Of Rice and Men

I’m starting to grow weary of the “girl’s communion revoked” story, but it’s just hit secular press, so it’ll be around for a while yet. Any story that reflects badly on the Church, or could be twisted to do so, is likely to hold media attention for some time.

Anyhow, here’s an article about a response from Australia’s National Liturgical Commission to the stoppage of wheat-free host production.

Also, the net’s coolest Anglican, Pontificator, has tossed in his two cents about the first communion controversy.

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About Funky Dung

Who is Funky Dung? 29-year-old grad student in Intelligent Systems (A.I.) at the University of Pittsburgh. I consider myself to be politically moderate and independent and somewhere between a traditional and neo-traditional Catholic. I was raised Lutheran, spent a number of years as an agnostic, and joined the Catholic Church at the 2000 Easter Vigil. Why Funky Dung? I haven't been asked this question nearly as many times as you or I might expect. Funky Dung is a reference to an obscure Pink Floyd song. On the album Atom Heart Mother, there is a track called Atom Heart Mother Suite. It's broken up into movements, like a symphony, and one of the movements is called Funky Dung. I picked that nickname a long time ago (while I was still in high school I think), shortly after getting an internet connection for the first time. To me it means "cool/neat/groovy/spiffy stuff/crap/shiznit", as in "That's some cool stuff, dude!" Whence Ales Rarus? I used to enjoy making people guess what this means, but I've decided to relent and make it known to all. Ales Rarus is a Latin play on words. "Avis rarus" means "a rare bird" and carries similar meaning to "an odd fellow". "Ales" is another Latin word for bird that carries connotations of omens, signs of the times, and/or augery. If you want to get technical, both "avis" and "ales" are feminine (requiring "rara", but they can be made masculine in poetry (which tends to breaks lots of rules). I decided I'd rather have a masculine name in Latin. ;) Yeah, I'm a nerd. So what? :-P Wherefore blog? It is my intention to "teach in order to lead others to faith" by being always "on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers . . . or to the faithful" through the "use of the communications media". I also act knowing that I "have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors [my] opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and [I] have a right to make [my] opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard to the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward [my and their] pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons." (adapted from CCC 904-907) Statement of Faith I have been baptized and confirmed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I, therefore, renounce Satan; I renounce all his works; I renounce all his allurements. I hold and profess all that is contained in the Apostles' Creed, the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Having been buried with Christ unto death and raised up with him unto a new life, I promise to live no longer for myself or for that world which is the enemy of God but for him who died for me and rose again, serving God, my heavenly Father, faithfully and unto death in the holy Catholic Church. I am obedient to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. That is, I promote and defend authentic Catholic Teaching and Faith in union with Christ and His Church and in union with the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of St. Peter. Thanks be unto Thee, O my God, for all Thy infinite goodness, and, especially, for the love Thou hast shown unto me at my Confirmation. I Give Thee thanks that Thou didst then send down Thy Holy Spirit unto my soul with all His gifts and graces. May He take full possession of me for ever. May His divine unction cause my face to shine. May His heavenly wisdom reign in my heart. May His understanding enlighten my darkness. May His counsel guide me. May His knowledge instruct me. May His piety make me fervent. May His divine fear keep me from all evil. Drive from my soul, O Lord, all that may defile it. Give me grace to be Thy faithful soldier, that having fought the good fight of faith, I may be brought to the crown of everlasting life, through the merits of Thy dearly beloved Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Behind the Curtain: an Interview With Funky Dung (Thursday, March 03, 2005) I try to avoid most memes that make their way 'round the blogosphere (We really do need a better name, don't we?), but some are worth participating in. Take for instance the "interview game" that's the talk o' the 'sphere. I think it's a great way to get to know the people in neighborhood. Who are the people in your neighborhood? In your neighborhod? In your neigh-bor-hoo-ood...*smack* Sorry, Sesame Street flashback. Anyhow, I saw Jeff "Curt Jester" Miller's answers and figured since he's a regular reader of mine he'd be a good interviewer. Without further ado, here are my answers to his questions. 1. Being that your pseudonym Funky Dung was chosen from a Pink Floyd track on Atom Heart Mother, what is you favorite Pink Floyd song and why? Wow. That's a tuffy. It's hard to pick out a single favorite. Pink Floyd isn't really a band known for singles. They mostly did album rock and my appreciation of them is mostly of a gestalt nature. If I had to pick one, though, it'd be "Comfortably Numb". I get chills up my spine every time I hear it and if it's been long enough since the last time, I get midty-eyed. I really don't know why. That's a rather unsatisfying answer for an interview, so here are the lyrics to a Rush song. It's not their best piece of music, but the lyrics describe me pretty well.

New World Man He's a rebel and a runner He's a signal turning green He's a restless young romantic Wants to run the big machine He's got a problem with his poisons But you know he'll find a cure He's cleaning up his systems To keep his nature pure Learning to match the beat of the old world man Learning to catch the heat of the third world man He's got to make his own mistakes And learn to mend the mess he makes He's old enough to know what's right But young enough not to choose it He's noble enough to win the world But weak enough to lose it --- He's a new world man... He's a radio receiver Tuned to factories and farms He's a writer and arranger And a young boy bearing arms He's got a problem with his power With weapons on patrol He's got to walk a fine line And keep his self-control Trying to save the day for the old world man Trying to pave the way for the third world man He's not concerned with yesterday He knows constant change is here today He's noble enough to know what's right But weak enough not to choose it He's wise enough to win the world But fool enough to lose it --- He's a new world man...
2. What do you consider your most important turning point from agnosticism to the Catholic Church. At some point in '99, I started attending RCIA at the Pittsburgh Oratory. I mostly went to ask a lot of obnoxious Protestant questions. Or at least that's what I told myself. I think deep down I wanted desperately to have faith again. At that point I think I'd decided that if any variety of Christianity had the Truth, the Catholic Church did. Protestantism's wholesale rejection of 1500 years of tradition didn't sit well with me, even as a former Lutheran. During class one week, Sister Bernadette Young (who runs the program) passed out thin booklet called "Handbook for Today's Catholic". One paragraph in that book spoke to me and I nearly cried as I read it.
"A person who is seeking deeper insight into reality may sometimes have doubts, even about God himself. Such doubts do not necessarily indicate lack of faith. They may be just the opposite - a sign of growing faith. Faith is alive and dynamic. It seeks, through grace, to penetrate into the very mystery of God. If a particular doctrine of faith no longer 'makes sense' to a person, the person should go right on seeking. To know what a doctrine says is one thing. To gain insight into its meaning through the gift of understanding is something else. When in doubt, 'Seek and you will find.' The person who seeks y reading, discussing, thinking, or praying eventually sees the light. The person who talks to God even when God is 'not there' is alive with faith."
At the end of class I told Sr. Bernadette that I wanted to enter the Church at the next Easter vigil. 3. If you were a tree what kind of, oh sorry about that .. what is the PODest thing you have ever done? I set up WikiIndex, a clearinghouse for reviews of theological books, good, bad, and ugly. It has a long way to go, but it'll be cool when it's finished. :) 4. What is your favorite quote from Venerable John Henry Newman? "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." 5. If you could ban one hymn from existence, what would it be? That's a tough one. As a member of the Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas, there are obviously a lot of songs that grate on my nerves. If I had to pick one, though, I'd probably pick "Sing of the Lord's Goodness" by Ernie Sands.

10 thoughts on “Of Rice and Men

  1. Jerry Nora

    Hi Theomorph. You may also wish to recall that much of astronomy, including the Big Bang hypothesis, medicine, mathematics, and Mendelian genetics were all developed by priests, to say nothing of countless projects completed under the auspices of the Church.

    And before you even think Galileo, please take a look at Heilbron’s “The Sun in the Church” for a balanced, yet critical look at science in the Church. I’d love to discuss it with you. 🙂

    The Church supports much scientific work, and John Paul II was noted for paying close attention to scientists even before his pontificate. However, science is not morality. You implied in your above post that the Church was in the wrong for condemning (embryonic) stem cell research while people saw that as their only hope (wrongly, in fact). Ergo, it seems that you would argue that science should be useful to people. Heck, with no God, what other standard is there for you besides usefulness to people? Could there be another one? I’m curious if there is.

    The Church likewise states that science should be for the benefit of the human person. Ergo, research that destroys humans (embryonic research) is bad for the same reason that Nazi “research” in the death camps and the Japanese “research” in Manchurian camps were bad. I would say that your real difference with the Church is probably that you disagree on the personhood of the embryo.

    And how outmoded is that notion of helping others? Do you regularly kill, rape, or steal? Why truck with those ancient precepts, even older that the Catholic Church? 🙂 What bit of research or modern enlightenment made those obsolete?

  2. Sean

    I also disapprove of basing arguments on tradition. Being old dosen’t make something right. I can come up with reasons not to kill, rape or steal. If you have arguments to support a tradition then by all means use them, but tradition itself should not be an argument.

  3. Funky Dung

    It’s basically a matter of obedience. It’s not a coctail. God instructs us to do something a certain way (or leads by example), so that’s how we do it. Think of it as a parent saying, “I have something good to give you, but you have to ask nicely and do as I say.” Parents have reasons for why they tell kids to behave a certain, and they’re usually in the best interest of the child.

  4. theomorph

    Okay, you’re a Catholic. Explain to me why wheat needs to be in the host. Is that an essential ingredient for transubstantiation or something? Seems to me like it wouldn’t matter what the host is made of, if God is just going to turn it into Jesus anyway.

  5. Funky Dung

    Perhaps I’ll go into the whole spiel one of these days, but for now be content with this. I’m not In A.I. because it’s the bleeding edge. I’m not out to play God, either. Like any responsible member of the scientific community, I want my work to benefit mankind. For instance, some of my current research involves trying to find predictive signals in mass spectrometry data for ALS. Other research I’m involved in relates to protein crystallization, which is a rate-limiting step in drug discovery. However “bleeding edge” this work may be, I do it all with an eye to the past. I look to ethical researchers of the past. I look to Scripture. I look to Sacred Tradition. I look to the Church. Keeping my work ethically sound and on the right side of God’s law is important to me. If I thought that something I was doing was contrary to natural law, sound bioethics, or my conscience I would cease doing it. Religion and science are not in competition with each other. Tradition and Scripture inform my conscience. Science speaks of “what” and religion speaks of “why”.

  6. theomorph

    Ugh. I am thoroughly tired of the God-as-Parent metaphor. What kind of parent tells you that if you don’t do it his way, he’s going to kill you? What kind of parent arbitrarily tells you that you have to have wheat in your eucharist hosts while knowing full well that the gluten in the wheat would kill some people? If God is like a parent, he’s like the worst parent I can imagine.

  7. Funky Dung

    Well, I’m not going to get into the whole God-as-parent issue, but I’ll address the gluten.

    1) The mother had a viable alternative to the wheaten host – wine. She rejected the Precious Blood as an option for her child.

    2) There was a second alternative – low-gluten hosts (which wouldn’t kill the child or even liekly make her ill). That wasn’t good enough, either, it seems.

    3) She went behind the Church’s back, so to speak. If wheaten hosts are evil, fine. Make a stink. Start a grassroots campaign. Write your bishop. Whatever. Just don’t go sneaking around like you know better than 2000 years of Tradition. Maybe you’re right. Maybe not. That’s not to be determined on a whim or “in the shadows”.

  8. Funky Dung

    Well, to be quite honest, I haven’t found dogmatic or doctrinal support for that yet. There are reasons for restricting the materials in general, though.

    1) The change does not occur because we will it, but because we ask for it. The sacraments are conduits of grace that have visible signs. As such, they are gifts from God. He instituted the Eucharist during His earthly ministry. We are to follow Christ’s example, so we imitate the Last Supper with the confection and distribution of the Eucharist.

    2) The Eucharist is based on the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal. The Old Testament specifies the required materials for Passover. While we don’t replicate a Passover meal in every detail, a strong resemblence is there. Thus we have unleavened bread and wine.

    3) There is a practical reason for restricting materials – avoidance of sacrilege. We don’t want people trying to consecrate doritos and Coke.

    4) In general, Canon Law is slightly more restrictive than might be needed in order to avoid potential problems. To prevent abuses, the bar was set pretty high. The bread must be wheat flour and water only (no Wonder bread, for instance) and the wine must be of fermented grapes (no unfermented juices or other alcoholic beverages).

  9. theomorph

    What makes tradition so authoritative? This is a big deal to Catholic and Orthodox folks. Why does it matter that X has been done by such-and-such method for 2,000 years?

    I mean, not that I want to get too personal, but it seems pretty weird to me that you are working in artificial intelligence (which is pretty darned bleeding edge) and then defending 2,000 year-old-religious practices as authoritative. Why bother with A.I. when God has laid everything down that you need to know? Why innovate with computer science that scares the hell out of a whole lot of people, then preach against stem-cell research, which a whole lot of people see as their only hope, all while decrying the rapid advance of science and claiming that stuff God allegedly said 2,000 years ago trumps anything else? Just seems weird to me. How do you rationalize all that?

    Sorry if I’m overstepping, but all this just sorta struck me a minute ago, and now I’m wondering.

  10. theomorph

    Why not consecrate Doritos, though? I mean, something so lowly as Doritos would certainly benefit from consecration, right? 😉

    Still seems silly to me. If God can’t become present unless the cooks follow the correct recipe, what is the difference between this and good old fashioned potion-mixing paganism?

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