Socially Acceptable Madnesses

Once, when the world was young, and when I was a holy man held in check by a clergy collar and crucifixed chain, I subscribed to a series of books called, "Luther's Works".   I collected more than fifty of those red-covered volumes, and read them for the translated secrets of the 16th century.  I recall thinking, one day while trying to follow Luther's logic through to his conclusions, that it took almost a physical determination to get my head squeezed into such a shape that it could accommodate 16th century assumptions before the text made sense.  The moment I relaxed, the whole point drifted off.

It happened, a few years later, that I sold the whole lot of those books to a college student for about the price of a pizza.

There is a splendid article in today's New York Times about an exhibition of artifacts from the Dead Sea.  At about the time I traded Luther's Works for a pizza, I tried to read the early translations of some of the Dead Sea scrolls.  Oh, my good Lord!  While it had been necessarily only to wrap my head in stout elastic bands to try to think like a 16th century religious reformer, I practically had to invest in a hand-carved, wooden head vise to try to make sense of what the Essenes of the 1st century B.C. were saying.  I recall thinking that, were I actually to think the way they did, today, there would be no reason not to call me stark, raving mad; that I could as well hear voices, or describe a world filled with critters and assumptions that would make people cross to the other side of the street, were I to tell them.

Another article, on the front page of the Minneapolis Star-Trbune, reports that Minneapolis-St. Paul is among the top ten cities in the United State in attracting well-educated, young people.  It is not an article about racial diversity, but the lead photo is of a gorgeous woman of Asian descent.

Because I was born when the world was young, although after both the Essenes and Martin Luther, I can recall precisely how many Asians and Black classmates I had before I went to college:  none.

That was a different world, too; almost another universe.  I had not had to wear elastic bands or a head vise to live in that world.  Diversity for us had to do with knowing people who went to the Catholic church, and having a neighbor with an Italian name.

Sometimes, when I listen to politicians talk about America as a Christian nation, or to neighbors who assume that God wants them to get rich, I wonder whether there might be an Apple app that would make it easy to wrap myself in the religious or racial assumptions that support their conclusions.

There are no fixed lines between yesterday's reality and today's madness.  An Essene, handing out tracts at our front doors, would make Jehovah's Witnesses or Moonies or Mormons sound almost sane.

We are slow to look very closely at what must be going on to believe what we do believe.  By almost any standard, yesterday's religious assumptions are almost indistinguishable from today's psychological madness.  Instead, we hang on to them, trim them, and try to tame them.  "Oh, we don't really mean what it says!", we say, except when we do.

Wrestled with any angels lately?  Fearful of going to hell?  Do you plan to inhabit a planet all your own when you die?  Has God urged you to run for County Commissioner, or the Church Council?  What was that about the Mark of Cain, again?  Does God really have a Chosen People?

There are socially acceptable madnesses.