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Preaching to Post-Pubescent Pagans Lower your expectations but don’t give up by william j. o’malley ’ve taught Christian apologetics to senior boys for 41 years. What works is an intelligent challenge to the firmly held but misguided truisms of the young. Trying to sell the self-surrender of the cross to an audience brainwashed since infancy to self-absorption is like trying to sell the idea of Israel to an al-Qaeda platoon.
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So how do you turn dyed-in-the-wool, good-hearted pagans into soldiers of Christ? Even the best have almost impregnable certitudes, like: Money, fame, sex and power guarantee happiness; You can feel innocent until you are proven guilty; Homosexuals choose their sexuality; If she wants it as much as you do, who’s getting hurt? Despite years of Catholic education, they don’t know what genuine Christianity entails. In the worst cases, it means being a sap. Moving up, it means being “un-bad,” avoiding sin, eluding Big Brother God. In more gratifying cases, it means kindness, care for outcasts, service projects. But that doesn’t reach even the outskirts of Christianity. The symbol encapsulating Christianity is a crucifix, a corpse utterly drained in order to lift the unresponsive into hyper-aliveness, God-life muttering, “Father, forgive. They don’t know what they’re doing.” Boys I’ve taught in Rochester, the Bronx, England and Australia are not ready for that. Neither were men or women at Georgetown and Boston College. Preach to an audience whose preconceptions you ignore, and you need no enemies.
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Many hate religious education. Studies by Harvard’s Lawrence Kohlberg show adolescents simply can’t comprehend what might motivate celibacy or martyrdom. The best one can hope for in them is an internalized sense of law and order and a comprehension of reciprocity: If I know the agony of hunger, loneliness, pain, what’s inside that bag lady? If we achieve that, we’re doing just fine. So how do you approach the impossible: turning dyed-to-themarrow, good-hearted pagans into soldiers of Christ? First, lower your expectations. Jesus himself wasn’t too successful selling the same message to his first students. He taught with stories whose message was inescapable. We don’t. Second, they are cunning in their arguments and yet simpleminded in the understanding of those arguments. They think any adult who claims a fuller grasp of the facts is arrogant. Many cherish the certitude: My opinion’s as good as anyone else’s. So in preaching, begin with epistemology: What validates opinions? Only the objective facts. Whatever my opinion, fire burns, rape degrades, cyanide is toxic. Give questionnaires, assign noholds-barred reflections. Only then can you anticipate their specious arguments. Intelligent emergent-adults don’t want to be coddled or indoctrinated. They want to be challenged. We’ve known that since Socrates. But we forget. William J. O’Malley, S.J., the author of many books, teaches theology and English at Fordham Preparatory School, New York City. Reprinted with permission from Eucharistic Ministries, October 2003. Copyright 2003 by NCR Publishing Company.
boston college | c 21 resources | winter 2 0 0 4
Of Myths, Mermaids and Girls Some thoughts on nurturing the spirituality of adolescent Catholic girls by janet clausen and marilyn kielbasa NCE UPON A TIME....” With these words, the power of story comes alive for children whose imaginations are the doorway to identity and meaning in life. Whether read aloud or viewed on the wide screen of Disney’s media kingdom, the myths of childhood can be a healthy aspect of development. On the other hand, these myths can be problematic—especially if you’re a girl. Of all the fairy tales popular with today’s generation of girls and young women, few are as beloved as The Little Mermaid. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale but liberally revised by the Disney studios for an animated version, it is a classic example of an age-old formula: maidens without mothers who find meaning in life only through a man. But the plot of this particular myth is a metaphor for the reality that today’s girls face in a culture that devalues their experience, silences their voices and promotes loss of self in pursuit of beauty, boys and being nice. Ariel is a strong-willed, 15-year-old mermaid with an inquisitive mind, a well-developed body and a beguiling voice. She falls in love with a human prince. Despite the admonitions of her father and her bodyguards, she finds her way to the cave of the ugly, evil sea witch named Ursula. There Ursula tempts Ariel by suggesting that all she needs to win the kiss of true love is her “body language.” Declaring that men don’t listen to women anyway, and “it’s she who holds her tongue that gets her man,” Ursula persuades Ariel to strike a Faustian bargain with her: relinquish her voice, give up her family and change her body to get her man.
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By examining The Little Mermaid under the microscope of media literacy, we can open the eyes of girls to the power and negative influence of cultural myths. They come to understand that as they are bombarded with messages promoting beauty over brains and feminine wile over authentic self-esteem, they are actually being encouraged to give up their voices. Multiple studies, from Carol Gilligan’s In A Different Voice to the Girl Scouts of America’s report, Girls Speak Out, have confirmed that the myth of the mermaid is a reality today. The Girl Scout study revealed that girls as young as eight have taken its messages to heart. Consider these statements from girls who are in third and fourth grades: ■
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The perfect girl is stylish, very pretty and acts nice. Everybody likes her. Sometimes I feel ugly. I wonder if I should use makeup. Well, it’s like if you’re cute and everything, people just like you better.
“Being liked” is high on the priority list of girls, who evaluate their lives in terms of relationships. But a quick review of pop culture reveals that the price paid for popularity is great. Advertisers present images of young women with bodies that are nearly impossible to achieve. In recovery for an eating disorder, a high school junior from the South wrote, “I remember always thinking that other people, especially guys, would look at me in a different way if I gained a single pound.” And a thousand miles away in the Midwest, an insightful 15-yearold remarked, “We are made to feel unimportant because of materialistic things. There is such a high demand for the perfect look and face that an inner self can be—and usually is—lost.”