Re-entry

Back to real life now. I’m in the Minneapolis airport waiting for my flight to Denver for ICRS.

Ecclesiology with McBrien went well. Our last class was an open forum to talk about whatever was on anyone’s mind. I, the lone Anglican among about fifteen Catholics, asked if my classmates could ever conceive of a time when schism was the very best option available. Is there any value above unity? I wondered. One student said yes, he thought unity served truth, and therefore if unity ever failed to serve truth, schism was the better option. Another student referred to the hundreds if not thousands of denominations recognized by the US govt and said this was a scandal to the world. McBrien himself chimed in and said all efforts should be made to preserve unity. He referred to the East-West schism of 1054 that has resulted in a millennium-long divide btwn the Eastern Orthodox and Catholics. He also asked, somewhat hypothetically, if our attitudes about homosexual behavior are essential to our faith. Does this issue constitute some essential part of Christian dogma and practice? If not, then one part of the church should not prevent another part of the church from doing as it pleases. Another student referred to an article by Karl Rahner in which Rahner wonders if the Western version of marriage had to prevail in an indigenous tribe of Africa where a model closer to that of Abraham’s patriarchate is in use. The student asked if the approach implied by this question could be applied to the homosexual question. He said that in the Navajo community in which he ministered, homosexuals were seen as in some way superior in wisdom because they had both male and female elements in their souls. In the Navajo conception of anthropology, they are viewed as doubly souled. Hence usually the shaman or sages of their communities are homosexuals. This same student talked about how this struggle in the church today could be likened to the struggle to admit Gentiles into the church in the first century. That was anathema to the conservatives back then; Scripture, their Scriptures, did not allow for it. But Peter and Paul saw the Spirit working among Gentiles, and so their experience did not seem to dovetail with Scripture. Peter baptized Cornelius because of an experience of the divine. If the Spirit is working among partnered homosexuals, who are we to call unclean what God has called clean?

McBrien closed by talking about the difference it makes to have a relative who is openly gay. He pointed out that as conservative as vice president Dick Cheney is, he has not been a supporter of the move to prohibit gay marriage. Why? Vice President Cheney has a lesbian daughter who is in a long-term relationship with another woman. It matters how close you are to the issue. He pointed out that when a mother or father who has lost a child to the Iraq war expresses support for the war, he may disagree with him or her, but he certainly respects his or her position. Conversely, when women past their child-bearing years claim loyalty to the pope in condemning birth control (Humanae Vitae), McBrien said he doesn’t have much time for them.