{"id":16142,"date":"2015-02-15T18:03:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T00:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?p=16142"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:00:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:00:31","slug":"lent-and-the-lame-evangelist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2015\/02\/lent-and-the-lame-evangelist\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent and the Lame Evangelist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
\nI\u2019ve been warned that wearing a cross openly in Turkey means asking for trouble. There\u2019s good reason for thinking so. The Republic was conceived in war \u2013 the War of Independence, in which several Christian nations grabbed at Ottoman territory \u2013 and birthed before the muzzles had begun to cool. To Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s victory in that war modern Turkey owes its very sense of itself. If the Pew polls and the attacks on churches and the use of Christians as stock villains in trash TV and the murders of priests are any indication, many Turks would prefer not to have too many Christians running around triggering identity crises. <\/p>\n

Luckily for me, I don\u2019t wear a cross. For a while I did wear a pewter Tau, but the T got snagged on my carpet when I was doing pushups and subsequently vacuumed up into oblivion. I don\u2019t normally get my jollies offering living reproaches to other nations\u2019 grand historical narratives. Having my skull thumped by k\u0131ros<\/em> \u2013 a Turkish word whose meaning combines elements of \u201chooligan,\u201d \u201cdouchebag,\u201d and \u201ctownie meathead\u201d \u2014 is way at the bottom of my \u201cto do\u201d list. Still, one does wish to show the flag, at least every now and then.<\/p>\n

In the course of teaching, little opportunities present themselves. The time one girl, translating on her iPhone, wrote \u201cchalice\u201d when she meant \u201cwine glass,\u201d felt like a fat pitch hung right over the plate. Ad maiorem Dei gloria,<\/em> I made sure to pull the sucker deep into left-center. In the course of explaining why her word wasn\u2019t quite right in that context, I managed to slip in a lesson on Eucharist 101.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, when I\u2019m feeling bold \u2014 or bored, or guilty \u2014 I\u2019ll set myself up. This week, in our lesson on compound modifiers, I included \u201clong-suffering.\u201d Now listen, gang, <\/em>I said. You can\u2019t understand this word without understanding its deep roots in Western culture. Who knows what a martyr is? That\u2019s right, Ismail, a <\/em>\u015fehit. Anyone know the hippodrome in Istanbul? Who knows what happened there in ancient times? Excellent, Mehmet \u2013 chariot races, gladiator fights. What else? Nobody? They killed Christians. Anyone know how? Anyone? Good guess, Cansu, but they didn\u2019t use dogs. They used lions. And the Christians prayed and sang. They were very brave. So a long-suffering person is someone who suffers for a long time without complaining, like a martyr in the hippodrome. Remember that. <\/em><\/p>\n

For all I know these images are pure DeMille hokum, but needs must. Anyway, if my students\u2019 test scores are any indication, most of it will seep out of their brains before next class begins.<\/p>\n

So this Ash Wednesday, I\u2019m upping the ante by giving up Coca-Cola. For students and fellow faculty alike, my Coke habit is a personal trademark, a visible symbol of my foreign-ness. Turkish people do drink Coke, but in extreme moderation. Seeing me walk around swigging from liter bottles that I flip \u2013 by the skinny end, like Boche grenades\u2013 into far-off wastebaskets, amuses and titillates them only a little less than seeing me run through town shirtless used to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cCola is very bad for you, teacher,\u201d they warn me, pulling solemn faces and wagging their fingers like concerned parents. \u201cIt\u2019s diet,\u201d<\/em> I tell them. \u201cNo sugar, no calories. Totally<\/em> different.\u201d They shake their heads, insisting, \u201cBut the bubbles are dangerous for your stomach.\u201d One came out with something that sounded a little like the urban legend about the kid and the Pop-Rocks, but he was a beginning student, so I really couldn\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n

Once I stop, notice will be taken, inquiries made and a dialogue opened. Why am I drinking tea from a shot glass like one of you? So nice of you to ask, Umut. I\u2019ve given up Coke for Lent. Lent? Why, it\u2019s the six weeks between Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday, Caner. Tell you all about it? Why, of course, Yasemin. I\u2019d be delighted\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

In my dreams, maybe. Here\u2019s where statistics and sensational news stories can sell their subjects \u2013 and their readers \u2013 short. The village where I live and the school where I teach are islands of secularism receding under a rising Islamist tide. Students come to class partly in the hope of forgetting that religion exists. If I felt like bashing Erdo\u011fan and the AK Party leadership, I\u2019d be a hero. But nothing, with the possible exception of a baseball game, would bore these college kids and young professionals faster than a faith-sharing session. Hearing about Christianity wouldn\u2019t even offend them; it would put them to sleep.<\/p>\n

And if I did offend them, somehow, I\u2019d probably be the last to hear about it. You can find fanatics and hotheads anywhere. The people of Trabzon, where Fr. Santoro was murdered, enjoy a country-wide reputation for holding far-right views and being generally nasty. And it may even be that the average Turk disapproves of Christians in the abstract. But Turkish people also pride themselves above all else on their hospitality, which shows itself in a gentleness and patience to which the keyboard can do no easy justice. \u201cLong-suffering\u201d might not be a bad description. My students have already put up with my four-hour Power Point presentations, not to mention my sulks and fits of temper. Hearing me drone about some permissive Christian version of Ramadan won\u2019t likely push them over the edge. <\/p>\n

So I probably shouldn\u2019t count on earning any palms this trip, much less going down in history as the apostle to the Turks. I will stick to the Coca-Cola thing, though. Last year, only a couple of weeks after I gave up YouTube, Erdo\u011fan decided to ban it for all of Turkey. Coincidence? Maybe. But still, best not to tempt fate by doing it again. Considering the school pantry doesn\u2019t stock Nutra-Sweet packets, I\u2019ll have to use sugar in my tea, which may mean entering the Triduum shy a few teeth. Vanity of vanities.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been warned that wearing a cross openly in Turkey means asking for trouble. There\u2019s good reason for thinking so. The Republic was conceived in war \u2013 the War of Independence, in which several Christian nations grabbed at Ottoman territory \u2013 and birthed before the muzzles had begun to cool. To Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s victory in that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49,119,1074,1047,527,1075,1045,1046,208,851],"class_list":["post-16142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholicism","tag-islam","tag-islamism","tag-justice-and-development-party","tag-lent","tag-martyrdom","tag-mustafa-kemal-ataturk","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-saints","tag-turkey"],"yoast_head":"\nLent and the Lame Evangelist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been warned that wearing a cross openly in Turkey means asking for trouble. There\u2019s good reason for thinking so. 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