers but will instead say "us" or "the people". It’s the same sickness that puts women in the sacristy and strives to make women priests. It’s the same sickness that has people going to Mass wearing shower shoes, tight shorts that barely cover the buttocks, and sportshirts. It’s the same sickness that requires all the Church singers to be rock stars, and not worshippers of the Triune God. America is sick. Really sick. But it has been sick for a long time. It was a sickness that caused the American forbears, the British colonists, to provoke and slaughter and infect the Native Americans so as to take their land and destroy their societies. It was a sickness that lead Americans to fight one war after another against the British, the Mexicans, themselves, the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Iraqis, and on and on and on. It was a sickness that gave rise to Hollywood and one bursting economic speculative bubble after another. The illness is always cloaked in respectability. Indeed, slogans like "freedom", and "humanity", and "democracy", and "equality", and "free markets" are tossed about or repeated endlessly as though like some magic talisman they will do away with all the evils in society and the pain in so many hearts and souls. It’s as though we are to believe that these things, these empty slogans, are the highest reason for living. Or that humanity is on an ever-ascending road. But to believe that, one would have to believe that we are God, or gods. And, we are not. Nor will we ever be. Thank God. The children are impudent, the young men and women are immodest, the adults are cold and clueless, the leaders are vain, and so there is growing poverty, and millions of abortions, and endless strife and empty toil, and mental illness skyrockets. Such a society and such a people are their own worst enemy, and certainly will come to destroy themselves. It is not worth preserving this sort of institutionalized narcissism, just like it is not worth keeping milk that has gone sour. It is not good spreading this goop around the globe, just like it is not good to keep the apple while it is rotting. This is where error leads. This is where a lack of charity leads. Truth and charity are intimately interconnected as Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in Veritate, and failure of one means failure of another. Breaking from the Catholic Church is a sin against charity. Refusing to give primacy to the Faith and to the Church because of some false notion of human nature is error. The false view of human nature that Locke and Rousseau espoused has come about in America – and it is destroying a lot of lives and killing a lot of souls. These two "philosophers" wrote that man’s natural state was to live isolated and alone without the true Faith – without anyone in their lives. Radical, individual autonomy – that is what America was based on and that is the false dream, er nightmare, that is being realized. Every individual is free, or independent of, all other beings and from the Truth. And to see where it all leads, just look around. Pity the Americans because they are so utterly lost and abandoned. When Independence Day rolls around next year, just remember that the fireworks are about a lot more than just changing flags.