{"id":86,"date":"2009-09-13T22:31:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T02:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=86"},"modified":"2009-09-13T22:31:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T02:31:00","slug":"long-haired-freaky-people-need-not-apply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"Long-haired, Freaky People Need Not Apply"},"content":{"rendered":"
Carl Jung calls it synchronicity. Sometimes defined as a \u2018meaningful coincidence\u2019; a confluence of events that draws one\u2019s attention to an underlying truth or significance. I\u2019d bristled briefly at the rather generous description of my home parish as an \u2018impartial community\u2019, eschewing discrimination, exclusion, judgment \u2013 of \u2018those not like us\u2019 \u2013 as the centre piece of our rector\u2019s homily this past Sunday. Hopefully enough in tune with my own antennae twitches to identify the source of the \u2018Oh really?\u2019 reaction, I\u2019d attributed it to a \u2018well that may be a stretch\u2019 conclusion. But that was before this week\u2019s new and improved ad for this particular church in our small-town rag.<\/p>\n

As web mistress for the parish, my wife had invested considerable energy this past week in dressing up a \u201860\u2019s GM product (I\u2019d see it as a heavily chromed, gas-guzzling, Buick or Cadillac) of a website, as a vehicle a little more contemporary, a little less ponderous, and something that \u2018gets you where you want to go\u2019 without all the attendant glitter and arriving today (versus, whenever the site would load up). A toss-in was the sub-header: \u2018in the heart of Stratford\u2019. I can assume in recognition for her efforts, this week\u2019s announcement of Sunday services in the local newspaper borrowed (more or less) from the site\u2019s new clothes with an invitation to join us at the Parish of St. James\u2019 \u2013 the<\/em> heart of Stratford. <\/p>\n

A bit of history at this point. This particular church, populated by this particular congregation has often been, somewhat disdainfully viewed as the \u2018church on the hill\u2019 and \u2018out of reach\u2019 of the broader population of Stratford. Rather like a snobby club with particular standards of membership and a vetting process that sometimes suggests that \u2018long-haired, freaky people need not apply\u2019 (to paraphrase). Rightly or wrongly in its take on the parish, the effort has been expended from within over the years to soften this reputation, to have it seen as more accessible and more (boy, I struggle with this word) welcoming<\/em>, and less \u2018exclusive\u2019. <\/p>\n

Like most things Freudian, the slip\u2019s the thing. Drop a preposition and (I hope not, but) the underlying reality starts to surface.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m getting ahead. The other bit of scary data arrived in my email early this Sunday morning. As a newly minted lay reader (and Anglican, for that matter), I was on tap for the BCP at 9:00. Lifers might recognize 1st Corinthians 1 as one of Paul\u2019s little castigations against arrogance, self-satisfaction, celebration of human \u2018excellence\u2019 \u2013 in favour of humility and such like. Cautioned to be fully familiarized with the \u2018unpronouncables\u2019 (those tongue twisters of names and places) and caught substantially off guard a few months back with what passes for biblical porn (an account of David\u2019s vile behaviour and lust; not to mention Bathsheba\u2019s having recently endured \u2018that time of the month\u2019) \u2013 all because I hadn\u2019t previewed the reading, I scanned this one pretty carefully for hidden potholes. I stopped mid-bagel. <\/p>\n

The self-same theme leapt off the page: \u201cJews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we<\/em> preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles . . .\u201d and so forth. Let me see, how does that inclusiveness dance go again. Sounds unsettlingly like us<\/em> and them<\/em> to me, if that\u2019s not too many pronouns in one sentence \u2013 but we are trying to be inclusive!<\/p>\n

My wife argued eloquently that the passage required a metaphoric reading; and that Greeks and their ilk were merely symbols of folks of the time that hadn\u2019t yet got it<\/em>. That this was not a barefaced identification of an in-crowd, and that if you\u2019re not with us, you\u2019re agin\u2019 us. Unfortunately not sufficiently eloquently to allow me to stand at a lectern and voice the substantive opposite of an issue that I feel is at the root of the jaundiced eye that\u2019s turned toward organized religion and perhaps Christianity in particular by the hoards that are departing for less fundamental shores.<\/p>\n

Dress it up anyway you want. Statements given the weight of a \u2018reading of the word\u2019 can and will be heard by a huge majority of folk in the pews as a literal truth. Endorsement of an attitude that continues to segregate, differentiate, discriminate; to validate a belief that \u2018we\u2019ve got the inside track\u2019 to wherever. It\u2019s just too appealing to be soothed with the balm of \u2018you\u2019ve got it right\u2019 \u2013 and everybody else doesn\u2019t \u2013 to question the inherent contradiction that presents when one moves forty feet across the chancel from lectern to pulpit and (literally) speaks out of the other side of one\u2019s mouth. Over there, we\u2019re judgmental, exclusive, partial; over here we\u2019re welcoming, inclusive, impartial. Sorry, doesn\u2019t work for me.<\/p>\n

When we start to understand that there are any number of ways of skinning the spiritual cat; that those that don\u2019t drink at the same trough are not just Greeks and Jews in waiting<\/em> for the only true path to someplace; and that living Buddha might just be hyping the same stitch as living Christ \u2013 maybe we can get on. Until then, the old label of hypocrisy is as well-fitting a shoe as inclusiveness. When we can describe ourselves as being in<\/em> the heart of Stratford \u2013 and not the<\/em> heart of Stratford, typo, oversight, or no \u2013 maybe we can get on.<\/p>\n

David Howard<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carl Jung calls it synchronicity. Sometimes defined as a \u2018meaningful coincidence\u2019; a confluence of events that draws one\u2019s attention to an underlying truth or significance. I\u2019d bristled briefly at the rather generous description of my home parish as an \u2018impartial community\u2019, eschewing discrimination, exclusion, judgment \u2013 of \u2018those not like us\u2019 \u2013 as the centre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}