Posts Tagged ‘culture wars’

I’m currently in the non-denominational at MIT where I just saw this tweet via Lisa Graas:

Harvard Extension School club holding “black mass” will relocate event to Middle East nightclub in Central Square. | Story soon @thecrimson.

— The Harvard Crimson (@thecrimson) May 12, 2014

Apparently however the Middle East Night Club decided they wanted no part of this

Here is the story:

Perhaps they will find an a deserted graveyard to use.

With an hour to the procession at MIT the crowd is starting to build The globe is here conducting interviews along with myself. I suspect this is going to be one of the most significant religious events in the area in a while.

Expect updates

A large canopy has just been brought in for the procession by a group of brothers. A busload of worshipers are now arriving

Update: Over 500 people processed from MIT all the way to Harvard where the Church could fit the crowd, (Base count 1200 plus an estimated 300 who couldn’t make it in. Meanwhile the Satanic Black Mass was cancelled and the taunting of the Catholic League by the Satanists failed to rattle them.

Final score God 3 Satan 0 full recap in the morning.

Update last: I’ll have the full story in a post in the morning but here are two videos to give you an idea of he crowd, first from the procession:

It took almost 5 minutes for all the people at the MIT Adoration to pass by.

Meanwhile here is the crowd at St. Pauls

(Fr.) Roger Landry hits the nail on the head in his letter to Harvard University’s president:

It’s not enough for Harvard to put out a press release saying that Harvard doesn’t “endorse the views or activities of any independent student organization.” Harvard simply would never allow itself or its properties to be associated with events that mock the religious beliefs, desecrate the sacred texts, or insult the spiritual sensitivities of Jews or Muslims.

Likewise it wouldn’t allow its reputation or institution to be affiliated in any way with the activities or views of an “independent student organization” that was reenacting the lynchings of African Americans or homophobic attacks or violence against women. Harvard would act decisively in those situations, both out of just concern for its own reputation but also out of moral outrage against such insensitivity that clear thinking, ethical people immediately recognize as evil.

That the question that Harvard has to answer, but in one sense the question concerning “burning a Koran” at Harvard is silly. The thought of doing such a thing would not occur to these “Satanists” as the islamic response would look nothing like this:

“In a recent statement, Pope Francis warned of the danger of being naïve about or underestimating the power of Satan, whose evil is too often tragically present in our midst. We call upon all believers and people of good will to join us in prayer for those who are involved in this event, that they may come to appreciate the gravity of their actions, and in asking Harvard to disassociate itself from this activity.”

or this

The archdiocese plans to hold a holy hour at 8 p.m. Monday at St. Paul’s Church, located near the campus.

As Father Michael Drea Senior Chaplin of the Harvard Catholic Chaplaincy put it

While the Satanists are “historically re-enacting” the devil at Queen’s Head Pub, Father Drea said the Harvard Catholic community will respond to evil with good by hosting a Eucharistic Holy Hour at St. Paul’s Church from 8pm to 9pm “to focus on the gift of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.”

“We take strength from [the Eucharist] to be the life of Christ in the world, to bring his message of life and love into the world and to be effective ambassadors of the New Evangelization,” he said. “We want to help people understand the beauty and centrality of our Eucharistic theology and how we are nourished by this great gift of Our Lord’s body, blood, soul and divinity.”

These are important points but they are directed at Harvard by those in the faith trying to defend it, and them from a danger they don’t acknowledge.

Now that the MSM is covering the story they obviously have a secular take to their questions to those concerned, let me suggest a few:

1. If this “Cultural Studies event”as it has been widely reported is about “culture” why are they hosting a group that claims to not have the cultural belief in what they are doing?

I would think that the answer the Harvard “Cultural Studies”  group gives would be rather newsworthy.

2.  When the story of this event was being reported in blogs the spokespeople for the Satanic Temple had no problem stating they were using a Consecrated Host even confirming it in writing , once the story broke into mainstream  media non-blog outlets those  confirmation were called “miscommunication” .   How does the Satanic Temple and Harvard reconcile this change?

I would further ask do they have possession of a consecrated host?  If so, how was it obtained and as they claim to respect all religions will it be returned?

Of course I don’t see how you reconcile “respecting all religions”  and performing a Black mass.

3.  As Harvard has plenty of Alumni who are Catholic and more than a few donors as well.  Given that the Black mass is a direct parody or insult to the Catholic Mass by design what kind of public objection or statement will they make?  Are you concerned that you will see more reactions like this?

“Harvard is under the same God as the rest of America, and religious freedom depends upon a shared reverence for Him while tolerating different religious beliefs.  Given Harvard’s heritage as a divinity school, it ought to be well aware that this event will darken its name in the minds of Christians—and particularly Catholics—for generations to come.

I think donors or alums who profess Christianity might have an issue giving to and associating with a university that is unwilling to even object to the Black mass.

4.  What do you  insert name of Catholic pol as a Catholic pol think of Harvard’s black mass & their response?

There are plenty of  pols running for office in 2014, many who have associations with Harvard.  Furthermore there are plenty of Catholic pols out there including Democrat minority leader & the speaker of the house.  What is going to happen when Harvard refusal to stop or even condemn this affront to their religion.  Who is going to be the person on the floor of the House or Senate defending the Black mass at Harvard as free speech that should be protected as opposed to offence to Catholics worldwide.  Will the same pols who critiqued the burning of the Koran by a southern pastor be as loud to defend Catholic sensibilities?

Oh and one more thing this line from Garret Quinn that this was first reported by Boston Magazine correct but as the Anchoress puts it:

Do any of them give a nod to the blogs? No. But that’s okay. What’s important is getting the story seen, and hopefully some opportunity for the Diocese to teach the faith!

Still I think her efforts deserve acknowledgement

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I’m slightly embarrassed that Ed Morrissey thought of Screwtape #7 before me

“I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The ‘Life Force’, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work— the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls ‘Forces’ while denying the existence of ‘spirits’— then the end of the war will be in sight.”

A correspondent of the Anchoress has a more modern Boston Centric  take:

“Dear Wormwood,

I congratulate you on the success of your latest efforts at Harvard University. I must say, dear nephew, that you have hit the baseball ball over Fenway Park’s “Green Monster” (what a delightful name) with this one. These mortals, especially the ones who claim to not believe in anything supernatural, have fallen once again into the trap. Since they are convinced we do not exist (what a wonderful lie that is!), they convince themselves that they need not worry about invoking our master’s name in anyway, let alone worshipping him. To them, it is all a little harmless fun, and their celebration of a black mass is meant only “as an expression of personal independence from overwhelming cultural influences!” How utterly delightful!”

with Elizabeth adding the ending.

“once emancipated from all that overwhelming light, there will be so much more room for us to encroach and overtake with our blessed darkness.”

But if you want a more professional take on the subject of the Devil who better to ask than Time Magazine’s Man of the Year Pope Francis:

We too are tempted, we too are the target of attacks by the devil because the spirit of Evil does not want our holiness, he does not want our Christian witness, he does not want us to be disciples of Christ. And what does the Spirit of Evil do, through his temptations, to distance us from the path of Jesus? The temptation of the devil has three characteristics and we need to learn about them in order not to fall into the trap. What does Satan do to distance us from the path of Jesus? Firstly, his temptation begins gradually but grows and is always growing. Secondly, it grows and infects another person, it spreads to another and seeks to be part of the community. And in the end, in order to calm the soul, it justifies itself. It grows, it spreads and it justifies itself.

furthermore

“We are all tempted because the law of our spiritual life, our Christian life is a struggle: a struggle. That’s because the Prince of this world, Satan, doesn’t want our holiness, he doesn’t want us to follow Christ. Maybe some of you might say: ‘But Father, how old fashioned you are to speak about the devil in the 21st century!’ But look out because the devil is present! The devil is here… even in the 21st century! And we mustn’t be naïve, right? We must learn from the Gospel how to fight against Satan.”

And that’s why the Black Mass can’t be ignored and the Holy Hour to fight it is so important.

Update:  Moonbattery (ross posted at Right Wing Newsnails it

With each generation, our liberal ruling class becomes less subtle about where it is coming from, morally and spiritually speaking.

…and jump into the argument between two of the people I am most fond of on the net.

I’ve already talked about what I think of and owe Stacy McCain and There is no person in bloggerdom whose company I enjoy more than Little Miss Attila, but this is getting ridiculous.

Stacy put out 4000 words last night on the History of feminism. It is very detailed and quite a read. I would recommend it to anyone.

Yesterday Joy today fisked a previous Stacy’s post and answered his magnum opus with a single drawing and two sentences proving she is an expert in blog Jujutsu.

I haven’t talked to either Stacy or Joy about this exchange but I am going to comment very briefly on the substance and I’ll let them correct me if I’m misinterpreting it either of them.

The way I see it Stacy is saying that Feminism and its origins are a lot less clean than a lot of people see it and that conservatives should avoid being seen as “feminists” because it means something that is quite different that what we think it does.

The way I see it Attila is defending Feminism or what she is calling equity feminism and saying that is is not invalid for a conservative to believe in it.

A lot of this is starting to look like dogs chasing tales so lets cut to that chase:

1. Per Stacy’s argument, There are a lot of nasty roots in the feminist movement, just as there were a lot of people happy to break bread with the communists in the civil rights movement. We might even stipulate that both groups used addressing an actual wrong (Jim Crow and inequality before the law of the sexes) to advance something they were more loyal to (the overthrow of capitalism and western culture that they found racist and/or sexist). Thus feminism means something and we should let the left have that label and stew in it.

2. Per Attila’s argument the basic equality before the law of women (and the equality of souls in the before the eyes of God) is a basic human right. Such a belief and the advancement of said belief is feminism 101 in the same way that belief in Christ is Christianity 101. One can adopt the label feminist without paying homage to the leftist maxims of some of those who followed it at the time. Or to use the Christian example, Protestants don’t shun the term Christian because we Catholics were using it hundreds of years before Luther was a gleam in his mother’s eye.

In terms of an intellectual point and history, Stacy makes good points, but I think he is forgetting something about society.

Words mean things as he says but the meaning of words change over time. 150 years if someone said “Michael Jordan is cool” the answer expected would be “Well have him come closer to the fireplace.” More importantly the public perception of the meaning of those words change.

When society thinks of the word feminism, they do not think of the Marxist roots or any of the class warfare BS that the left was trying to peddle, they are thinking simply of the base equality before the law of the sexes. The terms has become mainstreamed to the point where it can be used without incident.

Stacy correctly worries that like planned parenthood’s Eugenic past, this allows Radical feminists such as NOW and those in the gender studies department to co-op the uninformed because people think they are simply supporting woman’s rights when they are in fact supporting wrongs, wrongs simply used to sexualize our society even further or as a club to beat Western Civilization, Christianity and the US while ignoring actual wrongs against women in the East and in Islam. It’s a valid worry and I think it is very important to call them out loudly and regularly!

Happily there is an easy and well known term for such people propagated over the last two decades, that can be used without using the now generic terms Feminist: Feminazi.

I submit it would be healthier and easier to deploy the Feminazi term, particularly within the movement than to try and insist people stop deploying the, I submit now generic term “feminist”. In terms of changing hearts and minds I say its the best move. Additionally it forces the feminist left (read feminazi) to explain why a Sarah Palin or a Michelle Bachmann or a Tammy Bruce or a Little Miss Attila is “not” a feminist. Inevitably their anger leads them instead into the trap of proclaiming that they are not valid “women” retreating into a level of misogyny that alienates regular people and forces honest feminists to recoil, thus dividing them.

Or to put it another way Stacy has a good intellectual point, both socially and politically I think its to our disadvantage.

And although it is entertaining intellectually (and may or may not have been productive in terms of hits) I think that like Road Runner cartoons this is getting too long. I can’t think it’s generating enough hits to make it worth going on.

Stacy thinks we should abandon the term feminism to the left: Fine, that’s a valid opinion but I disagree.
Attila thinks we should not: Fine, that’s a valid opinion too. I agree and state why.

Now excuse me while I duck for cover.

Update: Cripes that generated a bunch of comments and links quickly. Maybe I should just schedule them together on the show and let them have it out. April 2nd is open.