Give a damn

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IvanKaramozov

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Someone told me this, and I’ve long remembered it

“One day a Priest stood up and announced to the conmgregation that todays Homily would be extreamly short as he had only three quick points to make, ‘The first, is that all over the world millions of people are starving to death, the second, is that you all really don’t give a damn, and the third point is that most of you are now more concerned with the fact that I just said “damn” in a Homily, than that millions of people are starving all over the world’”

What do you think of that?
 
Hi Ivan,

I think its a silly, patronizing, unrealistic and almost certainly made-up story.

The point of the story evidently is that the priest was scolding his congregation for being scandalized over trivial things such as saying “you don’t give a damn” and not being scandalized by suffering in the world. But I doubt that a congregation of Catholics exists or has ever existed that would be scandalized at a priest’s use of the phrase “You don’t give a damn” in this context. Catholics in general are not prissy hot-house flowers who wilt at coarse language.

VC
 
Verbum_Caro said:
I think its a silly, patronizing, unrealistic and almost certainly made-up story.
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VC, far from being a made-up story, I think it is widely known by those who deliver homilies or sermons. A quick web search shows someone who used it in a sermon, but the topic was the reality of hell and not starvation. And in the magazine Sojourners, earlier this year, the author stated that he had headed a retreat and invoked the starvation issue in the manner that Ivan mentioned (although he spread it out over three days).

It has shock value, but I am uncertain about its effectiveness at changing attitudes and behavior.
 
Thanks Dale. I suppose I’ll have to modify my view to be that its just silly, patronizing and unrealistic.

I agree with you on the “shock value”, but I think that it is misjudged by those who would use it as such. My sense of the intent is that it hinges on Catholics being shocked by a priest saying “You don’t give a damn” (and how the priest thinks that they really shouldn’t be shocked by that. . . or at least not as shocked as they should be about starvation or Hell, or what have you.)

But I think that it is patronizing. . . perhaps a few overly-sensitive parishioners would be scandalized by the priests language, but I want to believe that on average Catholics are, at least, a hearty lot and can bear it without fainting. :rolleyes:

I have this image of a bunch of dandified men startling and saying “Why, I never. . .” and a bunch of high strung women tut-tutting and vigorously fanning themselves with their fans or missals.

VC
 
IvanKaramozov said:
Someone told me this, and I’ve long remembered it

“One day a Priest stood up and announced to the conmgregation that todays Homily would be extreamly short as he had only three quick points to make, ‘The first, is that all over the world millions of people are starving to death, the second, is that you all really don’t give a damn, and the third point is that most of you are now more concerned with the fact that I just said “damn” in a Homily, than that millions of people are starving all over the world’”

What do you think of that?
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I think he is right on
 
IvanKaramozov said:
Someone told me this, and I’ve long remembered it

“One day a Priest stood up and announced to the conmgregation that todays Homily would be extreamly short as he had only three quick points to make, ‘The first, is that all over the world millions of people are starving to death, the second, is that you all really don’t give a damn, and the third point is that most of you are now more concerned with the fact that I just said “damn” in a Homily, than that millions of people are starving all over the world’”

What do you think of that?
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I have to admit I would be offended that the priest automatically thought that I didn’t care about starving people. I have very tight finances myself, so I am not a 'rich ’ American. I have to restrict my children’s milk intake and worry about my food budget.

If he could do something productive like tell me how to donate to organizations that will actually help the poor without putting padding into the pockets of those countries’ corrupt government officials, I would be more then happy to give the little that I can.

Also, although damn would not bother me, I think that simply because a person is concerned with the coarsening of our culture doesn’t mean that they aren’t concerned with starving individuals. Its not an either or situation.
 
Verbum_Caro said:
Hi Ivan,

I think its a silly, patronizing, unrealistic and almost certainly made-up story.

The point of the story evidently is that the priest was scolding his congregation for being scandalized over trivial things such as saying “you don’t give a damn” and not being scandalized by suffering in the world. But I doubt that a congregation of Catholics exists or has ever existed that would be scandalized at a priest’s use of the phrase “You don’t give a damn” in this context. Catholics in general are not prissy hot-house flowers who wilt at coarse language.

VC
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Hehehe, come over to my childhood parish…they’d be fainting in the pews and screaming about it would never happen if it weren’t for Vatican II.
 
I heard a Priest (yes, I was there), say during his homily: "It’s the Catholics fault that there are abortions in this country.” He then went on to explain that if each parish sent just one bus load of parishioners to Washington during the Roe v. Wade vote, we would have shut the city down and the Supreme court would have no choice but to vote Pro-Life.

Pray is good, but there comes a time when we have to get off our knees and out of the Church and take action.

When will we (as a community) take action (as a community) and push back (as a community)?
 
deb1 said:
I think that simply because a person is concerned with the coarsening of our culture doesn’t mean that they aren’t concerned with starving individuals. Its not an either or situation.
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That’s a great point deb.
VC
 
Back in the '80s, when I was an Evangelical Protestant, I heard Anthony Campolo deliver the same sermon, though he used the word “s - - t” instead. I have to say, the prophetic tone of the story got my attention at the time, though now I find it a bit manipulative and annoying.

Don
+T+
 
Donald45 said:
Back in the '80s, when I was an Evangelical Protestant, I heard Anthony Campolo deliver the same sermon, though he used the word “s - - t” instead. I have to say, the prophetic tone of the story got my attention at the time, though now I find it a bit manipulative and annoying.

Don
+T+
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Is that the same Tony Campolo who was a chaplain for President CLinton and who wrote a book called “Speaking my Mind?”
 
Personally, I think it shows a vast misunderstanding of the Speaker on issues of hunger, government of man and abortion. If I walked up (grandstanding similar to him) and gave him $100 and said very loudly “Father I do not want you to be as us, please take this money and leave us now so you can make a difference.” How much world hunger could he alleviate, he does not have enough to even travel there. I of course, would not approach the speaker in that manner at all. However I might insist that he or I follow today’s homily with some form of thank you to the American’s who give in excess of 50 billion dollars annually to charity. Often we hear on our TV how a child can be feed for less than a $1 a day. But there are only 6 billion people in the world, and that 50 billion does not include US internal government welfare, at $1 per day how many could be supported? Answer 137 million per day, every day, endlessly that means every 2 Americans currently gives enough to feed a starving person.

Please understand the issue is not whether we should give more or less, the speaker is venting emotion. The care of mankind is not an emotional issue, it is a moral issue. It is a depravity of morals which allows one to army the border while citizens starve and it will be a change in morals which will eventually alleviate the suffering of these humans

A reference document:
philanthropyroundtable.org/article.asp?article=1222&paper=0&cat=147
 
We had a priest a while back who often belittled and chastised the congregation for “sins” that he assumed all of us were committing. It was never anything so down-to-earth as the stuff you’d find in the Decalogue or the Catechism, rather it tended toward the “social sins” of intolerance, judgmentalism, failure to put aside political and religious differences, etc. Once I approached him about possibly mentioning something about not wearing mini-skirts to Mass (while he was in the mood to scold everyone), and he flipped his lid!

Now, I have great respect for all priests because of the dignity that belongs to the holy orders. I believe they all are “little Christs,” as Josemaria Escriva, founder of Novus Ordo, put it*.* But if a priest got up and presumed to tell me that I didn’t give a damn about the starving children in Africa, I’d be sorely tempted to slug him. Lord forgive me.
 
IvanKaramozov said:
Someone told me this, and I’ve long remembered it

“One day a Priest stood up and announced to the conmgregation that todays Homily would be extreamly short as he had only three quick points to make, ‘The first, is that all over the world millions of people are starving to death, the second, is that you all really don’t give a damn, and the third point is that most of you are now more concerned with the fact that I just said “damn” in a Homily, than that millions of people are starving all over the world’”

What do you think of that?
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Sounds like pretty close to real life realistically speaking. 😦

It shows our weaknesses to things that are right in front of us with no other worries about anything we are not in direct contact with.

We are all guilty of this.😦
 
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