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"Sorry, no place for the ridiculous notion of a 'man-god' on a cross." |
"Christ crucified" was the center of St. Paul's preaching, even though the idea of a God in the flesh who was crucified was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews. In fact, the Catholic Church has always been distinguished from Protestantism by the image of the Crucified Christ versus the "victorious risen Christ" empty cross.
There is little any Protestant could complain about with this abstract, headless, "Chromium Christ." Of course, this is no accident. But neither is it the end of the analysis.
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Commiefix. Excellent blunt instrument to inflict massive head trauma. immediately upon receipt. Other than that, no. |
Catholicism and Art: More Important than You Think
Catholicism has always been closely allied with art. Think of the patronage it gave to Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel. It is impossible to think of the history of Western art without considering the Church. Art has always been used to express the Faith, even when the art has been more worldly than Christian, more naive than skilled.
Art, good, bad or indifferent, cannot help but say something about the Faith when the Church puts it to official use. The Bear would, in his cunning way, draw conclusions about you from the art you chose to display in your home. For example, if you had an autographed picture of Ginger Rogers on your wall, he would instantly know you were a person of exquisite taste.
Recall the excellent series on icons from Bald Eagle. Now, here is the West, with the Pope bearing an anti-icon for an anti-Catholicism.
When it comes to what the Church really believes, it is not so much the creed we mumble on Sunday, but the architecture around us, its decoration (or lack thereof); its music; its sound bytes; and the behavior of its priests and prelates with adolescent boys.
Ah, the last is not gratuitous and the Bear shall make the connection.
The Art of the New Gnosticism
The blobifix does not give us a man on a cross. God has not become man. The God-Man has not borne our sins and died a shameful death. If the blobifix is not a denial of the incarnation the Bear knows naught of religion nor art. A few chromium lumps declare the destruction of Christianity and the triumph of Gnosticism.
Industrial rustifix at Our Lady of the Snows National Shrine. No. |
This is more than another bouquet thrown to Francis' Lutheran sweethearts. More than bad taste, faddishness, or even blasphemy. The Bear sees the shining glyph of an ancient heresy being crammed down his throat.
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Saint Pope John Paul II and the lizard on a stick. |
The blobifix is a heretical symbol of the antichrist. Anyone who denies Jesus Christ came in the flesh is an antichrist, says St. John, to the few Catholics who still read and believe the Bible.
The plain, empty cross of the most rustic Protestant is preferable to the visual revival of the first serious heresy that tried to throttle Christianity in its crib. Now, the Church is as weak as an ancient, raddled, lecher, and once more vulnerable to its original enemy.
For the second time and in the same way, the Adversary takes advantage of a weak Church to promote a beautiful vision of spirituality without sin. Of adultery without consequences or even disapproval. That vision has always had a name: Gnosticism.
But as we fixate on Francis, we must remember that he is but the symptom of an advanced stage of a long-term disease.
The Church's Homosexual Abuse Crisis
As for the connection between all of this and Gnosticism, the Bear notices today that Francis long-time protege Cardinal Pell from down under has been charged in connection with molesting minors. The Bear uses this as an illustration, rather than proof of anything, and considers Cardinal Pell innocent until proven guilty. There is a reason for statutes of limitations. It is tough to defend against five decades-old accusations.
A Note on the Bear's Use of the Term "Homosexual Abuse Crisis"
Here is an old article that explains the Bear's term "Homosexual Abuse Crisis," based on the Jay Report data. The gold standard report was commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It is available online here. However, it disingenuously exempts homosexuals in its findings. The data, however, could not show a clearer picture of classic homosexual grooming and abuse of adolescent or near-adolescent boys. They make up the overwhelming majority of victims and reveal the unmistakable signature of the homosexual predator.
Pedophiles are entirely different and usually target much younger children (as young as babies) and are often indiscriminate as to the sex of their victims. The Bear knows this because he was counsel in many, many cases involving both homosexual predators and pedophiles. (Why? Few criminals have the means to afford private counsel - unlike meth dealers, homosexual predators and pedophiles often maintain a respectable place in society, and can hold down decent jobs. Like being a priest, for example.)
Homosexual predators usually respond poorly to treatment because they rarely see anything wrong in their actions. Oft times they have been victims themselves, and as one client put it to the Bear, "It didn't hurt me any, so I don't see what's wrong with it."
Trust the Bear on this one. He is the only one who will tell you the truth based on an informed examination of the raw data of the Jay Report.
Mercy and the New Gnosticism
Let's take another look at the homosexual abuse crisis that plagued the Church throughout the 20th century. Gnosticism denigrated matter (recall how the headless body of the Crucified One disappears into the blobifix) as unspiritual in a scheme where only the spiritual counted. Sin did not matter, since matter was irredeemably evil, anyway. Whatever one did in the flesh could not possibly make the flesh any more evil than it already was. One's spiritual being floated pure above it all.
Can one not hear the echo of Gnostic teachers in the neat division so many churchman have made between homosexual predation and a career devoted to the Church? The natural child of Gnosticism is Antinomianism, an extreme view held by a minority of Protestants that sin does not matter because grace covers all.
Whenever we hear (or must conclude) that sin does not matter because it is expressed through mere matter, over which spirit - called by "mercy" or some other name - must triumph, we should discern the dim advance of ancient Gnostic ghosts threatening to break out into the present.
One might accuse Francis of many things, but false advertising is not one of them.
(h/t Connecticut Catholic Corner)