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PDF versionThe Problem With Bishop Tobin
by Michael Sean Winters on Jul. 08, 2011
Many people expressed their disappointment, and others their disgust, with the recent statement by Bishop Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, after that most Catholic state in the Union adopted civil unions for same-sex couples. Critics charge that Tobin was insensitive in his remarks, but I think there are times when a religious leader must risk others’ sensitivities when proclaiming difficult truths. Some thought the bishop’s injunctions severe, but there are times in the Scriptures when Jesus is severe, albeit usually with those rendering judgment not with those receiving it.
My difficulty with Tobin’s statement is of a different character. I find it impoverished.
Tobin wrote: “Can there be any doubt that Almighty God will, in his own time and way, pass judgment upon our state, its leaders and citizens, for abandoning his commands and embracing public immorality?”
The problem here is not that such dire warnings coming from a Catholic prelate risk being mocked, coming so soon after predictions of the end of the world by some evangelical preacher whose name we have all forgotten. No the problem is that the bishop’s stance is so entirely defensive and, just so, it strikes me as evidencing a decidedly Protestant stance vis-à-vis the culture.
At the commencement of King Philip’s War, in 1675, the Massachusetts General Court convoked a ministerial committee to propose moral reforms, subsequently enacted into law. God could not be expected to deliver His people from danger unless the people delivered themselves of moral rectitude. In a Thanksgiving sermon after the defeat of King Philip the following year, Increase Mather discerned the real source of the colonists’ victory, saying, “From the day when there was a vote passed for the Suppression and Reformation of those manifest evils….The Lord gave success to our Forces.”
In colonial times, of course, the environment the colonists faced – the harsh winters, the forbidding landscape, the sometimes hostile natives – combined with their own history of persecution, to produce this kind of defensive posture. The colonials tamed the wilderness but they fared less well when they faced a different kind of threat to their culture, the breaking asunder of cultural and covenantal bonds by the socioeconomic expansion and dislocation that accompanied their increasing prosperity. In American history, you can choose any decade and find the bonds of religious community being intertwined with, and overwhelmed by, the acquisitiveness and the speed of the ambient secular culture. Throughout American history, Adam Smith continually trumped John Calvin.
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The defensive posture of American Catholics was similarly imposed upon them in part by their circumstances. Poor, ill-educated, hated and exploited by the dominant culture, immigrant Catholics came to see the world as threatening, and built the walls of the Catholic ghetto. A vibrant and faith-filled culture grew inside those walls, but it was still a ghetto. And, even as Catholics left the ghetto, they tended to bring that defensiveness with them. The League of Decency in the 1930s and 1940s represented that defensiveness in its most arch form. Although they did not recognize it, and can be forgiven for not so recognizing it, this adoption of a defensive posture was not only imposed upon Catholics by the Protestant mainstream, but was itself the adoption of a distinctly Protestant religious stance.
The danger in Tobin’s facile defensiveness is not that he might alienate someone. For starters, Tobin’s problem is that he mis-diagnoses the “threat” to traditional marriage. By simply casting aspersions at gays and the legislators who support them, he loses credibility because you do not have to pay much attention to American culture to recognize that it is its commercialism that is the main threat to traditional marriage. If you want to sell a product in America, which is another way of saying “if you want to be an American,” the most useful adjective to describe your product is not “effective” or “great” but “new.” How many people have become shopaholics of one variety or another, running to the mall whenever they need a sense of control (consumers are always in control), boosting their self-esteem, realizing that elusive American Dream. I would submit that a culture fixated on the new and on stuff is not a culture capable of nurturing long-standing commitments.
But, the principal danger in Tobin’s stance is that it reduces the faith to moralism, and a faith that is so reduced is incapable of generating culture. The entire struggle over gay rights demonstrates a core cultural clash, identified brilliantly by Cardinal Francis George when he noted that in modern liberal culture, everything is permitted but many things are never forgiven, while in a Catholic culture, many things are not permitted but everything can be forgiven. Catholics must find ways to grow their own cultural forms that will attract people by their beauty and inherent good sense, appealing to their fellow citizens not by legislative fiat but by the sweetness and integrity and happiness of those who dwell in that culture. We must generate a culture that is alive if we want to generate a culture of life.
That is the great struggle American Catholics need to face, and the challenges and difficulties of facing it are deeper than civil unions or gay marriage. And, there is nothing in Tobin’s statement that indicates in the least his appreciation for, or even awareness of, this broader cultural challenge. He is Increase Mather, updated and in a cassock. Which leads me to a question for the good bishop of Providence: Just what does he think the New Evangelization is about?
The issue of public morality
The issue of public morality was decided in Lawrence v. Texas. Prive, adute, consensual sodomy is a personal choice under the Constitution. The only question is whether society will now consider gays in perfectly legitimate relationships to be adults with the ability to form their own families or infants who are stuck in a relationship to their family of origin - ironically often with families who reject them. Understood in this way, Tobin is not just insensitive, he is wrong.
He is also very much afraid. The history of the sacrament is that religious celebration follows civil. A largely gay priesthood would, given its own counsel, gladly celebrate gay unions - and probably bless them privately. This is what scares the bishop(s) most, not the loss of public morality.
This is thought provoking! I
This is thought provoking!
I would like someone to provide concrete examples of where or how "many things are never forgiven" in the liberal culture, and examples of what is meant by "many things are not permitted but everything can be forgiven" in a Catholic culture.
Also, where might there be any examples of Catholics' own "cultural forms" that might be replicated? -- examples in our world today, or in history?
I wonder whether such Catholic cultural forms, that would "attract people by their beauty and inherent good sense, appealing to their fellow citizens not by legislative fiat but by the sweetness and integrity and happiness of those who dwell in that culture" are beyond the pale of reality or outside the scope of Western Civilization. Yet those who have favored the term, Western Civilization, should have, as one of its cores, a respect for human life in all its manifestations.
Vincent
It's not just 'commercialism'
It's not just 'commercialism' that is a threat to traditional marriage, it's taking God out of just about everything everywhere. Those who want to live any way they choose (living together, gay marriages, etc.) don't want God reminding them they are sinning. The sixties generation is all grown up and they brought with them their VERY liberal views. Liberal is good just not all this VERY liberal stuff. It's like back in the day when things were TOO conservative. Think maybe the pendulum is going way to the other side? That's not the answer either.
As for the way it was back in the day. Yes, a bit too strick. Correct that. Throwing God out isn't the answer. Look at the way Catholic schools teach today. Can't tell you how many of my younger Catholic family members live together and have children outside of marriage. Oh, and if and when they decide to marry they get the whole Catholic traditional marriage. Sometimes the child is the ring / flower bearer. Think maybe that priest is a little on the liberal side of things? Think maybe that is why so many Catholics are confused? Think maybe that is why so much is wrong today? So when a Bishop FINALLY speaks up after so much appeasement and political correctness ... yes, I understand (don't agree) your confusion.
The problem with the Catholic church are the Bishop / priests. They haven't spoke out enough.
And when they finally do they get negative press like this article. I don't know, I want the Catholic church / faith to get back to the business of Holiness at mass (change the churches back to their spiritual beauty NOT this plain blah look), priest get back to giving dynamic homilies NOT this political correctness toned down put-me-to-sleep talks at mass.
Being treated as if it had a
Being treated as if it had a purpose other than to unite males to females is a threat to marriage of a much greater order than any other...for without that being understood as its sole purpose it has nothing to offer humanity.
Take on the idea--not the
Take on the idea--not the messanger? Bishop Tobin is obligated to proclaim immorality. You can't shoot the messanger--as you state in your NCR COMMENT CODE: Don't attack the writer--attack the idea.
The truth will cut like a sword. I applaud Bishop Tobin for doing the difficult. Courage as Christ had courage.
The so many gifts of the spirit exhibited by Bishop Tobin: Fear of the Lord, Knowledge, Courage (especially), Counsel (particularly) and Wisdom. I pray for Bishop Tobin--he needs support and encouragement.
¡Wow Michael! Just where did
¡Wow Michael! Just where did you find “that phenomenal statistic” or the basic facts, for your statement: “Many people expressed their disappointment, and others their disgust, with the recent statement by Bishop Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, after THAT MOST CATHOLIC STATE IN THE UNION adopted civil unions for same-sex couples.”
Then you continue with “Cardinal Francis George when he noted that in modern liberal culture, everything is permitted but many things are never forgiven, while in A CATHOLIC CULTURE, many things are not permitted but everything can be forgiven. CATHOLICS MUST FIND WAYS TO GROW THEIR OWN CULTURAL FORMS that will attract people by their beauty and inherent good sense, appealing to their fellow citizens not by legislative fiat but by the sweetness and integrity and happiness of those who dwell in that culture. WE MUST GENERATE A CULTURE THAT IS ALIVE IF WE WANT TO GENERATE A CULTURE OF LIFE.”
I personally see all this as a mater of substance, not of form. Vatican II clearly states that the message of Jesus is intended to and capable of permeating all cultures, SO A “CATHOLIC CULTURE” IS IN ITSELF AN OXYMORON, begging your pardon and also that of Cardinal F. George.
Jesus said that HE is the “Way, the Truth and the Light”, and as St. John clearly states, “Deus Caritas est” = “God is Love” and so logically, = “Love is God”. So when you write about the “MOST CATHOLIC STATE IN THE UNION” it means that Rhode Island has more “LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”, HAS MORE “LOVE AND FORGIVE YOU ENEMIES”, HAS MORE “WHAT YOU DO TO THE LEAST OF THESE LITTLE ONES YOU DO UNTO ME” , and all that in our global world today where instead of working for that “other possible society” that “other possible world” we seem to be soooo content with our present world of atomic arms, drones, chemical warfare, “international power and financial banditry” etc. etc. where every 4 seconds one of our sisters or brothers dies of hunger as we nonchalantly continue to destroy our dear Mother Earth by our consumer greed.
Justiniano de Managua
Sodomy is a serious sin
Sodomy is a serious sin against God. Joe marrying Jim is not Adam and EVE.
"Sodomy is a serious sin
"Sodomy is a serious sin against God. Joe marrying Jim is not Adam and EVE."
Well, explain how it is a serious sin against God. Just because you write this doesn't make it true, right? You do know that, right? Since you brought in the Adam and Eve 'story' I wonder if you believe the story to be literally true? If so, that would explain to some extent your comments.
Cheers,
Read the stories of Sodom and
Read the stories of Sodom and Gamorrah, javier. Or, for extra-Biblical works, read The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. To address your point concerning the validity of the previous Anonymous post, I would say to you, dear relativist, "Just because you write this doesn't make it false, right? You do know that, right?"
The problem is The National
The problem is The National Catholic Reporter.
Interesting that the NCR code
Interesting that the NCR code stipulates that one, "Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Say what???? What is Winters doing to Bishop Tobin if not attacking him. If writers at the NCR followed thier own code it would have to shut down because attackes are what is done best at NCR.
As far as the message in this article....it is just moral relativism Winter's style...........or better yet just plain claptrap.
The NCR's Social
The NCR's Social Justice:
Abortion, Perversion, Humanitarian Wars, Debts, Pornograpghy. 90% of Downs Sydrone children killed before they can breathe. And the NCR attacks, unfailingly, those who object.
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