ARTICLES
December 2003 ARTICLES
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
The Colors of Barry Manilow
Hipster Theology at Loyola-Marymount
By F. Michael Forrester
One of the offerings on a flyer I had received for a conference read as follows:
"Thursday, October 30, 3-4:15 p.m. -- "GOD/ESS IS COLOR/LESS AND GOD/ESS IS COLOR/FUL. LET GOD/ESS BE GOD/ESS." Speaker: Dr. Chun Hyun Kyung, Union Theological Seminary, New York. Chung Hyun Kyung is a lay theologian of the Presbyterian Church of Korea who has written widely on feminist and eco-feminist theologies and spiritualities from Asia, Africa and Latin America, Christian-Buddhist dialogue, disease and healing, and mysticism and revolutionary social change. She often brings a performative-aesthetic dimension to her presentations."
The flyer advertised the third annual Bellarmine forum, hosted by Loyola-Marymount University, during the week of October 26 through November 2. "GOD/ESS IS COLOR/LESS AND GOD/ESS IS COLOR/FULL. LET GOD/ESS BE GOD/ESS" was just one of the 30 talks compulsory for at least some Loyola-Marymount students to attend (or so a conference attendee told me). Happily for the students, no events were scheduled for Friday, October 31, in honor of Halloween.
The flyer for this year's Bellarmine forum, titled, "The Color of God," was a glossy affair. In place of an introduction, the brochure had, "A WORD FROM THE ORGANIZERS" -- Associate Professors Jennifer Abe-Kim, department of psychology, and Douglas Burton-Christie, department of theological studies.
In their introduction, Douglas and Abe-Kim admitted that the theme of the forum would seem to many to be "foolish or nonsensical." "But," they wrote, "what if the 'color of God' refers instead to the various ways in which the particularities of culture, ethnicity, and race refract and shape the human experience and understanding of God?"
"Please join us," Douglas and Abe-Kim closed, "together with theologians, poets, artists, pastors, activists, musicians, actors, film-makers, and others to examine these issues carefully and critically."
The week's events began on campus with an 8 p.m. kick-off Mass on Sunday, October 26, at the Sacred Heart Chapel. A blurb in the brochure read: "The St. Agatha Gospel Choir joins the LMU Chapel Choir and others in a joyous celebration of the color of God." There was, certainly, a large number of singers, very colorful, with over 50 swaying behind the altar in rehearsal as the congregation of students shuffled in. One student, taking his place at the back, had dyed his hair in multi-colored strips resembling a rainbow (presumably in the spirit of the week ahead) and was clothed in a t-shirt that had the word "JESUIT" emblazoned in collegiate capitals on the back.
Despite the presence of the St. Agatha Gospel Choir, the genre of music was decidedly rock-and-roll, with a talented electric bassist manifesting his skills with a solo introduction to the Gloria, the interminable refrain of which, was: "Glory to glory to glory to glory to glory to glory to God! (3X)." None of this prepared the congregation for the Barry Manilow-esque rendition of Psalm 126, sung by a spitting image of the man himself. Sniggers rippled throughout, which were soon compounded when the more heavily endowed women behind the altar began jumping up and down at the Alleluia.
The visiting presider from the Holy Name of Jesus parish, the Rev. Gregory Chisholm, was an African-American. His sermon recounted the happenings of his recent confirmation class, in which one rebellious student asked why we have the commandment, "do not commit adultery," when, according to the student, next to no one is obeying it. Although the student body at first seemed interested and curious as to how Father Chisolm was going to answer this question, he evidently lost their attention by meandering in and out of quotes from African-American poets -- to such an extent that a couple sitting next to each other (situated in the rear pews) began to kiss and embrace each other. Father Chisolm concluded his sermon exclaiming that it is of no use to present the truth in laws but that we must first "believe," and only then we'll come to understand the commandments. "You've heard the saying, 'seeing is believing,'" he concluded; "but I say, 'believing is seeing.'"
During the Mass, many of the congregation were flicking through the pages of the glossy brochure. The topics selected for the upcoming week's forums betrayed a list of familiar liberal agendas. At the offertory, one young male student leaned over to a fellow student and commented, "Colors of God? I don't know, man. These all seem pretty washed out to me."
Among the topics scheduled were: "GOD IS BLACK: FROM PARTICULARITY TO UNIVERSALITY ... talk will explore how God became white in Christian tradition, the discussion of God's blackness in black theology conversations, and the universal theological implications for God's blackness"; "THE FEMININE, THE DIVINE: WOMEN, CULTURE, AND SPIRIT ... Dr Cheryl Grills, a professor of psychology at LMU, is also a priest within the West African Ifa and Akan religious medical systems"; "SPIRIT, NATURE, CULTURE: THE GREENING OF GOD"...[talk] will reflect on the ongoing challenge of learning to see the natural world as a sacred space"; "THE MULTI-COLORED GOD: HOW DO WE SPEAK OF GOD IN A PLURALISTIC ASIA?... talk will consider the monochromatic image in which the God of Jesus has been presented to Asians"; "BODY OF FAITH: a docu-drama performance that explores spirituality among gay/lesbian/ bisexual/transgender people of faith. Following the performance ... will [be] a discussion on the significance of the play for the LMU community."
Aside from these agendas, there was the also the outright plain bizarre: "CONTEMPLATIVE DANCE: Yoga and Modern Dance Fusion ... a physical meditation that explores the continuum from individual ritual to inter-personal relationship, suggesting the beginnings of cultural expression"; and "MUSIC CONCERT: QUETZAL ... one of the leading bands to emerge from the Los Angeles Chicano music movement. The essence of QUETZAL can be found in the story of the ancient Quetzal bird who consistently resisted captivity. It did so by willing itself to sleep rather than journeying to Spain as plunder for the Spanish crown."
At the end of each day, there was scheduled a "TALK STORY" -- a chance for students to respond to the day's forums with each other, with the discussions being facilitated by different Loyola-Marymount staff and faculty each evening. "Talk Story," read the brochure, "is a tradition in Hawaii of sharing personal stories, ideas, history, and experiences, with each other."
Buried in the middle of the week was a talk, titled, "GUADALUPE AND THE HOLY SPIRIT: A MEXICAN IMAGE OF GOD?" this talk was to consider the possible consequences of imagining the Virgin of Guadalupe as "a distinctively Mexican and theologically legitimate symbol for the Holy Spirit." The talk was given by Dr. Orlando Espín, an associate professor of theology and director for the Center for the Study of Latino Catholicism at the University of San Diego. A past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the United States, Espín is the founding editor of The Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology. Espín has achieved some nominal degree of fame with his book, The Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism -- which, in part, claims that the common faith of Latino people does not include the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Speaking in a heavy accent, Espín used the first five minutes of his talk to establish that what he was about to say was only a "proposal." "You must understand," Espín asserted, "that this understanding needs much more work. It is, without exaggerating, a work in progress. All I am asking is whether it is legitimate to even ask the question. But, by the end of my talk, you'll certainly know what my answer is!"
Taking the premise that experience and understanding of God can only be had within one's own culture, Espín asked the question, "how does a Latino community understand the Christian God in a Latino culture? It has often been my contention," answered Espín, "that 'popular belief' is the privileged vehicle of Latino culture." Espín distinguished the term "popular belief" from Church teaching as being something on its own, separate from "standard Catholicism." Espín defined the "popular belief" of Latinos as "a faith coming from the people themselves," not from the Church; but it is a "deeply held faith of the people, a complex matrix of experiences and beliefs." Espín asserted that these beliefs have come from "anonymous authors" passed down generation after generation, taking the form of "images, ideas, stories and understanding." Moreover, this "popular faith of Latinos" can not but be heavily effected by their status of being "marginalized by the mainstream Church." "Rebellion, courage, fear, hope," clarified Espín, "the machismo of a patriarchal society, and the deepest respect for motherhood is to be found in 'Latino popular religion.'"
Having removed from the realm of possibility the idea of "a Roman Catholic Latino," Espín allowed that Latinos have, by the very nature of being marginalized, "introjected" dogmas from the standard Catholic Church; but, he said, "Latinos are Latinos, and we should not be surprised that they are Catholics latinamente." "Latinos," said Espín, "have to be Catholic latinamente. They have no alternative." Although, according to Espín, Latinos are Catholic latinamente, they do have understandings and an image of God "generally identifiable as Christian." But also the opposite is true: that insofar as they are Latinos, they will have images and understandings of God uniquely Latino.
"Have Latinos," Espín then asked, "accepted the Christian God in a really culturally authentic way?" Espín proposed that the answer to this question was, yes, but in the form of Our Lady of Guadalupe. "I am saying that the Virgin of Guadalupe," explained Espín, "is both an authentic Christian image of God and an authentic Latino image of God."
Having said this, Espín emphasized, "let me first say what I am NOT saying in this argument. I don't want to be labeled a heretic, at least not on this! I am not suggesting in any way whatsoever that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is God. This would be unacceptable to any Catholic; Latino Catholics as well." Espín further clarified that he was not saying that Latinos have created some other god outside of the Christian God (in the way of idolatry) with their worship of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Espín also narrowed the scope of Latinos to which this theory even applied. "I am not assuming that every single Latino," said Espín, "in order to be really Latino or to be really Catholic has necessarily to image the divine through Guadalupe. There is nothing genetic about this. In fact, I am explicitly referring only to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans -- as other Latino groups do not know the Virgin of Guadalupe as 'theirs.'"
Returning to what it was that he was saying, Espín went on to give slightly more of an explanation of how Our Lady of Guadalupe is not the Virgin Mary, but a Mexican icon for the Holy Spirit. To begin with, Espín described the attributes of the Holy Spirit according to "standard Catholic belief and practice": they are "loving, accepting, perfecting, guiding, increasing and correcting; providing comfort, counsel; teaching, enlightening; giving courage, faith hope and love, and in every way acts maternally."
Having established this, Espín then departed slightly from the argument to speak of how non-Latino Catholics perceive the Mexican devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. "It seems a tad too much," presumed Espín, "a tad too intimate. To them, Mexicans seem to be worshipping Our Lady of Guadalupe." Espín claimed that most Mexicans are unaware of how outsiders view the "intensity and severity" of their relationship with Our Lady of Guadalupe and that most "outsiders" do not understand it as they are not Mexican. They "aren't drawn to any particular devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe," claimed Espín, because, "she is Mexican."
Espín raised, and then immediately rejected, the idea that the intensity of Mexicans' devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe could be explained by ethnic or patriotic pride. "No," said Espín. "This intensity of relationship between Mexicans and Mexican-Americans and Our Lady of Guadalupe is a mutual relationship." Amid Mexicans' "marginalization," Espín said she brings all the qualities Espín had attributed to the Holy Spirit: "loving, accepting, perfecting ... and in every way acts maternally."
Espín claimed that the adjectives he used to describe Our Lady of Guadalupe (and the Holy Spirit) came directly from a survey of "Latinos" carried out at the University of San Diego in 1998. "We asked the people," said Espín, "and the results were this. When asked to talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the survey really got very deep, committed, and even emotional. Guadalupe is too good, too important, too sacred for them. You might have noticed that the adjectives I used to describe their feelings were the same used by standard Catholicism to describe the Holy Spirit. But," explained Espín, "these words are the terms Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have introjected from Standard Catholicism. These terms and the language can be linked very easily and comfortably by Latinos for both the Holy Spirit and the Virgin of Guadalupe."
Espín claimed that most of the surveyed Latinos would not identify Our Lady of Guadalupe as the mother of Jesus Christ. "But," added Espín, "according to our survey, most would say there is indeed a connection between Our Lady of Guadalupe and Jesus. In other words, the Marian interpretation of Guadalupe (the story accepted by the Church) is not self-evident to the Mexican and American Mexican population."
Espín closed by asking the question: if this is all true, what sort of impact should it have on the Church? "How many Catholics today," mused Espín, "and how many in the Church's leadership, would feel even fairly comfortable talking about a relationship to God in and through feminine categories? Yet, Mexican and Mexican-Americans relate to Guadalupe as if she was in charge. As if she was divine." He concluded that, century after century, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the one whom Mexican and Mexican-Americans describe as "loving, accepting, perfecting, guiding, ... [etc.]. She is the ultimate mother of Mexico." He reiterated that his "proposal" was only a proposal; but, he insisted also, that any alternative to the Virgin of Guadalupe being the Holy Spirit "is even crazier when confronted with the mounting evidence, and there is mounting evidence, mounting every day. In any case, there you have my proposal; and remember, it is only a proposal."
The facilitator for this particular forum was Dr. Karen Mary Davalos, assistant professor of Chicano/a Studies, LMU. Davalos made the following closing comments to the students: "If it was true that she is the Holy Spirit, it would remind us about the distance between Catholic doctrine and dogma and Catholic practice. Specifically, a God that isn't a He, right? And what the implications might be, then, for the Church, with a feminine Holy Spirit. I would agree that all our reflections about God are only through our culture. Right? So we know this to be true, right? That the way in which Catholicism is constituted in this country -- an image that is frigid, an image that is standard, universal, normal. Here, at LMU, we are guilty of this all the time. Last Christmas, the crèche scene was almost an ironic image of Joseph, Jesus, and Mary, with Roman noses. How are we to de-center that? Isn't it evil? What would it mean to challenge that? Right? I would call that wrong."