There are a couple excellent points from Jose Ferrer\u2019s wonderful speech at the end of the
Caine Mutiny, <\/i>and an interesting comparison.\n1. While so many of us are going about looking at college, going to college, getting jobs, making money \u2013 we still have a military to thank for it. \u00a0It\u2019s hard to imagine that lesson being told to a WWII generation audience, but you sometimes get the\u00a0impression\u00a0that old Greatest Generation wasn\u2019t quite as homogeneous as we like to think. \u00a0But it\u2019s especially true today, when we all sit back, comfy in our little computer worlds, going on with life, using our troops as pawns on an\u00a0ideological\u00a0chessboard, shooting their mission in the foot,\u00a0condemning\u00a0everything they\u2019re fighting for, and then\u00a0somehow, \u00a0in often superficial ways, declaring our undying love for what they accomplish while condemning their accomplishment. \u00a0My 14 year old said it best when he asked: if our wars are so evil, how can we praise those who volunteer to fight them? \u00a0 Sometimes I think the war\u00a0protesters\u00a0of the 60s were more true to themselves: our war was evil and\u00a0illegal\u00a0 and our troops a bunch of baby murdering Genghis Khans. \u00a0At least that was honest, not the\u00a0bizarre\u00a0twist and turns on what we see today, from people who only know the end result and spend little time in the world really thinking about the alternatives. \u00a0 We\u2019ve come to take it for granted that American can lose war after war and it doesn\u2019t really matter. \u00a0I\u2019m sure it matters to those who die and their families. \u00a0I have a hunch some day in the not too distant, it\u2019s going to matter to a whole lot of other people. <\/p>\n
2. You don\u2019t follow a captain because you like the way he parts his hair, you follow him because he\u2019s the captain or you\u2019re no good. \u00a0As a Catholic, I\u2019m sometimes amused at how some of my post-baby boomer brethren and sistren in the Faith seem to adopt that classic rage against the machine, all authority sucks, \u2018I don\u2019t lift a finger for a leader unless he proves his worth to me\u2019 attitude. \u00a0Funny how a movie made in 1954 based on a book written earlier about WWII already felt the need to make that point. \u00a0It only got worse. \u00a0Today, even the most Catholic Catholics seem to have a bit of this fight authority and authority always wins attitude, especially when they are young enough to remember the fond days of Howdy Doody. \u00a0And yet, how many then turn around and defend the\u00a0priesthood, \u00a0the\u00a0Church, \u00a0the\u00a0Magisterium\u00a0on grounds that, well, we should. \u00a0Should why? \u00a0You can\u2019t uphold the idea that authority basically sucks in every other way, hold impossible standards, exploit every flaw and failing, and then turn around and ask everyone else to do the opposite when it comes to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. \u00a0People\u00a0in the ancient of days followed the authority of the Church because they followed authority. \u00a0They\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0idiots. \u00a0They weren\u2019t stupid. \u00a0They knew when they had rotten or corrupt leaders. \u00a0But they had a respect for the idea of authority. \u00a0Don\u2019t give me crap about adhering to Paul\u2019s\u00a0admonition\u00a0that we pray for our leaders and respect authority when even a barnyard jackass could see we do otherwise. \u00a0If as Catholics we expect the authority of the Church to be followed, we had best get back to a time when we follow authority in general and in real measure, not just vain words.<\/p>\n
3. Notice that Jack Nicholson basically gives the same\u00a0speech\u00a0Jose Ferrer gives. \u00a0Same basic \u2018we stand on the line and keep you safe\u2019 speech. \u00a0Of course Ferrer is already using the third person \u2013 it\u2019s \u2018they\u2019 who do it, as opposed to Nicholson\u2019s me. \u00a0Plus A Few Good Men <\/i>is classic pre-Gulf War\u00a0liberalism: \u00a0the military basically sucks. \u00a0It\u2019s all rotten, down to our twisted and maniacal soldiers. \u00a0It was only realizing that our country would not stand for another war in which our soldiers were so maligned as the\u00a0Vietnam\u00a0war that critics of the war began\u00a0walking\u00a0that delicate -and at times borderline hypocritical \u2013 path of \u2018war of evil\/praise the solders who fight it\u2019. \u00a0So in A Few Good Men<\/i>, it\u2019s heroic\u00a0rebels\u00a0out to save the world from the likes of Nicholson. \u00a0No mental illness here, and Cruise\u2019s character has nothing but scorn for him, as opposed to Ferrer who is sick with what he had to do. <\/p>\n
But notice the difference. \u00a0Nicholson\u2019s famous guarding the wall speech is almost meant to be\u00a0parody,\u00a0 its very essence worthy of scorn. \u00a0This was the hip late 80s and early 90s. \u00a0We had met the enemy, and it was us. \u00a0Already the various breakdowns in basic assumptions that makes fealty to Mother\u00a0Church\u00a0seem almost incompatible with our modern cultural assumptions. \u00a0When Ferrer says it, he means it. \u00a0We owe our asses to these people \u00a0No matter how mixed up, messed up, screwed up, and no matter how flawed. <\/p>\n
Which brings us to the final point. \u00a0It is clear when watching Caine <\/i>that the breakdown of the Captain is the result of stress and strain, and disloyalty from his officers. \u00a0What he did may have been bad, but it was the result of being in the trenches. \u00a0Being in the thick of life. \u00a0Of struggling in the real world. <\/p>\n
In the Internet world of the Blogosphere, I\u2019m aware we\u2019re all really living in the world, and we all have our experience dealing with life. \u00a0But here\u2019s the thing. \u00a0To read blogs and comments, sometimes I think we forget it. \u00a0Oh, to deal one and one, face to face we can be sympathetic. \u00a0But once we hit the world of the internet, we forget what people go through. \u00a0We forget their humanity. Like the officers on the Caine, we forget that people may need understanding, not condemnation, scorn, and self-righteous contempt.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying for a minute we\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0call spades spades, or speak out against evil, or wrong, or mistakes. \u00a0That\u2019s fair. \u00a0We are called to correct those in error after all (and accept correction, FWIW). \u00a0But we should remember that the purpose of\u00a0apologetics\u00a0or any type of rendering an account of our faith is to win SOULS, not arguments. \u00a0Nor is it to pat ourselves on the back for not sinning as bad as those folks, or obviously not being wrong about things that matter, as opposed to them. <\/p>\n
As a pastor, it never failed that you had people come up and want you to call down the wrath of God on those sinners over there, those people who were blaspheming God or following heretical thinking. \u00a0Always those people. \u00a0But you get \u2018those people\u2019 into your study, into your office, and guess what. \u00a0You begin to find out that sometimes there are very deep and complex reasons behind why they think this or do that. \u00a0No, y
\nou don\u2019t condone it. \u00a0And yes, you\u00a0point\u00a0out the\u00a0teachings\u00a0of the faith. \u00a0But you don\u2019t call names. \u00a0You don\u2019t put them down. \u00a0You shouldn\u2019t say they don\u2019t love Jesus,\u00a0believe\u00a0the Bible is the Word of God, or the Catholic\u00a0Equivalent\u00a0\u2013 they ignore\u00a0Church\u00a0teaching or don\u2019t care about the\u00a0Magisterium.\u00a0 \u00a0Because they are in the trenches like me, like you, like everyone else.<\/p>\n
Unless you know what you are wrong about and are sure it doesn\u2019t matter, you had best damn well hold back on the outright\u00a0condemnations\u00a0and\u00a0judgmentalism.\u00a0 \u00a0Unless you are sure your sins don\u2019t matter like theirs, you had best remember that\u00a0the\u00a0contempt and loathing you feel may have far less to do with pure fealty to Holy Writ, and maybe more to do with secret motives that you don\u2019t want anyone, including yourself, to know. \u00a0Because in the end, when we sit around and judge others who disagree here, or act there, about all manner of topics: abortion, death\u00a0penalty\u00a0 torture, war, social justice, Catholic doctrine or whatever, it might not be them after all. \u00a0It might not be the ones we\u2019re looking at who are the problem. It might be us who everyone else is looking at wondering if we have gone off the deep end due to stress and pressure, or have we simply become wicked and evil and are following paths to darkness.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remember all those years ago, when I posted this post? \u00a0I meant to make a broader point at the time, but life kept getting in the way, I guess just like it does when trying to look at clouds. \u00a0Anyway, to be honest, I can\u2019t remember the point I was going to make. \u00a0Here are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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