Get Religion has a a link on this at Worship under the bright lights.
I have followed this with some interest over the past year.
It is sort of interesting the lens through which different Christians might view this story. I think for Catholics they don't see the big problem here. Catholics, for good or for bad, jump around from Parish to Parish . It is not of paramount importance you get to YOUR PARISH to go to Mass but you just get to Mass. So liturgical Catholics can and do hit a whole much of Masses at different parishes at different times if they have too because of schedule.
If we had a Catholic President it is likely he would just get into the Limo and go to the numerous Parishes around the D.C. area to go to Mass without giving notice. Or perhaps he would arrange with the Archdiocese to have Mass said at the White House for the family . Security problem sort of solved. There would be I expect a ton of Catholic disapproval if a Catholic President was just skipping Mass all the time. However that is not how Protestants look at "Church".
Protestants need to find a Church "Home". It is not strange to hear of very devout Protestants when they move to a new community sometimes not going to Church for months because they have not found a "Church" they feel comfortable in. To the devout Catholic mind this is unthinkable. What are you talking about feel "comfortable in!!! Now that is not saying Catholics do not need to find a "Parish" home but it is just different.
However the missing theme in these stories is the First Family .and in particular the children.
Now the media and the White House has done a great job of shielding the kids from public view. Heck I forget at times Obama has kids. This is not the Kennedy White House with charming photos of Caroline and John John . Heck it is even not Jimmy Carter with him talking about Amy at press conferences and charming stories about Jimmy building her a tree house at the White House.
Looking at the past year it is striking how very little we see the First Family at all(Mother in Law who is living in the White House included). Even our First Lady seems much more out of the public view than most First Ladies we have experienced.
Still what about the kids. How do instill Church going habits into kids at this important age if you don't go on a regular basis. Who is teaching them the Christian faith. What is taking the place of Sunday school. Do the Obamas have their own private family Church on Sunday morning for the kids?
This is not a Obama bashing post and of course it is really none of my business if President Obama is giving a sermon to his kids on Sunday Morning while Michelle is doing Sunday school duties.
However despite our break from royalty over two hundreds years ago the First Family still represents a role. They represent AMERICA and thus for many Americans, me included, that also means going to Church . Thus both Christan supporters and opponents of Obama I think are relived when we hear that the Obamas have found a sort of Church home at Camp David with the Southern Baptist military chaplain. Ths might seem a silly non issue to non believers but there is a reason why the papers and media cover it. It is because Christians are very interested in it and concerned.
Anyway the kids are what I think about when I hear this storyline and the real practical difficulties that the Obamas have in this essential Christian parental duty of passing on the faith.
I do feel for our President in this regard.
I suspect many Catholics were a little puzzled at the intensity of the furor over Obama's previous association with Jeremiah Wright as well.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing a Catholic host on WWL radio saying that she's had priests say weird or crazy things many times and that she and others typically thought nothing of it. It seems to me that the difference would be that for the Catholic, the Mass is central whereas for the Protestant the sermon is the focal point of the worship service. That's not so much the case with liberal denominations like the UCC or the United Methodist church I grew up in as it is with Baptists, Calvinists, etc but most mainline/liberal Protestant churches do not have a fiery and controversial preacher like Wright.
BTW I came across your blog when I learned Saul Litvinoff had died and did a Google search.