Friday, April 13, 2007

And Speaking of Ships

Diane sent me a recent post from Fr. Dwight Longnecker regarding the ship analogy for the Catholic Church. I believe this could properly be called a Biblical type or allegory; the fathers made the Noah's Ark/Church connection fairly early in the history of Christian biblical study. Noah's Ark no doubt smelled pretty badly long before the fortieth day. But if you can't stand the smell, the alternative was to jump out and drown.

Of course, you could also have opted to steal some of the material on board the ark and fashion a makeshift ark of your own, I suppose. I think there were a few famous guys who did that with some success.

Diane also included a poem inspired by Father's observation. I think it's very good.

It's Easy to be Pure by Diane

It's easy to be pure
When your church consists of four,
And one of them's your priest,
And two others are deceased.

It's easy to be pure
When your church is quite obscure
And minuscule and clannish –
And nobody speaks Spanish.

It's easy to be pure
When your church has closed the door
On the wandering and the weak
And all those who don't speak Greek.

It's easy to be pure
When your group splits more and more,
And each tiny splinter church
Won't show up in Google Search.

It's easy to be pure...
But you'd best make extra sure,
So, here's what you should do:
Start a church confined to YOU!

8 comments:

  1. how about the hysterical (in every sense) larison rant about jonah that makes dreher so giddy that he linked to it? i guess the contrast between bergen county community college and oxford really is too much to bear.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I truly can't tell what DL is talking about. Jonah exercised the patience of Job in allowing the whole crunchy discussion to take place. Rod was the one who wouldn't debate Jonah on the existence of crunchy conservatism.

    Most of DL's blog is in the "had to be there" category, with "there" turning out to be a very small exclusive party where the conservative orthodoxy of recognized figures on the right is constantly disproved. Jonah has been anathematized over there time after time. I wonder why Jonah is so popular compared to these curmudgeons, I mean other than the fact that he makes more sense, writes better and has a sense of humor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "curmudgeon" is the word (is larison even 30 yet? oy). before, dreher was relatively circumspect in his loathing of jonah, now the gloves are off. so skeery for jonah and national review.

    larison's entire posture (as far as i care to tell, anyway) is "why aren't *I* employed by national review? why aren't *I* at the vanguard of mainstream conservative thought? why have *I* been marginalized?" so damning that dreher signed onto this worldview. i'd love to know the real deal behind dreher's departure of NR. i'm willing to bet he made someone over there really mad [but he's such a downhome folksy good christian Working Boy, how could that possibly be]

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gosh, Pauli! Thanks so much--for both the kind mention and the publication of my doggerel. :)

    Now do I get my 15 minutes of fame? :D

    BTW, did I mention that I'm saying my Divine Mercy Novena for Rod's return to the Catholic Fold? Well, he's only one of my intentions, but still...an important one. Each day, along with the regularly scheduled Novena prayer for that day, I also pray the one for the fifth day--"for heretics and schismatics," LOL--and Rod's included in that one.

    Did you see Rod's Blanco monastery post 'tother day? Pretty lame and feeble, but still better than nothing, I suppose. Of course, had it been a Catholic monastery, we'd have been treated to 20 hysterical, rage-filled posts, not merely one rather philosophical one. But what else is new?

    Blanco, Hurricane Katinas, and Dmitri-Gate--all right under Rod's nose there in the Dallas area. Gee, is Heaven trying to tell Rod Dreher something? Ya think? :)

    (Sorry for mentioning the OCA again--hope it's OK that I did so only in passing! :))

    Diane

    ReplyDelete
  5. over at rodblog, Goldberg writes:

    "For a few years now when people asked me about my relationship with Rod Dreher in the wake of our disagreements over his book, I've said he's a friend, he's a good guy and it's not personal.

    After seeing how ecstatic he is over Dan Larison's relentlessly shabby ankle-biting, I can only conclude that Rod doesn't feel the same way about me on one or all of these points. If he really feels like Larison is right, I wish he'd had the spine to say so himself over these many years we've stayed in touch rather than let Larison do his fighting for him. As it is, his full-throated endorsement of Larison's posts makes me think that Rod's ideological transformation has breached the core and hit his character.

    As a longtime fan of Rod's, I'd like to believe I'm wrong. If I'm right, it's a shame.
    Jonah Goldberg | Homepage | 04.14.07 - 7:44 pm | #"

    an instance of noblesse oblige -- can Goldberg *really* be a longtime fan of dreher? if one can see through "crunchy conservatism", then they've seen the core of dreher (and it ain't pretty)

    maybe it's a woman thing, but i don't understand this "no harm, no foul, old chap, good show" fake bonhomie exhibited toward someone as small-minded and self-aggrandizing as dreher. he deserves a (figurative if not literal) punch in the face. the "we're still friends" shtick doesn't ring true. but at this point, it seems even that false posture is at an end.

    ReplyDelete
  6. btw, apropos of the "new york" discussion in an earlier thread, you should definitely see "THE CRUISE", a 1998 documentary by Bennett Miller now on DVD, featuring timothy "speed" levitch. i have decided this is one of my favorites ever

    ReplyDelete
  7. maybe it's a woman thing, but i don't understand this "no harm, no foul, old chap, good show" fake bonhomie exhibited toward someone as small-minded and self-aggrandizing as dreher.

    I saw Rod's glee at Larison's attack as a sign of just how small a man Rod is.

    Once a pal, always a pal, that's the code. If you have a falling out, then have a falling out; if the other fellow doesn't find out you've had a falling out until he reads about it on your blog, then you're simply an underhanded snake.

    I may be wrong, but I don't think Jonah's bonhomie was fake. I think he was living up to the code.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "just how small a man Rod is"

    this should surprise anyone by now?

    let's just say the guy's powers of discernment, intellectual and social, are not "supah fine".

    ReplyDelete