Over on the Book of Face, I remarked that\u00a0I\u2019ve been Catholic for 30 years and I cannot remember \u2018Kumbaya\u2019 ever being sung in a liturgy or even at a charismatic conference. The claim of overuse that I perpetually heard from \u2018faithful conservative Catholic\u2019 bashers of \u2018Kumbaya Catholics\u2019, like the claims of the allegedly ubiquitous Clown Mass, strike me as urban legends.<\/p>\n
Sherry replied:<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been traveling the Catholic world endlesssly for over 20 years, attending Mass in and working in hundreds of different parishes and dioceses around the world and have never<\/em>\u00a0heard it either. Not once. I associate it with my evangelical childhood where no one seemed to treat it with contempt. It was just a song we sang at camp.<\/p>\n
But in the Catholic world \u2013 especially online \u2013 I\u00a0heard the term \u201cKumbaya\u201d used over and over by white \u201cconservative Catholics\u201d as an expression of contemptuous disDain for any kind of Catholic practice associated with the honoring of kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, love, joy, peace, patience. Any talk of social justice and of repentance was also Kumbaya.<\/p>\n
And now we know it was a cry from the heart from a people whose centuries of suffering were perpetuated by many white Catholics. Who needed to repent of horrifying things.<\/p>\n
The assumption of contempt is such an easy way to avoid repentance and taking responsibility for individual and corporate evil. I remember the horror of white conservatives when JPII proposed to offer a public and very extensive apology for the sins of the Church over the centuries as part of the change to the third millennium celebrations. How dare he undermine the dignity and credibility of the Church through public repentance of evils that the Church had committed? Not even the Pope had the authority to do such a thing.<\/p>\n
But no one thinks it was excessive now. How the last 18 years has changed everything.<\/p>\n
The renewed scandals have wiped that old Kumbaya smirk off our faces \u2013 at least for the moment. In the last year, I worked in a famously conservative diocese that was presumed to be immune to the struggles the rest of American Catholics wrestled with. What I heard from every significant leader was \u201cWe are facing the same problems as everyone else. We\u2019re not special.\u201d Pastors accused of abuse. Schools and parishes have to be closed. The millennial children of large, home-schooled super-orthodox families filled with religious and ordained aunts and uncles just walking away from the Church in large numbers. Mass attendance dropping etc. Check.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to think this was the end of what I think of as \u201cKumbaya contempt\u201d in the name of orthodoxy. But I know it will rise up in another form as soon as the worst memories of 2018 have faded. Because it is a very human way to fend off the demands of following Jesus Christ which force us to look at the evils we have accepted or even espoused.<\/p>\n
Remember: When someone starts spouting off about the evils of \u201cKumbaya\u201d or some equivalent, it probably means that the time for repentance is at hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m working on a book on the creed. One of the things I\u2019m realizing is that a considerable discussion needs to happen, centering around Jesus\u2019 saying, \u201cWhy do you call me \u2018Lord, Lord\u2019 and not do what I say?\u201d He ends with the stark and terrifying warning that those who do this will be told \u201cI never knew you.\u00a0 Depart from me, you evildoers.\u201d\u00a0 There is no comparable warning to those who do as he says but do not call him Lord.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost as though he cares more about obedience than about empty words, \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d. It\u2019s the same lesson as the parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are not rewarded for their theological knowledge.\u00a0 They have, in fact, no awareness that they were serving Jesus and are surprised to find themselves welcomed.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the same lesson as the parable of the two son who were asked to work in the vineyard by their Father.\u00a0 The one son said \u2018yes\u2019 but did not go.\u00a0 The other said \u2018no\u2019 and then went and worked.\u00a0 Which did the will of his Father?<\/p>\n
We live in an age of \u2018thoughts and prayers\u2019 Christian conservatives who use words, empty piety, and respect for symbols as a prophylactic against the weightier matters of the law. The idea that one can heap contempt on\u00a0kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, love, joy, peace, patience and any talk of social justice is now endemic among super-Catholics, right next to the idea that ritual or theological correctness is all that matters.\u00a0 The idea that getting your words and rituals correct is the opposite of the fruits of the Spirit is utterly foreign to the New Testament.\u00a0 May God heal the schism between orthodoxy and orthopraxy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over on the Book of Face, I remarked that\u00a0I\u2019ve been Catholic for 30 years and I cannot remember \u2018Kumbaya\u2019 ever being sung in a liturgy or even at a charismatic conference. The claim of overuse that I perpetually heard from \u2018faithful conservative Catholic\u2019 bashers of \u2018Kumbaya Catholics\u2019, like the claims of the allegedly ubiquitous Clown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1075],"class_list":["post-107659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lenten-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"\n
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