FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - A Rabbi and I

Rant Number 382 28 January 2010

Dear Rabbi Steinsaltz,

Wow! It really thrilled me. Your Isaiah Berlin Oxford lecture. ‘This Orthodox Rebbe is a man after my own heart’, I thought, perhaps naively. A superb onslaught against the neo-paganism of Western culture. It felt like a gun going off. A passionate, reasoned, intellectual invective by a man of faith against the resurgence of dead, disreputable gods. ‘This bearded sage and I are fighting the same battle’, I exulted. Only two things bothered me... But first things first.

‘Contemporary Western culture is a pagan culture.’ Yep. It’s funny, though. ‘Pagan’ comes from pagus, a village. The early pagans were rustics. As the rising faith of Christ spread and conquered the cities, the remaining polytheists lingered longer in the countryside. So pagan meant a villager, a yokel. Today the reverse seems true. Our pagans dwell in the metropolis, whilst Christian observance is stronger in the sticks. Huh! Verily history repeats itself – first as (sacred) drama and then as farce. Yet, our heathen remain spiritual backwoodsmen.

The gods are back, you say. And mention the old pantheon – Jupiter, Ishtar, even Calliope. The shallow goddess of celebs, our modern, famous nonentities. However, it is worse than that. Classical paganism wasn’t thoroughly bad. The worship of the gods embodied a yearning after what is higher. Jupiter’s votaries went to temples, prayed, entreated, made offerings, hoped. They hankered after a divine response. Distorted as it all was, their prayers expressed a kind of spirituality. Today’s happy paganism is a gross adoration of belly, genitalia and bank accounts. Of course, people pursued those things even in the ages of faith. But, as you correctly point out, they did not do so overtly. Carnal things were ‘hidden desires’. Today they are placed on the high altar of consumerism and adored without any shame.

Technology and its contradictions. From being a tool of society, you said, technology ‘became one of its masters’. A tremendous agent of cultural change. Part and parcel of globalisation. Your example was excellent: the contraceptive pill. A tiny technological wonder. Which has affected the future of Western society radically. By altering the lives of Western kids. Are our youth now sexually liberated, emancipated, empowered boys and girls? Or are they like frenetic, copulating monkeys? The priest and the rabbi know the answer...

‘The influence and power of Christianity are disappearing’. That seems true. Western culture today is a big void. Not the exciting, mystical void of Oriental religions like Zen Buddhism (the priest was once a Zen monk). Just a nauseating, spiritual and moral emptiness. Seeming examples to the contrary - churches dotting the land, cathedrals, figures like Archbishop Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict – cannot alter reality. Most churches are either emptying or being sold out or being turned into social centres. Priests’ sermons are anodyne, bromide chats – they hardly mention key Christian beliefs, like life beyond the grave. Cathedrals may be filled with tourists, not worshippers - the last time I saw someone pray in St Paul’s was ages ago. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s power and influence are nil. And the Pope cannot even get the evil entity called the European Union to acknowledge the name of God in its charter.

But it is much worse. It looks as if the pagans have penetrated the Church’s defences, have conquered the very City of God. The Church of England has embraced the chief ideals of secularity – egalitarianism, permissiveness, feminism, global warming. By officially celebrating such fads as Christian goals, the C of E has committed the gravest of sins – she has made it almost impossible for good people to tell the difference between Christ and Antichrist. Truly devilish.

Dear Rebbe, I admire you but I must pick two bones with you. First, in arguing the death of Christianity (do I sense a bit of Shadenfreude there?), you confuse Christ and culture. A culture may decay but Christ does not. Like the weird theologians who proclaimed the death of God and so confused the senile deity of their fantasies, of their decadent culture, for the Almighty Creator of the Universe. Christ is above culture. Even against culture. Christ dies but after death comes the Resurrection. Christ is alive. He is at large in the world. The Redeemer walks amongst us. He has conquered and will do so again. In hoc signo vincet!I

Second, Israel. You were honest and lucid enough to admit that Israel too is living in a void. The void ‘Judaism has left’. Israeli society today is as secularised as that of Europe. I’d expect an Orthodox Rebbe to say no less. But why no single word about the Palestinians? They have not quite disappeared, yet, nor will they go away. Should not a man of your spiritual stature at least have mentioned them? Their plight, their sufferings? Your silence disturbs me.

‘To be connected with Jewish culture is to accept that it is different’, you said. And quoted the Prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel to the people: ‘How long will you limping with two different opinions?’ (1 Kings: 18-21) Actually, Christianity affirms the same. As Elijah added: ‘If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him’, Jesus reiterated it: ‘No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and Mammon’. It is a straight, stark either/or. No beating about the bush. Either with the One True God or with some heathen rubbish. An idol like ‘Mammon’. The devil of covetousness or riches. One of the most revered deities of Western culture. Dear Rebbe, our faiths are different, yet in the never-ending struggle between Baal/Mammon and God we are on the same side. Elijah’s side. God’s side. What the Prophet of God did to the prophets of Baal was not ‘culturally sensitive’ – he slaughtered them all. Groan... the Lord willed it.

Christ, when he comes again, will be kinder to our neo-pagans. Their punishments will be lighter, I hope. If the poor priest could dare and make a suggestion – I’d propose something like Tantalus’ punishment. The pagans will be provided with plenty of their craved carnal goodies – only, they will always recede whenever they reach for them. It will serve them right.

Dear Rebbe, keep up the good work. Oh, by the way, you are welcome to come to this:

ISLAMIFICATION OR PAGANISATION OF BRITAIN?

Presentation by Revd Frank Gelli

Friday 29 Jan. 6:30 for 7pm start

Birkbeck Main Building

Room 416 (take lift C to 4^th Floor, TAKE LIFT C),

Torrington Square, WC1 7HX

Between Malet St & Russell Squ. Next to SOAS

Revd Frank Julian Gelli