Saturday, December 29, 2012

On TV, electronics, and skirts

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It might be masochism on my part, but I receive an email once weekly from former SSPX bishop Richard Williamson. (Former because, as you may recall, he was recently expelled from his dissident group for disobedience. Oh, the irony.)

Anyway, the last paragraph from this week's bulletin is worth sharing:

Over to you, dear readers. Away with trashy and valueless music in the home. Get rid of the television set. Reduce electronics to a minimum. Mothers, wear skirts whenever possible, which is most of the time. Otherwise do not complain if God does not rescue the Society. He forces his gifts upon nobody. Blessed be his name for ever.

God's blessing, apparently, may be gained once more by:
  • Censoring one's music
  • Throwing out one's television
  • Using the minimum of electronics (Except, of course, the internet to read this column, its "donation" button, and PayPal)
  • Women wearing skirts instead of slacks
Perhaps this will work for  Mr. Williamson and his disciples. I was raised in a faith tradition in which all of these precepts were observed (although more strictly in other oneness pentecostal associations). The fruits of such practices are observable, but not necessarily desirable.

At any rate, now you have a plan, if you choose to begin, according to a spiritual leader whereby to be showered with God's blessings once more.

Merry Christmas.

Pax et bonum
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24 comments:

  1. What's sad is that there are quite a number of people not in the SSPX, who hold those views. SEriously, if God isn't going to bless me because I'm wearing sweats right now, then He isn't a God I want to worship.

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  2. There are ultra religious Jews, some Mennonites and many others who follow those beliefs. To me it is fear, like when little children cover their eyes and believe that that will protect them from scary things. As if not being able to see, they will not be seen by whatever frightens them. If we push away "bad" music, if we dress just so, everything will be okay. Ah well. Most of us do grow up and leave those fears behind (life is too short and too harsh to want to pile on more stuff to fear and get angry about). Peace to you, dear Thom!

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    1. I give a lot of people a lot of leeway, even when they're being nasty. But namecalling will get deleted. Try again.

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    2. I did not name call. Episcoplians are awful; murderers of Catholics and thieve of Churches. Tolkien summed them up best "a pathetic and shadowy medley of half-remembered traditions and mutilated beliefs".

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    3. You did- you called a priest a "hussy."

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    4. And you called her a "priest"---I would say both are quite inaccurate ;-)

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    5. James, each church or denomination has a right to call their clerics what they wish. In this case an Episcopal priest, not a Catholic priest. To some the difference matters a great deal. To others not at all.

      Some readers of this blog have forgotten St Bartholomew's Day 1572 among other dates far too numerous to mention.

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    6. Davis, have you forgotten everything Henry VIII and his cohorts had done to the Catholic Church once he created his own national church?

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    7. I have not forgotten St Bartholemew's Day. A Glorious Day!

      She is nor can ever be a Priest. There is no such thing as an Episcopalian priest. Their orders are "absolutely null and utterly void". Or is Apostolicae Curae added to the list of Magisterial Teaching you reject?

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  4. Just curious Thom, and this may not be the way to ask, but have you went to the Episcopal church? I have totally quite the Roman church, and often think of the Episcopal, and if you have done so, I was interested in your thoughts. Thanks

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    1. The best thing to say at the moment is that I am discerning.

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    2. You are discerning if your identity as a homosexual means more to you than your faith. Hence your attending an episcopalian event. I am sorry that you are willing to abandon the One True Church because of a disorder. To me it seems like cowardice and a capitulation.

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    3. Your sincere opinion has been duly noted.

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  5. Once I threw out all my Prince albums and disco because I thought it was evil - and then I bought replacements when CDs came out - I couldn't get the 12" version of It's Raining Men though.

    Happy New Year Thom!

    And thanks for the ____! It wasn't marked late either! haha!

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  6. Throwing out your TV set may be on of the best decisions of your life, given plummeting quality of TV content. The same, probably, goes for other forms of entertainment that are simply dumb and shallow, of no quality whatsoever. Do we really need them?

    Is it fear? Probably, yes, but isn't this whole crusade against junk food the same?

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  7. I stopped watching so much television so I could spend more time reading Stephen King novels.

    Williamson is so absolutely batsheet crazee that he makes my teeth hurt (check out his review of Sound of Music to confirm his craziness), but even a broken clock is right twice a day and I think he has a point here.

    I don't know if television causes acne, but I think that there aren't too many other problems that don't track back to television. My understanding is that the average American is exposed to thousands of acts of televised violence in their life times. Thanks to shows like CSI and Criminal Minds, some of that violence is so extreme that it used to fetch movies R ratings in theaters back when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong, I am not an anti-violence prude. But, I swear by my Night of the Living Dead coffee mug, that there is no reason to flip on commercial television on a Sunday afternoon and witness a graphic rape scene on a rerun of Cold Case.

    Its not just violence. Look at the garbage passing itself off as information: CNN, Fox, EWTN, MSNBC. Gag! I think the endless televised mindlessness of our news channels is part of the reason why we had/have an unjust war in Iraq.

    I don't think that throwing out our televisions is the best approach, but I think being able to critically access what we are being exposed to is a pretty good start. We can start by interacting with the programs we watch. I don't know how many people thump off when they read, but the temptation to turn off our brains and just absorb whats on the tube is not the best idea. We need to control our televisions and our internets and ourselves.

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  8. I don't disagree that television viewing should be limited, although not for the reason that Williamson provides.

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  9. I am pretty sure that God will punish us for Maury and Judge Judy...or, are they the punishment

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