Against a backdrop of
art, architecture and past history, Father Robert Barron, a protégé of Chicago
Cardinal George has compiled a bootlegged style schlock imitation piece of Sir
Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation series but on "religion" - what religion I was unable to decipher.
"Catholicism" is a series of segments of art film, travelogue and incoherent religion
lectures that ramble all over creation’s time line and imagination.
BUT - Where is the
real Roman Catholicism Father Barron?
I ran into two
episodes of Robert Barron’s “Catholicism” on PBS on one of those raising cash
on a rainy Sunday afternoon deals and offering a full five DVD set of ten
episodes for a $250 tax deductible contribution to the local PBS station.
Media expert Barron’s
independent, independent film which has no traceable roots in IMDb (Internet
Movie Data base) that I can compare the credentials of people using terms and
titles like Director or Cinematographer to see if Cardinal George and or his
cronies got their three million dollars worth in this vanguard media vehicle of “the
New Evangelism” and or “Getting the old MoJo Nostalgia Thing going for the
pre-Vatican II Medieval Church”.
Father Robert Barron
is a polished articulate wordsmith but a third rate theologian as any PC
theologian in the RCC is these days. Though he wears glasses and a wristwatch,
I guess the appearance of intelligibility is allowed on occasion with
permission in its certified authorized theologians mixing with the little
people through the firewall of the media. Is allowable to a certain extent in
the desperate marketing and sale of this “New Evangelism” thing?
Walks like a
duck. Sounds like a Duck. It must be the
New Evangelism thingy. Frozen concentrated grape juice in a frozen concentrated
orange juice container I fear. What’s
the difference? Catholicism – one size fits all. Right? One fruit juice is as good as another.
Whatever. Enough on tangents.
Three million bucks
does not go very far these days even in terms of a non-union made film.
I will say that most
of what I have seen could have been shot with stock footage and much of it with
scenes of happy heterosexual couples holding hands in the streets and parks and
all the running happy children in these parks added to strike a “I want that
too” chord in the viewer – the illusion of temporary happiness at least.
Viewing these two
propaganda pieces on PBS I wanted to learn something I did not already know
about Catholicism. Many of the PBS series I have seen illustrating topics such as Baseball, the Civil War or even Judaism have been informative and thought provoking.
Not once in these two
episodes do I once hear what the Roman Catholic Church is all about or what it
believes in.
I did watch these two
episodes:
“Amazed and Afraid:
The Revelation of God Become Man”
“That Than Which
Nothing Greater Can Be Thought: The Ineffable Mystery of God”
The first episode is a pile of 10, 15, 30 second sound bites against a backdrop of the all the art of
churches, the Sistine Chapel ceiling paint job etc. And while it is sometimes exquisite to encounter
a sixteenth century Spanish cathedral alter piece covered in icons and gold, one like me
after one too many shots of such decadence and with a Protestant conscience, I am
reminded of all the slave labor and ruined lives of millions of enslaved peasants
and Indians in South and Central America that went into the creation of this “art”.
It is here where the
sound bites and the 90 second and two minute polished homilies struck me of the
whole disjointed mess of this propaganda film. That beyond art, the RCC is idolatry
and love of the idol – the thing – its own thing. That an ignorant illiterate serf in medieval
Europe may have learned his bible stories from the stained glass of the
Cathedrals.
I thought I recognized
the style of Barron’s polished 90 second and two minute focused homilies which
remind me of the finishing punch line statements after many long agonizing boring religion classes I remember in catholic high school. I also feel for his seminary students mucho.
But looking at and
listening to Father Barron blather on with so many rambling, disjointed, bunch
of little phrases, thoughts, opinions, against the backdrop of medieval art,
happy couples in parks etc. that I am reminded of the possibility of some drunken monk in some medieval theology class in a cathedral pointing to a stained glass
picture of Noah’s flood and then telling the story of Adam and Eve. Some serfs
may have gone to their graves confused on the finer subtle points of that theology lesson etc.
The second episode
mentioned continues the rambling sound bites against the backdrop of stock
footage. The drunken medieval monk acting gig in the cathedral medieval theology class
gets more polished and starts into an alphabet soup of disconnected ideas without any spellable words
produced in the consumer’s spoon.
But
defining or understanding God is a really big subject and I have heard better
explanations of the vastness and mystery of God from Muslims on video tape and
filtered through a coarse sieve of translation.
One very disturbing scene
in this second episode has Father Barron doing his theology schtick against the
backdrop of Auschwitz and rambling about how evil can be done in life etc. How
can God let that happen?
He even concedes that
the idea that God letting evil happen for a greater good is a tad bit too much
for human understanding.
He slips into a story
about the old testament story of Job and rambles on a bit. Jumps to a Seurat
pointism painting in a museum. And finally ends on a cute story of the American
Philosopher William James and his dumb dog who cannot read.
Then he slips back to
the Auschwitz scene without an answer to the mystery of God letting the Shoah
happen.
No apology for what so many
Catholics in the Nazi Party did to the Jews.
I guess by episode eight or nine Father Barron will be explaining why
God’s intentions at Auschwitz were so obtuse and why it is perfectly clear why the
Jew hating(?), Jew/humanity ignoring Pius XII must be made a modern saint
according to the new, modern, retro-Medieval “New Evangelism”
Being the hack
seminary teacher and dog trainer that Barron appears to be and in grand favor
of his mentor and patron Cardinal George of Chicago, I think that no
intelligent person has anything to fear from this waste of three million
dollars that disappeared off the ledgers somewhere. No threat I think to any
higher order of primates here at least.
This new untried Attention
Deficit, all over the map non-map, approach to the heart of Christianity that the RCC has become, much like a
millstone tied around the rest of Christianity’s legitimate attempt to follow
the simple teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, is sad.
No doubt like Fox
News which attributes its high ratings to being the only channel playing in
most nursing homes in America, the canned Catholicism DVD treasury will appeal
to the long term only memories of the inmates there who hopefully still have
control over their estates before they part this earth and leave their wealth
to the “New Evangelism” of the Roman Pagan Catholic Church.
No hidden Picasso
here. Perhaps though just another encounter with a resurrected Elvis painted on
velvet kind of decorative art thingy.
Sir Kenneth – rest in
peace. Your reputation on art history remains safely intact.
Etc.
Have a good day.
.
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