Remember the Buddhist monks last year, leading anti-government demonstrations in the-land-now-called-Myanmar. The Religion Newswriters Association (there's an association for everything!) named them the “top religion newsmakers of 2007.”
There was heavy competition for the title, as you can imagine, from the usual sources: electioneering Democrats and Republicans going after the evangelical cash, um, support. That story is only going to get hotter this year as Americans drag themselves to an election. That's always a good time — keep posted to late night telelvision.
Homosexuals in the church is always big news. Some like them homosexuals, some don't; some elevate them to high positions, some bury them. Some marry them, some don't. Some take the American military approach: don't ask, don't tell.
This for me was the lowest point in 2007: Rowan Williams, the Anglican AbC, passed through Toronto. He was interviewed on The Current, a CBC Radio show on weekday mornings. The only issue raised by the interviewer of the second most religious Christian leader in the world was about sexuality — about gays and lesbians. According to the CBC, I felt, that's all Christianity is!
A world turned upside down, social and cultural injustice all over, and religious-minded folks, good Christian stock, digging deep paying for and working on mission projects in every obscure corner of the planet. But, that's not news, not according to our national broadcaster. Of course, I don't blame the CBC for this. Churches, including, perhaps even particularly, ours, are notoriously shy about sharing any good news, leave alone the Good News. We're comfortable in our smug insularity. Therefore others easily reduce our story.
Sex dominates religion news in others ways — abuse by clerics of young boys and girls. That story isn't going away either. Not for a while. American Catholics had to put out $2.1 billionUS; which included $660 millionUS from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Money talks, I suppose. And I hope somebody is listening. The abuse was engendered by the supercilious culture of the church. That same culture — where the needs and the public relations of the institution are more important than Christ or His message — encouraged the horrible abuse of several generations of Aboriginal Canadians. That story — which trickled along last year, as it will this year — also was reduced to money.
Sex and money, I suppose, are the constant top religion stories. In fact, I would think most of us have our antennas attuned to that rhythm. We go to church but we compartmentalize ourselves from these issues. We pretend they're either overwrought, or don't pertain to our local congregation, or we just block them out. I should think that is a big story in religion circles — why people keep giving when their faith, their religion and the institutions that serve both are constantly under attack.
On the adjoining page you'll see that the Pope has asked for prayers for abuse victims. That's wonderful; though I suppose it could also fall into the category of too-little-too-late. I hope not. Curiously enough — don't know if you've noticed — churches are slow at saying sorry.
Also on that page you'll see how the Australians have started an ad campaign. All can be reversed with a little spin, I suppose. Apology and evangelism — another well worn path for churches.
And so it was nice to see those bloodied monks trying to chant past the brutal Burmese guards. That was faith-in-action stuff. It was nice to see clerics, religious leaders, get their hands dirty. It was nice to see them not wringing their hands or washing their hands. It was really nice to see them being on the right side of a cause.
If those young men were our religious leaders, well, we wouldn't need to compartmentalize, would we? We wouldn't need to spin or apologize, wouldn't have to be smug or insular, wouldn't have to hide our light, pretend we don't exist, or be quietly frustrated by CBC shows.
Of course, we're lucky we don't live under a mean-spirited regime, as do the Burmese. We're lucky we can vote our way through political change. And, yes, we pray for the monks, who have now been recessed back to their monasteries.
But for me, within my North American context, it was nice to see them out there in the streets for a while.
