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.
I’ll just say taht I’ve studied drama throughout highschool and college, and at no point has the question of whether the instructor used to work at a planned parenthood clinic ever had any bearing on a class.
I just hope that the poor woman they ran out of the school has the gumption to press a wrongful termination lawsuit.
It’s sad that the daughter is suffering out of this, but it’s her mother’s fault, and it’s her mother you should criticize.
You miss the point. This is a Catholic school. A quote from Katelyn’s post:
“At a Catholic school, people can reasonably expect that the staff will support Catholic teaching. This does not mean that the teachers have to be Catholic. I have had many teachers that I admire and are not Catholic. However, Ms. Bain did not just disagree with the Church. Her moral identity is in direct conflict. John Paul II states that abortion ‘is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being,’ and that ‘it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church.’ This was not some small issue. When a teacher at a Catholic school has actively demonstrated that her beliefs are contrary to the Church on an issue that the Church believes is ‘deliberate killing’, something is very wrong.
The girl has all but called her former teacher a murderer; for what possible reason would I participate in a blogswarm that supports her and her rhetoric?
It doesn’t matter that this woman was an escort for Planned Parenthood and worked in a Catholic school. Here’s what matters: if she had been conveying her pro-choice opinions to the students, that would have mattered. If she had been a religion teacher, then perhaps what she does with her time outside of the classroom would have mattered. But as a drama teacher, it shouldn’t matter if she’s escorting women to Planned Parenthood clinics so long as she is not expressing her pro-choice opinions to students.
The Church will lose this lawsuit (and there will be a lawsuit), and it should.
you’re also going to be somewhat hard pressed to find an anti-abortion drama teacher
Following on Nathan’s comment, I have no pity at all for this girl. Had she said “hey, my mother did this of her own accord, leave me out of it” that’d be one thing. The moment she gets on board with frog marching a teacher, it is good right and just of others to denounce her.
The Church shouldn’t lose this lawsuit. (Take a look at the comments box on Katelyn’s post; an employment lawyer said pretty much the same thing.)
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Boy Scouts are free to ban gay men from serving as scout leaders. It’s called freedom of association. The Founding Fathers liked that.
The Church — and its affiliated institutions, like Catholic schools — are a private organization like the Boy Scouts. Why should the Catholic Church not have the right to fire a teacher whose public activity is in direct conflict with the Church’s moral teachings?
Let’s extend your reasoning… A private Jewish school hires a teacher, who is then seen participating in a neo-Nazi rally. Under the logic you’re proposing, it would be ‘ideological discrimination’ for the school to fire that teacher, despite the fact that the teacher’s public activities were in direct conflict with Judaism.
Yeah, she listed her occupation as bothering democrats, and you want me to send her a thinking of you card. She’s egging people on and getting the response you would expect.
I do think however that the school has the legal right to fire the teacher.
You’ve made an intelligent observation and written a polite comment to express it. The vast majority of her detracters have not. Egging on or not, the screeds left by the first few neanderthals to comment were unnecessary and only serve to prematurely end rational discussion.
Regarding “bothering Democrats”: Can’t you take a joke?
‘Regarding “bothering Democrats”: Can’t you take a joke?’
Not really. I went in expecting to feel sorry for her, then I read that comment, thought about it for a few minutes and realized she must like Geogre Bush.
I was tempted to leave the rudest comment I could come up with.
Well, I did laugh the other day when a Republican at work suggested a hybrid tax to offset the gas tax, but that was pretty funny.
“Well, I did laugh the other day when a Republican at work suggested a hybrid tax to offset the gas tax, but that was pretty funny.”
Heh. I’m no fan of “sin” taxes, either. I prefer the notion of giving tax breaks for desirable behavior (using fuel efficient vehicles, for instance) over tax punishments.
Hey Funky, thanks for the heads up! I posted a comment on Katelyn’s blog and I posted something on mine. I hope St. Blog’s can rally around this.!
… – So long as a teacher in a Jewish school were not expressing her neo-Nazi ideas to the students, then no, I do not think that she could be rightfully fired. Freedom of association only goes so far, and is balanced by the right to employment, which is a human right that supersedes the Constitution.
Nathan, while there is a right to find gainful employment, one does not have a right to a particular job (i.e., this teacher and abortion clinic escort is not entitled to employment at a Catholic institution).
For instance, few would be overly incensed if a Ford executive or senior plant worker came out on a blog or website and said that Toyota was a superior product, and then promptly got canned. Does that employee have a right to work? Yes. Do you have a right to work at Institution X when you say things directly counter to X’s legitimate* principles and bylaws? No.
*–obviously if the person is whistle-blowing on an illegitimate practice, this is different.
A human right? Almost all employment in this country is at-will — one can quit one’s job, or be fired, at any time for pretty much any reason or no reason at all.
We have laws against age/race/sex/disability discrimination and against firing whistle-blowers… But there is no law against firing based on ideology. If I work for the NAACP but am a KKK leader (dragon?) who leads public rallies every weekend, the NAACP would have every right to fire me.
… – I maintain that the NAACP would not have the right to fire you unless you brought your KKK leanings to work with you or they directly affected your job performance. I do not believe that businesses have the right to fire you for what you do in your private life. Allowing them to do that is a slippery slope, and soon we will all be fired for doing any little thing our employers don’t like, from drinking alcohol, to overeating, to smoking cigarettes, to gambling, to having sex outside of marriage.
I don’t support any of that — except the alcohol, in moderation — but there is no legitimate reason why an employer should fire a person for doing those things in their private lives. And so it is with this situation. Do we really want our employers to be able to regulate every aspect of our private lives? If we do, then we are trading employment for slavery.
“I do not believe that businesses have the right to fire you for what you do in your private life.”
So escorting woman to an abortion facility on a public sidewalk is private? If this drama teacher were pro-choice, I wouldn’t think she should be fired on the basis of that. But she has taken a very public stance, and not just public advocated for abortion rights, but aided and abetted the procuring of abortions. How the heck is that private life?
I guess I’m assuming the school must have asked her when she applied for the job if she could/would support the schools mission or something like that. If she is doing something contrary to the schools mission statement that could be the school’s ground for firing her. Does any one know if that is the case or am I just making this all up.
But she has taken a very public stance, and not just public advocated for abortion rights, but aided and abetted the procuring of abortions. How the heck is that private life?
In speaking of her “private life” in this context, I was speaking of her life outside of the workplace — which should indeed be private in the workplace unless she chooses to bring it into the workplace. The woman did not commit a crime, she did not bring this into the workplace, it does not directly affect the work she’s doing. Therefore, there is no legitimate reason to fire her.
Perhaps Catholic schools should begin firing those who cohabitate, those who contracept, etc.? And perhap Catholic schools will no longer have teachers soon. What do you think? Where do we draw the line there?
“The woman did not commit a crime, she did not bring this into the workplace, it does not directly affect the work she’s doing.”
Did not commit a crime, I take it, in terms of not violating any current laws of the land, right? I shall address the rest of your question in a bit, but first wantted to be sure of what you meant in this post.
Did not commit a crime, I take it, in terms of not violating any current laws of the land, right? I shall address the rest of your question in a bit, but first wantted to be sure of what you meant in this post.
Yes, exactly. Maintaining that Catholic schools can fire teachers based solely upon the Church’s own teaching is ludicrous, because this policy followed to its logical conclusion would cost Catholic schools just about all of their teachers. Again, where do we draw the line? Today we fire a woman for being a Planned Parenthood escort. Tomorrow, will we be firing teachers who cohabitate, who contracept, who are registered with the Democratic Party, etc.?
This is all just absurd. The woman is not teaching students to be pro-choice, and that’s the bottom line here — what she’s teaching them, not what she does in her personal life.
And the day after that GM can fire an assembly line worker for driving a Toyota;
And the day after that Abercrombie and Fitch can fire an employee for signing a petition advocating school uniforms;
And the day after that….
Don’t grant the Church such a special status. It’s an employer.
Let’s not set precedences for corporate facism.
Nathan, thank you for clarifying that.
Please take a hypothetical situation. The Quakers, to their great credit, were at the forefront of the Abolitinist Movement. Say a Quaker decides to turn in a slave who escaped to a free state during the late 1850s. This would be legal under the Free State Act, and so would be “private” by the clarification that you just gave me. HOw is that private? It wouldn’t just be the Quaker after all, since it’s also very much affecting the poor soul who’s looking at going back to chattel slavery.
Regarding John’s dire predictions, they are wrong. Nondiscrimination protects Ford and Toyota employees. Under the freedom of association in the Bill of Rights, groups like the Church, but not for-profits, have special protection. The Boy Scouts may fire gay leaders because they are gay, but not Ford. Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice (that right wing publication!) supported the Boy Scout decision even though he is pro-gay. He is also a principled devotee of the Bill of Rights and wrote that this was a protected right. You don’t have to like it; in fact, this was made to protect groups that were unpopular.
I find it ironic, Nathan, that in trying to protect rights, you seem to be turning into a statist where the government decides all matters of right or wrong. What happens if the law changes? It has changed–the Fugitive Slave Act is obviously quite moot. If individuals cannot group together in a manner of their own choosing, how can individual rights last?
Your question about the Church’s being able to fire anyone who dissents is a pastoral question. The question that I see as more pressing now is how much right the State has in butting into the Church’s pastoral decisions. Or the Episcopalians’ decisions, too. Or the United Church of Christ’s.
Staff, Faculty and Students at Loretto sign a code of conduct, with particular language directed at advocacy, procurement or knowledge of a student having an abortion. The teacher signed the code without disclosing that it violated her personal code. The school is EXTREMELY clear on its pro-life / anti-abortion stance. That the teacher is not RC has no bearing, she said that she would uphold this most basic tenet of faith – the Sanctity of Life. There are MANY other ways to offer counseling to pregnant women that one can volunteer at, that don’t believe in abortion.
Please go back and read how Ms. Sills became pro-life / anti-abort on her own. It is an awesome testimony!
And would that A & F advocate for school uniforms – modesty would be a delightful change!