NEWS
2006 NEWS STORIES
November/December
September/October
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January
ARTICLES
LETTERS
ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
July/August 2006
THE FLORIDA JUDGE who ordered feeding tubes to be removed from Terry Schiavo was scheduled to participate in the "Journalist Law School" at Loyola Law School in June, said a May 15 LifeNews.com report. In a three-day long intensive seminar, Florida state circuit court judge George Greer was scheduled to address journalists who write on government and courts. John Nockleby, a Loyola professor, said, "the law school is designed to help journalists, who are trying to provide accurate information to the public, but who may not have a legal background. The goal is to enhance their understanding of the judicial branch." News organizations such as CNN, CBS News, ABC News Radio, Bloomberg WNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution were planning to send staff to attend the seminar. "Based on the intense scrutiny and media coverage generated by the Schiavo case, Judge Greer will bring a unique perspective to the journalists in attendance," said a Loyola press release obtained by LifeNews.com. Loyola is the graduate law school of Los Angeles' Loyola Marymount University.
This is not Loyola Marymount's first connection with the Schiavo case. In 2004, James Walter, a Loyola Marymount bioethics professor, signed on to the amicus curiae brief that argued that Michael Schiavo should be allowed to deprive his wife -- in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years -- of food and hydration.
WHY THEY STAND. The diocese of Orange, as well as the Los Angeles archdiocese, have ruled that the faithful stand during Mass at the Ecce Agnus Dei -- "Behold the Lamb of God." Why? In a May 28 Los Angeles Times article detailing the controversy over this directive at St. Mary's By the Sea in Huntington Beach, Lisa Truxaw, the Orange diocese's director of worship, gives the reason. Bishop Tod Brown gave the directive to stand at the Ecce Agnus Dei, said Truxaw, because standing "reflects our human dignity. It's not that we think we're equal to God, but we recognize that we are made in the image and likeness of God."
As detailed in the May 2006 Mission article, "Canonically, It's Gobbledygook," several parishioners at St. Mary's By the Sea have continued to kneel at the Ecce Agnus Dei, despite the pastor, Father Marin Tran's insistence that they not do so. Father Tran has said that the refusal to obey the bishop's directive is tantamount to a grave sin because it indicates the parishioners are "despising the authority of the local bishop." Tran sent a letter last fall inviting the 55 parishioners who continue to kneel to leave the parish and the diocese for "creating misleading confusion, division and chaos in the parish by intentional disobedience and opposition to the current liturgical norms." According to the Times, "Father Joe Fenton, spokesman for the Diocese of Orange, said the diocese supports Tran's view that disobeying the anti-kneeling edict is a mortal sin. 'That's Father Tran's interpretation, and he's the pastor,' he said. 'We stand behind Father Tran.'"
FARMERS AT SOUTH CENTRAL FARM in Los Angeles refused to abandon the 14-acre cultivated site at 41st Street and Alameda, though a deal to buy the land from developer Ralph Horowitz fell through. (See, "We Have to Throw Them Off," April 2006 Mission.) In March, the Los Angeles Trust for Public Land, the city of Los Angeles, and Horowitz agreed to a 45-day period in which the city could try to raise the $10 million still needed to meet Horowitz's $16.35 million asking price (he purchased the land from the city for $5 million in 2003 -- $8 million less, say farm supporters, than was asked of the city harbor department eight years earlier.). An anonymous source had already contributed $6 million to the non-profit organization that wanted to purchase the land and maintain it as a community farm. However, the May 22 deadline came and passed; the city failed to raise the $10 million, and the farmers faced eviction.
However, no evictions occurred. Word had come earlier the previous week that the mayor and city council announced they could not come up with the money, though they voted $800 million to renovate the Los Angeles Colliseum, to attract a NFL team to the city. In the days following, farm supporters held protest vigils outside Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's official residence. On Saturday morning, May 20, they followed him to the Convention Center, where he was meeting with Latino business leaders. Farm supporters claimed that Villaraigosa, who was trying to take over the Los Angeles United School District, did not want to cross members of the city council who favored industrial development of the South Central Farm.
Protests continued into June, with farmers and others holding round-the-clock vigils at the farm. The protests drew celebrities and activists, including Joan Baez, Julia Butterfly Hill, and Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Peter Camejo.
THE HOLY SEE'S VISITATION of U.S. seminaries was nearly complete in late May, Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the archdiocese for military services told the 2006 Media Convocation in Nashville. O'Brien, who was the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education's coordinator for the visitations, called them "most successful," said a May 30 Catholic News Service report. O'Brien said the visitation had ten areas of concentration, including whether there was evidence of homosexuality in the seminaries and if seminarians were being sufficiently prepared to embrace chastity and celibacy and face moral relativism in society. "The hype to begin with led some to believe this was going to be a crusade ... to weed out immorality," O'Brien said. "That's not what it was about."
When the congregation finishes reviewing the visitation reports, it will issue an overall report detailing the strengths and weaknesses of U.S. seminaries. "Each seminary will get its own report," said Archbishop O' Brien. But will reports on particular seminaries be made public? "I think each report should be made public to the appropriate constituencies," O' Brien said.
The archbishop said of the Holy See's response to the visitors' reports, "are there going to be situations that will have to be addressed? Undoubtedly. I hope there will be consequences for all concerned," he said. "I just don't know what means Rome will use to make sure seminaries are in compliance."
THE ARCHDIOCESE'S FIGHT to keep secret the confidential personnel records of priests accused of molesting minors continued in June. Though the United States Supreme Court in April declined to hear the archdiocese's appeal of a court ruling that the Church had to turn files over to the Los Angeles County grand jury, archdiocesan lawyers on June 7 convinced Los Angeles County superior court judge Haley Fromholz to order lawyers to keep confidential the names of archdiocesan employees not accused of crimes, witnesses, general background information, medical and financial records of plaintiffs and defendants, the June 8 Los Angeles Times reported. Unable to reach an out-of-court settlement with the archdiocese, plaintiffs' lawyers will challenge the archdiocese in court in November with the first three of 560 lawsuits.
Plaintiffs lawyers, like Anthony DeMarco, wanted public disclosure of confidential file information because, he said, it is "an extremely significant public safety issue," and the material could reveal that the archdiocese failed to protect the faithful against molesting priests. While the archdiocese has surrendered some documents to plaintiffs' lawyers, it is holding some back because, say archdiocesan lawyers, the information is privileged under state law and the federal Constitution. DeMarco, however, does not accept that argument. "What they're withholding from us in the majority of cases are the most significant documents," he said.
Archdiocesan lawyer Donald Woods, Jr., said, as far as public safety is concerned, releasing the records is unnecessary. "The name of every accused priest is a matter of public record," he said. "Anybody who wants to check it out can check it out online. To reveal psychiatric records is unnecessary." Woods complained that plaintiffs' "want ours public and theirs not. We've taken the position that no accusations have been proved, and this stuff should be protected until the trial."
MATER DEI HIGH SCHOOL in Santa Ana must turn over the names of faculty and students involved in abuse allegations from 1988 to 1997 to lawyers representing a woman who claims a Mater Dei coach sexually abused her in the mid-'90s, the May 26 Los Angeles Times reported. The alleged victim, known in her lawsuit as Jane C.R. Doe, says an assistant basketball coach abused her for a year beginning when she was 15. Doe's lawyer, John Manly, said he needed to obtain the names of other alleged abusers and their victims to determine how the school handled sexual abuse allegations during Doe's years at the school. "The important thing is to learn how many perpetrators are at Mater Dei, who they are and how has the school handled complaints," he said. Venus Soltan, another of Doe's lawyers, said Mater Dei administrators learned of the abuse of Doe after they intercepted a note passed between students, but then did nothing. The school fired a total of five teachers for misconduct (whether sexual or not is unclear) with minors when Doe was a student there, claimed Soltan. However, attorneys for the school and the diocese of Orange argued that if there are other allegations, they are not relevant to Doe's case. They expressed concern that the names of the accused and alleged victims could become public.
Orange County superior court judge Jonathan Cannon, however, did not accept the school and the diocese's arguments. But though he ordered the release of the names of students and faculty in abuse allegations, Cannon allowed only the lawyers in the case to see them. Counsel for both sides must agree on an independent third party to contact alleged victims to see if they want to be interviewed by attorneys.
POP STAR MADONNA CRUCIFIED HERSELF on the May 21 opening of her "Confessions" world tour at The Forum in Inglewood, Associated Press reported on May 22. Wearing a crown of thorns, Madonna sang while hanging from a mirrored cross. The day after the concert, Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a statement calling the rock star's performance "just pathetic."
"I guess you really can't teach an old pop star new tricks," Donohue said. "Poor Madonna keeps trying to shock. But all she succeeds in doing is coming across as a boring bigot."
Raised a Catholic, Madonna is today a follower of the Jewish Kabbalah.
MADONNA'S TOUR included a call-in confessional, which the May 14 Los Angeles Times saw as an indication that "Madonna hasn't given up entirely on her Catholic roots for Kabbalah." On the 1-888 number one hears a message, saying, "leave a confession and remember that by leaving your confession you're agreeing to let your message to be released in any form, at any time, until the end of time. So, think twice if you've been naughty." According to the Times, "besides confessing love for the pop superstar, some callers have disclosed secrets that will certainly make Mom blush."
THE FATE OF MISSION SAN MIGUEL, in San Miguel (near Paso Robles) still hangs in the balance, but a state representative has introduced a bill into the assembly to save it, said the May 11 Los Angeles Times. Seriously damaged in the 2003 San Simeon earthquake, San Miguel requires about $6 million to preserve it from total collapse in a future earthquake. But the state has refused the funds. Though in Proposition 40 California voters approved the formation of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to provide funds to preserve state historical sites, the state attorney general's office in March ruled they could not go to San Miguel, since it is a functioning Catholic parish. Citing a 1923 appellate court ruling and other court decisions, the attorney general said state funds could not be used to advance religion. About $300,000 in federal money has been granted to San Miguel.
San Miguel is unique among California's Spanish missions. Founded in 1797, its current chapel dates to 1821, its walls still adorned with frescoes painted by Salinan Indians. Other important artifacts are also preserved in the church. To get restoration money to this important structure, Senator Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) has introduced a bill that would allow any religious building listed in state or national historic registers to qualify for state funds.
Jack Williams, an archaeologist specializing in the mission era, scoffed at the claim that the state would be furthering religion by granting preservation funds to an historic structure like San Miguel. "The state recognizes the importance of these resources but then denies access to public funds in order to save them," he said. "It's not as if anyone wants to take the preservation money and use it to, say, buy incense or send missionaries to Africa."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has placed San Miguel on its list of the 11 most endangered sites in the country.
BOTH SUPPORTERS AND OPPONENTS of an immigrant measure applauded the San Bernardino city council's decision to place it on the ballot, Associated Press reported on May 16. The measure would enact restrictions on the ability of illegal immigrants to live and work in the city. It would forbid landlords to rent to illegal immigrants, force day laborers to prove legal residency, deny permits to businesses hiring illegals, and mandate that the city agencies use only English. The measure had already qualified for a special election, but the city council had the option to adopt it without a vote. On May 15, the council refused to adopt or refuse the measure, voting instead, 6-1, to send it to the voters. The election had to be held within 90 to 135 days.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city of San Bernardino has a population of 200,000, almost half of whom are Latino.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT Vicente Fox met with Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Cardinal Roger Mahony on May 26, at the end of a four-day tour of Washington, Oregon, and California, the May 27 Los Angeles Times reported. Though the mayor and Fox were scheduled to discuss immigration reform, Villaraigosa abruptly changed the topic of conversation to economic ties between Los Angeles and Mexico, saying immigration was a federal matter. But at a dinner at which both were present, Fox briefly addressed immigration, saying, "legal, safe, orderly immigration policy will benefit the security and prosperity of both our nations." Fox met for an hour with Mahony, who has been an outspoken proponent of amnesty for the United States' undocumented immigrants.
Some accused Fox of meddling with U.S. politics, coming at a time when the Congress was heatedly debating immigration. Said John Keeley of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, Fox's visit showed "how comfortable the Mexican government feels coming into the United States to lecture us on what our immigration policy should be. Fox and his cabinet and lawmakers feel no reluctance whatsoever to come to the U.S. and explicitly lobby in their own interests." But, Keeley said, "Fox and the Mexican government can't be faulted too much because there's no push back from the Bush administration. It doesn't bother them at all."
Fox's visit might have something to with Mexican politics as well. His party, the National Action Party, and its candidate for president, Felipe Calderon, was in a dead heat with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party. Fox may have wanted to appear to have furthered amnesty for illegal immigrants to boost his party's chances in the July 2 election.
DO SOVEREIGN NATIONS have a right to regulate the flow of immigrants across their borders? Yes, said San Bernardino Bishop Gerald Barnes, who chairs the United States bishops' committee on refugees and immigrants. In an interview with Zenit news (May 31), Bishop Barnes asserted that "among the principles contained in Catholic social teaching regarding migration ... there is recognition that sovereign nations have the right, in fact the responsibility, to control their borders. This is to protect the common good." However, said Barnes, Catholic social teaching holds "that persons have a right to migrate to provide for themselves and their families." These seemingly conflicting rights are reconciled, said Barnes, "in the development and application of immigration laws that take into consideration a nation's capacity to absorb newcomers, on the one hand, and the needs of migrants on the other. In other words, richer nations have a greater responsibility than do poorer nations in being open to immigrants."
The bishops, said Barnes, favor reforms to immigration laws that expand immigrants' "legal avenues to obtain employment and to reunify with relatives here." With such reforms in place, he continued, border security could be "applied more strategically toward preventing the entry of terrorists, drug smugglers and criminals." As for undocumented workers already here, since it would be too costly and damaging to the economy to deport them all, "the government must find a way to bring these folks out of the shadows and put them on a path toward full participation in our society," said Barnes.
"After all," he said, "the vast majority of these people has been in the United States for a period of time and has been contributing their labor and taxes."
BISHOP BARNES WAS COOL to a suggestion for immigration reform made by President George W. Bush on May 15, said a May 16 Catholic News Service report. The president voiced his support for an immigration reform program to legalize undocumented immigrants currently working in the United States, requiring them to pay a fine and back taxes, learn English, and hold a job for a set period of years. The president, however, suggested that 6,000 members of the National Guard be sent to border states such as Arizona, New Mexico, and California to assist Border Patrol in training, installing border fences, intelligence analysis and building roads. While welcoming the president's show of interest in immigration reform, Bishop Barnes cautioned against the "the introduction of military personnel" at the border. "There has not been an adequate public discussion about its implications, especially for the treatment of migrants," said Barnes.
Besides supporting a citizenship program for undocumented immigrants currently in the country and measures to reunite them with their families, Bishop Barnes said that "the real solution to the immigration crisis lies in a comprehensive approach to the problem. This approach must include a long-term strategy to address the root causes of flight, such as combating poverty in sending countries."
TARGET SOUTHERN POPULATIONS. Though populations in the "more prosperous" countries in the Northern Hemisphere are shrinking, the "greater concern" for the world, said an editorial in the May 13 Los Angeles Times, "is too many babies, not too few."
"Overpopulation has long been a source of great anxiety to many demographers and social scientists," said the Times. "Yet to listen to world leaders today, at least those on the northern half of the globe, you'd think the problem was the opposite." In Europe and Japan, "plummeting birthrates and aging populations are fueling fears not only that there won't be enough working people to support the elderly but that, eventually, entire cultures will simply become extinct." The United States is not so desperate because of immigration, which keeps the American birthrate "slightly above the replacement point," though "birthrates among the native-born don't differ much from those in Europe," said the Times.
Northern countries have lower birthrates, said the Times, because women have more opportunities open to them besides motherhood. And while assimilated immigrants "too stop having as many children," still "there will be plenty more behind to replace them. And that's the real problem."
Instead of trying to increase birthrates in their own countries, northern governments, said the Times, "should be far more focused on reducing birthrates in less-developed nations." The means for this, said the editorial, are "development assistance," which will give women in the Southern Hemisphere the same choices their northern sisters possess. "But even more important," according to the editorial, "is the removal of trade barriers that prevent Southern economies from growing."
MARGARET HEINZ KARCHER, 91, the wife of Carl's Jr. restaurants died June 6 of liver cancer in Scottsdale, Arizona, the June 8 Los Angeles Times reported. Mrs. Karcher helped her husband, Carl, open a hot dog stand in Los Angeles in 1941. They expanded these stands and opened Carl's Drive-in Barbeque in Anaheim in 1945. In 1956 they opened the first two Carl's Jr. restaurants, which now number about 1,000. "My mother and father built this business based on their belief in hard work and their strong faith in God," said Father Jerome Karcher, a priest of the Orange diocese and one of the Karcher's 12 children. Margaret and Carl Karcher have as well 51 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren.
Along with serving on the board of directors of Carl Karcher Enterprises, Margaret Karcher patronized art organizations as well as Mercy House, founded by her son, and Regina House. Both serve the homeless in Santa Ana.
THE GREAT MAJORITY of homeless families in Los Angeles County are unable to find beds at emergency shelters on any given night, said a report by Union Rescue Mission and the non-profit Shelter Partnership, Inc., in late May. According to the report, only 1,980 of the reported 8,200 homeless families are able to find shelter in the county. The study found that 39.4 percent of families in shelters are there because of evictions; one-third of household heads abuse drugs or alcohol or suffer from mental illness, or both; and family homelessness will probably increase because wages and benefits are not keeping up the cost of housing. County officials are using the study to advocate for more transitional housing for families. They plan to open such a facility, Hope Gardens Family Center, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Sylmar, said the May 20 Los Angeles Times.
SERVICES AT AFFLUENT Saddleback Church, an evangelical mega-church in Lake Forest (Orange County), have facilities for overflow crowds, including the Terrace Café, where "congregants sip lattes and eat pastries while watching the service on TV monitors," said a May 8 San Francisco Chronicle article. But the church is now offering something new for its 22,000 members -- a ministry to help people with HIV and AIDS. Kay Warren, wife of Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, has been getting small groups of 10 to 20 church members who pray together and volunteer for community service to help HIV-positive people by praying, running errands for them, driving them to medical appointments, and showing them friendship. She would also like the church to extend medical care to HIV sufferers. In addition, since, according to Kay Warren, the church's "teachings about sexuality in general have not been strong," Saddleback will introduce a "holistic" course on human sexuality in the fall, which will address the spectrum of issues from youth to HIV. A sample of what such a course might look might be found in a class Mrs. Warren gave on HIV prevention, centering on the acronym ABC -- "Abstain from sex until marriage, Be faithful to your marriage vows, Use condoms when necessary." Said Warren, "if I were going to diagram it, I'd say, 'A! B! ... little c."
Some healthcare providers in Orange County were skeptical about Saddleback's HIV outreach, worrying that since the church supports the notion that homosexuality is immoral and offers a program to help homosexuals become heterosexual, its program will not be simply to help HIV sufferers. Donna Fleming, program manager for Orange County's HIV Planning and Coordination office, said she worried about Saddleback's "purpose and agenda. If they have a religious agenda, that is fine, as long as they are up front about it, and people know where they are coming from. And then those agencies can make their own decisions about whether to get involved." Fleming suggested that service providers would be more comfortable if Saddleback volunteers helped out in ways that would not bring them into contact with HIV sufferers -- such as stock food pantries.
HOMOSEXUAL CONTRIBUTIONS to United States history must be taught in California's social studies programs in public schools, the state senate voted May 11. Some wonder, however, what it will mean for public school social studies courses if the bill is approved by the state assembly and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "How far do we have to go?" asked 35-year veteran history teacher James Berger of the bill, sponsored by Democratic senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), according to the May 12 Los Angeles Times. He continued, "I read one time that [Nazi leader] Hermann Goering liked to wear dresses. Is that important to note? Because he was also a murderer, and that seems to be the essence of what he was about."
The Times asked similar questions in regards to other historical figures. For instance, because a new biography claims Abraham Lincoln was homosexual, must this be mentioned in a textbook? Or must it mention that Eleanor Roosevelt had "a relationship with a woman"? The problem is that, despite mandating the inclusion of homosexual contributions in textbooks, the bill does not specify how this is to be done. Backers of the bill say that it would most likely mandate the inclusion of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in New York as an example of the American civil rights movement. Other bill proponents suggest the inclusion of homosexual Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor, who was shot along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978....
Or even the inclusion of tennis champion Billie Jean King, who beat Bobby Riggs in the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match. King would be presented not only as a tennis champion and feminist icon but as a lesbian (she had a romantic relationship with her female secretary), according to Jennifer Richard, Senator Kuehl's legislative director. King's lesbianism was as central to her role, said Richard, as was baseball champion Jackie Robinson's race (he was black.) "That is an important part of Jackie Robinson's story," Richard said. "It is also an important part of Billie Jean King's story, that she was the first openly lesbian athletic star. There are gray areas we have to make decisions about all the time in history, and not just about aspects of sexual orientation. I imagine that filtering process will take place with this as well."
THERE IS A LOCAL ANGLE to the story of the National Geographic Society's publication this year of the 1,700-year-old Gospel of Judas -- one of its translators, Professor Marvin Meyer, teaches religious studies at Chapman College in Orange. According to a story in the June 1 Orange County Weekly, Meyer received a call from representatives of National Geographic in 2004 asking him if he wanted to undertake a research project. They would tell him nothing of the project, however, until he signed a non-disclosure agreement. (National Geographic, said the Weekly, wanted to keep the project secret because it "had paid tons of money to sponsor the restoration and translation of the codex, and wanted to make sure no one else scooped them.) Though he hesitated, Meyer finally agreed to sign the agreement. He discovered he was to work on what has been called "the most important archeological discovery of the past 60 years."
The Gospel of Judas, however, is not the first Gnostic gospel to be discovered, nor is it the first Meyer has worked on. In the late '70s he helped translate the Nag Hammadi library of ancient Gnostic texts; in 1983 a book of translations of Gnostic gospels, called The Gnostic Gospels, was published under Meyer's name. The appearance of the Gospel of Judas, said Meyer, "doesn't mean we're suggesting that anyone should embrace the gospel or throw it out. We simply hope that there will be a good healthy discussion and an appreciation that this is part of our heritage."
THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS is "astonishing," said scholar Elaine Pagels, while another scholar, Bart Ehrmann, called it "one of the greatest historical discoveries of the twentieth century." But journalist Cornel Bonca, who wrote the Orange County Weekly story on Marvin Meyer, didn't seem too impressed with it. The basic thesis of the Gospel of Judas, according to Meyers, is that "Judas betrays Jesus ... but he does so knowingly, and at the sincere request of Jesus." Jesus has to die, not to atone for the sins of the world, but to escape from the meaningless material realm and return to God, who is immaterial light. Judas' betrayal helps Jesus on to his death and, thus, to his liberation.
Given the thesis of the Gospel of Judas, wrote Bonca, "it ought to be clear why Gnosticism remained an early Christian sect that never quite caught on to the masses: the Gospel of Judas has got to have one of the lamest explanations for Christ's crucifixion I can imagine. We might ask: Why does Jesus need someone else to betray him and get him killed; why not just commit suicide and get his stint in the material realm over with? Not explained. Why such an awful, protracted, torturous death? Not explained."
Furthermore, continued Bonca, "the Judas gospel ... isn't even a decent narrative of the life of Jesus. It covers the last few days of his life, and it's basically Judas and Jesus in a tete-a-tete, a first-millennium My Dinner With Andre, Jesus explaining the Gnostic origins of the universe and getting Judas to snitch on him so he can go back to the Supreme Spirit. Judas hands him over to the Romans at the end, very briefly, and that's it. No crucifixion, even, and no resurrection. Deeply lame."
"The Christian cross is the central symbol for the Church for a good reason," wrote Bonca. "All at once, it embodies the paradox of a figure both human and divine who through the example of a most selfless and sacrificial love makes it possible for his flock to escape the dread prospect of eternal nothingness and death and deliver itself into the arms of a loving God. That cross -- the horizontal part putting Jesus on par with the rest of us humans, the vertical showing how he reaches both down toward the earth and up toward heaven -- has sustained in the most visceral way the mortal imaginations of 20 centuries of Christians more than any other symbol. Without any meaning ascribed to the crucifixion, who's going to bother to believe in Jesus? What the fuck, pardon me, would be the point?"