Lex Credendi: Liturgy is Not Enough

Last month, I wrote about the identity-bearing narratives used by white nationalists, especially co-opting certain elements of Romanticism, to build up a mythology of white male superiority. I suggested that the Church has a better narrative and better rituals which expose the violent lies of white nationalism:

The Church has better rituals than the racists. Ours are Good, True, and Beautiful. Our rituals are means of grace, by which God is present in our midst. The Holy Spirit hovers over the water in our baptismal font. Our Risen Lord meets us on the Altar Table. 

When the Church celebrates the Divine Service of the Holy Eucharist, we re-tell the grand narrative that God created the world and has redeemed humanity from our own demonic actions. We re-live our forgiveness and reconciliation, we greet each other as equals with a sign of God's peace, and we are re-membered into the one everlasting Body of Christ. And then we are sent forth in peace to serve the Lord.

I stand by what I said. The Sacraments, and the liturgy by which we celebrate them, are means of grace, and through them, God is continuing to redeem the cosmos.

Upon further reflection, though, I feel I must concede an ugly truth: racism lives on, even in liturgical traditions. The most pressing example is Dylan Roof, the terrorist who martyred nine black Christians in Charleston, SC. Roof was raised in a Lutheran (ELCA) congregation -- and one just a few miles from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.

More broadly, the Roman Catholic Church still has its dark corners. During the 2016 campaign, a leaked e-mail from a Democratic operative claimed that many GOP members were Catholics because they were "attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations" and the Roman Church is "the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion." And while I know too many progressive faithful Catholics to believe that the Catholic Church is "politically conservative" (rather, like the entire Church, Catholicism defies human political binaries), there is a disturbing truth to the leaked letter.

Consider Rudy Giulliani and Newt Gingrich, Catholics who treat the Church as a useful political tool but seem to be unconcerned with any of the Church's teachings on fidelity in marriage, the death penalty, or care for the poor.

More to the point, though, consider Milo Yiannopolous, a leading voice against women's rights and Islam. (To the point of my previous post, he took on the name of the German composer Wagner.) Yiannopolous claims to be a practicing Catholic.

More terrifying examples abound on the fringes of Rome, in movements that have been excommunicated. Antisemitism runs rampant in the "traditionalist" Latin-only organizations like the Society of Saint Pius X and its own break-away group, the Society of Saint Pius V.

Things get even weirder when you look at some of the Facebook pages dedicated to Eastern Orthodoxy. Mixed in with the videos of the Divine Liturgy and pictures of monks are dire warnings about the scourge of Islam, praises of Putin and the new Russian nationalism, and other troubling signs of European ethnic supremacy.

Certain groups embrace Catholicism and Orthodoxy not only because they are "socially acceptable" but because they play into the mythos of white nationalism. A small faction co-opts the beauty of the liturgical tradition and the violent medieval and Renaissance history of Rome and Constantinople.

Crusaders Entering Constantinople
Gustave Dore, 19th cent.

We've seen this before: 19th century British Romanticism saw both a recovery of the Catholic liturgy alongside a glorification of images of crusading knights, both as ways of bolstering British colonial attitudes. Neo-gothic parishes and cathedrals soared alongside stylized depictions of King Richard the Lionheart. Crusade language is not uncommon. They play up the imagery of Constantinople -- and Kiev and Moscow -- as the last lines of defense against the "Turks." They play up the imagery of a Holy Roman Empire fighting a holy war against invaders -- from Eastern Europe, from North Africa, from the Levant.

In short, there is a terrifying move to use the beautiful solemnity of the liturgy as a veneer for racism, to radicalize young men in the Church.

I have long been an advocate for the phrase lex orandi, lex credendi -- the law of prayer, the law of belief. What we say and do during the Mass shapes our faith. I still hold to this. But it is not enough -- or, more correctly, we need to follow through with the second half of the saying.

All too often, we settle for aesthetic liturgy devoid of any sense of orthodoxy. We leave our praxis at in the pews and at the Altar, rather than going out to live in the world as the Body of Christ.

To expose the powers and principalities that would corrupt the Church and its liturgy, we must be clear in our theology. We must be willing to label sin and evil, to point them out. We must be able to point to the Creeds and Scripture, do a doctrine of Creation, that dismantles racism. We must be able to explain what it means when we continually quote the First Epistle of Saint John, that "God is love." Those of us with the unenviable task of climbing into the pulpit must be willing to address the horror of sin, evil, and death -- not as obstacles to holistic living, but as forces that oppose God. Teachers must be catechists, willing to dissect what it means to "renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God" and to "put your whole trust in [Christ's] grace and love."

And then, we must be willing to actually go in peace and serve the Lord. The dismissal is not some polite suggestion. It's part of what makes us an apostolic Church: that we are sent out to prepare the way of the Lord. It's not vain repetition -- unless we fail to heed the commandment.

If we fail to believe what we do, we risk treating the Divine Service like a facade, a hollow structure used to hide the ugliness underneath. God has given us the Sacraments as means of grace to transform that ugliness, not hide it.

Song of a People: Narrative, Liturgy, and the Horror of Resurgent White Nationalism

Jonathan Aigner at Ponder Anew offers this reflection on how "contemporary" worship commodified and marketed to reach certain "target demographics" has created a self-centered Church unwilling and unable to see through the lies and greed of the Trump campaign:

Being a Christian isn’t about simply improved personal behavior in the pursuit of a happier existence. No, God wants changed lives that change the world around them. The ancient principle of lex orandi, lex credendi (“as we worship, so we believe”) holds true. If your corporate worship is self-serving, self-indulgent, and self-absorbed, the kind of disciples you create are going to be narcissistic and masturbatory, finding fulfillment in the satiation of their anxieties and desires.
No wonder a self-serving narcissist won the white evangelical vote.
[...]
Me-worship ignores the evil and oppression in the world. True worship acknowledges the anger, and the violence, and the hatred, and the injustice, and the crap in the world around us.

He's on to something here, but perhaps more than he intended.

In President-elect Trump's unquenchable desire for victory, he opened a crack into a dark cave. His rhetoric and willful use of lies and misinformation created the perfect place for white nationalists to come roaring through. Sure, there's some of the old guard Stormfront crowd. David Duke is still around. But there's a group of men about my age who have taken up the swastika as well.

If you haven't seen it already, take the time to watch The Atlantic's video of the white nationalist gathering in DC.

It's among the most terrifying videos of a grotesque campaign cycle.

Yes, the newly-elected administration has denounced the gathering, but our president-elect has reserved his harshest condemnations for Saturday Night Live and Hamilton.

These are the people that Steve Bannon has tried to court over at Breitbart.

One of my darkest secrets is that I understand the appeal of white nationalism. Let me be very clear here: I am not now, nor have I ever been, associated with a white nationalist group nor subscribed to a white nationalist ideology. I have seen too many slave cabins and concentration camps and too many pictures of lynched men to ever believe that the Klan or Nazis offer anything of real value to the world. Despite the violence, I get the draw and even feel the beginning nudges of temptation as white nationalists play down the racism and play up the romantic notion of mythic origin. I'm not suggesting that white nationalist narrative endeavors are good (quite the opposite) but instead that they are effective.

The racism that drives white nationalism is undeniably violent, and that violence moves from the verbal to the physical. Racial slurs lead to lynching and Kristallnacht.

And they dress it up so well.

Neuschwanstein
Inspired by Wagner's Lohengrin

As a young man, a socially awkward introvert who has a hard time connecting to people and is interested in Romanticism, mythology, and liturgy, I remember fondly my time in Germany. The ever-present castles the dot the hills haunt my imagination. The Bavarian countryside, with its Alpine backdrop, is among the most sublime landscapes I've seen. I've toured King Ludwig's Wagnerian palace, Neuschwanstein; it is truly impressive. Mythology is powerful, and it pulls on the heart as much as the mind. I get why someone would place Germany at the center of a white nationalist mythos. I get the appeal of a story of belonging and identity built around grand mythological imagery.

Consider the Nuremberg Rallies -- what are they if not cultural liturgies on a horrifyingly grand scale? Hitler and his brood were able to dress up their hatred and violence behind a narrative of belonging and nationhood. They disguised their acts of destruction as grand works of creation.

Yes, white nationalists use pseudo-scientific concepts to form an intellectual base, but a misappropriation of genetics and sociology will only get you so far. White nationalism appeals as much to pathos as to logos, and for that, you need a mythic narrative.

They also told a story of a grand nation that was destined for greatness and domination. It wasn't the eugenic theory that attracted German attention. It was the romantic imagery of German nation, paraded through the most picturesque German villages and with a moving symphonic score. And then -- and here's the master stroke -- they gave people a way to re-create this story, to re-live the new mythology.

Which brings us back to the present. The new white nationalists (they call themselves the "Alt Right," but don't let them hide behind a new name; call them what they are: racists) are trying to build up their new mythology, and they're taking the old conservative talking points to do it: that America is a white, European nation built on the genius of Anglo-Saxon culture. That Trump has opened the door for white nationalists to re-take what they believe to be theirs.

Of course, we know this to be false. We know the bloody history of our nation, from the attempted genocide of the native population and the enslavement of countless Africans over the centuries, to the work of Asian immigrants in building the railroads and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. We know that some of the best aspects of our culture are rooted in immigration from all over the world.

And we know that behind the new face of white nationalism is the same old violence of the old Klan.

But they are dressing it up so well. Richard Spencer is not your average skinhead. He's not some redneck hick, teeth falling out from meth, as he burns a cross. His academic pedigree includes UVA, UChicago, and Duke, and he is impeccably well-dressed, hair pristine and in a three-piece suit. He has a "think tank" in DC with an official sounding name. He calls his movement "Alt Right" rather than what it really is: a new form of fascism supported by the old forms of white racism.

This is not the guy with the confederate flag flying off the back of his pick-up; this is someone selling the image of a metropolitan white nationalism.

He and his ilk are telling a story that racism can build up a new order.

They're lying, but they are learning to lie well.

Which is exactly why they are so dangerous.

And this brings us back to the piece from Ponder Anew.

"Adoration of the Mysitic Lamb" from the Ghent Altarpiece

The Church has a better story than the racists. Ours is Good, True, and Beautiful. Our story is one where even destruction is overturned. Ours is one in which God Almighty looks with favor upon the least of these. Ours is one that offers release to captives, words of lament and comfort for those who mourn, and calls transgressors to true repentance. Ours is one in which Death itself is defeated.

The Church has better rituals than the racists. Ours are Good, True, and Beautiful. Our rituals are means of grace, by which God is present in our midst. The Holy Spirit hovers over the water in our baptismal font. Our Risen Lord meets us on the Altar Table.

When the Church celebrates the Divine Service of the Holy Eucharist, we re-tell the grand narrative that God created the world and has redeemed humanity from our own demonic actions. We re-live our forgiveness and reconciliation, we greet each other as equals with a sign of God's peace, and we are re-membered into the one everlasting Body of Christ. And then we are sent forth in peace to serve the Lord.

But when the Church ignores that story -- when it opts instead to offer a "message" on the role of emotional vulnerability in building up healthy communities rather than preaching Christ crucified and risen -- when it opts to ignore the world-building narrative arc of the catholic liturgy in favor of a rock concert -- when it chooses to chase the world's view of success rather than the assured victory of Christ's Resurrection -- when the Church fails to be the Church, it forsakes what is Good, True, and Beautiful.

Consider the failures of theological liberalism during both World Wars -- blessing tanks for Kaiser Wilhelm in 1914 and letting Nazism run rampant in the 1930s. Consider the failure of fundamentalism in the Jim Crow era, shunning the long march towards freedom and reconciliation.

When the Church shuns its grand narrative, when it shuns true Christian identity as the Body of Christ for the world, it yields room to other, far more sinister stories to creep in.

Praise be to God for the faithful remnant in every age that has called the Church to repentance and continued to proclaim the Gospel of our Risen Lord.

The Church survived under the thumb of Rome. It endured Nazi Germany. It led the way forward through the Civil Rights movement. Too many fell away during these times; too many failed. But even while so many of us failed, the Church kept doing the work that God has called us for. Now, in this age, we face a similar choice: we can fail or we keep re-telling and re-living the same story that has ushered us through the ages.

White nationalism and racism can be well-dressed, either in Hugo Boss or a three-piece suit. It can co-opt beauty for use as propaganda. It's amazing what depravity can be hidden beneath a thin veneer.

But by the grace of God, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church will prevail. Our liturgies will prevail because God is present in them. The Body of Christ will be resplendent in our baptismal garb. And at the fullness of time, at the end of the age, Christ's story will win the day.

Now, kindred, let us go out and tell the world the Good News as we live into the story that God has been telling from the foundation of the world.