Why All the Fluff?

I looked back on the last few posts and saw that none of them had anything to do with Catholicism or spirituality or anything of the like.  It's been a lot of baseball and entertainment (I mean the "arts," excuse me.  This is a high rent blog. You can tell my the grainy background with the silhouetted birds delicately flying off page; very classy).  It caused me to reflect a little: Am I losing my way? As a priest shouldn't I be more explicit in writing about the Faith and spreading the Gospel and not occupy myself with such trivial matters?

Well, to answer myself; Self, I certainly should. But I need to keep in mind that I intended this space to be about cultural matters as well as religious ones, and to show how the two things intersect.  When I use the word culture I mean everything that makes up life in society; arts, politics, customs, traditions, mores, folkways; the whole enchilada.   The question is how do I go about this task.  I must admit, I dropped the ball on my review of The Social Network, for instance.  Not in giving it a negative review, but in not showing that the notice was based on my faith as much as any insights I may have as an amateur critic.

My criticism of how young women are portrayed in the movie, for instance, isn't based on some NOW, male feminist solidarity kick I may be on, but on the fact that as a Christian all people have dignity and shouldn't be reduced to objects of pleasure or convenience, even in a fiction.  If it was simply one character drawn as a crazed floozy to represent a type or for some comic effect, that would be one thing, but this is pretty much how young women in this movie are treated.  And having the girlfriend at the beginning (then popping up in the middle) and the lawyer at the end be sensitive and smart doesn't erase or balance what runs through the rest of the film and the message it sends; that women are good for one thing, and it's not writing computer code.

I could go into more, but I really want to leave this movie behind.

All I can do is promise that I'll be more explicit in the future showing how being a Catholic and a priest influences how I watch and judge films or any artistic work. And really that's the point.  Being a disciple means that Jesus influences my entire vision of life.  It doesn't mean that I withdraw from society or reject culture, but that I see that culture is not always in line with the values of the Gospel.  In other words, faith and culture are not the same thing, but they effect each other. When they are in line I embrace the culture.  When the culture is at variance with faith I pick it apart to keep what may be good, and modify or reject what's contrary to the Gospel.  And if it's all trash, to trash it goes.  But it is the Gospel of life and the God who is love that shades my thoughts words and actions, and yes, even my tastes.

So, onward and upward.  I do want to see the latest Clint Eastwood directed film, Hereafter, but it's only in limited release, and I doubt I'll be getting into Manhattan anytime soon, so it'll have to wait.  It has to do with death and the afterlife and spiritual matters, so that's prime culture and faith intersecting territory.  Just what I want to sink my teeth into. Stay tuned.