M
mlchance
Guest
With minor editing for clarity’s sake from First Things:
It’s true that we have Frank Rich at the New York Times, but for sheer exuberance in unalloyed venom, we are way behind the Brits. Writing on John Paul’s funeral, Polly Toynbee of the Guardian says the pope was responsible for the killing of millions of poor people by his opposition to contraception and abortion. “He was a good, caring man nevertheless, they say, as if it were a minor aberration. But genuflecting before this corpse is scarcely different to parading past Lenin: They both put extreme ideology before human life and happiness, at unimaginable human cost. How dare our prime minister go there in our name to give the Vatican our approval for this?”
Ms. Toynbee continues: “Today’s saccharine sanctimony will try to whiten the sepulcher of yet another pope whose obscurantist faith has caused pointless suffering; it is no defense that he was only obeying higher orders.” If there are orders from on high, we are given to understand, all the worse for God. She noted at the funeral the presence of “mullahs, rabbis, and all the other medieval faiths that increasingly conspire together against modernity.” “What is it about religion that unites them all on sex? It always expresses itself as disgust for women’s bodies, leading to a need to suppress women altogether. Why is controlling women’s bodies the shared battle flag of every faith?” But even the splenetically unhinged can stumble across a point worth considering. Ms. Toynbee writes, “The millions pouring into Rome (pray there is no Mecca-style disaster) herald no resurgence of Catholicism. The devout are there, but this is essentially a Diana moment, a Queen Mother’s catafalque. People queue to join great public spectacles, hoping it’s a tell-my-grandchildren event. Communing with public emotion is easy now that travel is cheap. These things are driven by rolling, unctuous television telling people a great event is unfolding, focusing on the few hysterics in tears and not the many who come to feel their pain.”
There is no reason to dispute the claim that for some the funeral may have been a “Princess Diana moment.” That was not, however, the perception of those of us who were there or, I expect, the countless millions who watched on television. This was a vibrant moment of faith-filled grief and gratitude, especially the gratitude of the young. And, even if some did come for the spectacle, they were encountered by the gospel at the intersection of death and resurrection hope. Less important than what they came for is what they found. It is said that those weeks in April witnessed the most intense and sustained worldwide proclamation of the gospel in history. I am leery of superlatives but am not inclined to argue with that. If it is true, it can only magnify the anger of Ms. Toynbee and her like until one day, please God, they weary of raging against the light.
– Mark L. Chance.
It’s true that we have Frank Rich at the New York Times, but for sheer exuberance in unalloyed venom, we are way behind the Brits. Writing on John Paul’s funeral, Polly Toynbee of the Guardian says the pope was responsible for the killing of millions of poor people by his opposition to contraception and abortion. “He was a good, caring man nevertheless, they say, as if it were a minor aberration. But genuflecting before this corpse is scarcely different to parading past Lenin: They both put extreme ideology before human life and happiness, at unimaginable human cost. How dare our prime minister go there in our name to give the Vatican our approval for this?”
Ms. Toynbee continues: “Today’s saccharine sanctimony will try to whiten the sepulcher of yet another pope whose obscurantist faith has caused pointless suffering; it is no defense that he was only obeying higher orders.” If there are orders from on high, we are given to understand, all the worse for God. She noted at the funeral the presence of “mullahs, rabbis, and all the other medieval faiths that increasingly conspire together against modernity.” “What is it about religion that unites them all on sex? It always expresses itself as disgust for women’s bodies, leading to a need to suppress women altogether. Why is controlling women’s bodies the shared battle flag of every faith?” But even the splenetically unhinged can stumble across a point worth considering. Ms. Toynbee writes, “The millions pouring into Rome (pray there is no Mecca-style disaster) herald no resurgence of Catholicism. The devout are there, but this is essentially a Diana moment, a Queen Mother’s catafalque. People queue to join great public spectacles, hoping it’s a tell-my-grandchildren event. Communing with public emotion is easy now that travel is cheap. These things are driven by rolling, unctuous television telling people a great event is unfolding, focusing on the few hysterics in tears and not the many who come to feel their pain.”
There is no reason to dispute the claim that for some the funeral may have been a “Princess Diana moment.” That was not, however, the perception of those of us who were there or, I expect, the countless millions who watched on television. This was a vibrant moment of faith-filled grief and gratitude, especially the gratitude of the young. And, even if some did come for the spectacle, they were encountered by the gospel at the intersection of death and resurrection hope. Less important than what they came for is what they found. It is said that those weeks in April witnessed the most intense and sustained worldwide proclamation of the gospel in history. I am leery of superlatives but am not inclined to argue with that. If it is true, it can only magnify the anger of Ms. Toynbee and her like until one day, please God, they weary of raging against the light.
– Mark L. Chance.
