Random Assortment, Religion Edition

~ This whole interview is wonderful, but what stuck out to me in it was minute 6 to 6:36. There is an old home video of Dolores (the actress-turned-nun) and Elvis goofing off. Dolores looks lovely and charming and vivacious and young and really happy. When the interviewer asks modern-day Dolores (I think this interview is from a couple of years ago) what she thinks looking back at that home video, she answers that that girl is probably more heavy and serious than she is now. This is such a poignant witness and is exactly what I've perceived in many of the nuns who I've met: they have such peace and joy. It makes me want to will more closely with what God wills so that I can have that sort of peace.

~ From an old interview with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats on religion:

"[Q:] Satanist black-metal bands, occasional Old Testament references, the title Heretic Pride—there's a lot of religion around the edges of your work. Is that something that plays a role in your life or is it just fertile lyrical material?
[A:] I consider myself religious—I'm Catholic, both by blood and by tendency, and I mean "religious" in the sense of the word that occasionally makes Protestants uncomfortable: I like ritual and repetitive prayers, and I think a communal relationship with God is many orders of magnitude more important than "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." I prefer being told what to do and how to pray. I don't think I'm smart enough or eloquent enough to write prayers that are worth God's time.
At the same time, though, I'm in the same boat that everybody else is in: In my heart, I doubt there's a God at all. Most of what most religions teach is utterly ridiculous, and besides, I'm a pro-choice feminist, so the Church that I love and which I'll never fully be able to leave is also my enemy.
I stopped going to church years ago and hardly ever go these days, and I won't take Communion when I do, because those are the rules. I'm as likely to pray the Hare Krishna mahamantra as I am the rosary. But I do pray, as devoutly as I can, even though I suspect we're just animals crawling on the surface of a godless earth. I do it because it gives me comfort and peace, even if that's illusory, and because I think that a prayerful mood is a powerful thing in the world and can be a real force for good."

This is such a funny answer! He loves religion--that's so incredibly rare; basically no one does these days. "I prefer being told what to do and how to pray." And yet he doesn't exactly want to be told what to do. And yet he still respects the Church enough to not take communion when he's there.

~ Free online courses. (I mean: not that I recommend college courses be online for college students BECAUSE I DON'T! But I'm thinking of the Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art class for my drive to and from campus...)

~ Here are a couple of recent blog posts on the big business ties to the HHS contraception mandate, an aspect that never occurred to me, and which I think it's practical and important to think about. I haven't written anything about the huge contraception debate thus far. I have a couple of thoughts: A) Religious liberty is absolutely the right ground to fight this fight; I don't think that we should discuss this in terms of the common good. It is an issue of religious liberties. To attempt to make it about the common good is a different discussion--it is to turn it into a philosophical rather than political discussion. This is not about banning contraception; it's about not forcing people to pay for something that their religion teaches is a moral evil. B) It's horrible that Rush Limbaugh expressed such ignorance and rudeness to Sandra Fluke (to which I thought Jack DeGioia had a pretty good response, calling people to civility, although I don't know if it's posted on the internet). Limbaugh's rudeness was particularly pernicious because it gives people the platform to say condescendingly that conservatives and Catholics and perhaps especially Catholic conservatives tend to know very little birth control and how it works. That makes me incredibly angry. C) The thing that this contraception debate has reminded me about is the fact that some commonly used forms of birth control not only prevent the sperm and egg from uniting, but can also, if that fails, prevent implantation. This is something that we should remember and discuss and about which we should educate people.