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October 29, 2006Joel Stein makes me want to mother himJoel Stein is the infant terrible of the LA Times, who once wrote a column so intellectually sloppy and morally confused that you can’t even find it anymore in the LA Times archives. He took a lot of heat for it, and deservedly so. Stein is a product of his era, and both Vanderleun and Gagdad Bob have done brilliant jobs of explaining what that means, so I don’t have to. Suffice to say self-obsessed, irony-laden and perpetually adolescent only begin to define Stein’s rather lost generation. Now there is a growing kerfuffle developing over Stein’s column of October 17, wherein he describes Christianity (to which he admits he has extremely limited exposure or understanding) as a “death cult.” His column has some Christians fuming and feeling insulted, but I read it and thought the piece was by turns sad, mildly amusing, childish, self-deprecating and - ultimately - sad, again. I am also sad to see the Christians so quick to carry on about wounded sensibilities, so quick to jump on the victimology train that has so been careening so destructively through our nation for the past 20-or-so years. If anyone should be able to “take” Stein’s column, it should be the Christian. The truth is, while Stein hasn’t the vocabulary or the understanding behind it, he did clue into the fact that Christianity - like Judaism - is a blood religion, with blood being at the very core of the “old” and “new” Covenants God has made with his people. In his limited comprehension, which is further weakened by his inability to quite be serious and grown up about anything, Stein calls this the “death cult:” In fact, I’d never realized how much of a death cult Christianity is. When we weren’t fixating on how awesome Christ’s murder was, we were singing about how terrific it was going to be when we bite it. The fact is, we Christians do focus extensively on Christ’s extraordinary Passion and what it means to us, both in the large sense (within the whole pageant of redemption) and in the smaller, more personal sense wherein we are able to see the Suffering Servant and understand that nothing human is unknown to Him. We do sing songs about the time when His Kingdom shall reign, and our own glorification. Stein’s column is full of adolescent words rendered even more childish by his need to be effervescently light on even the heaviest of issues. Flippancy is a skill that is used to great effect when one wishes to remain detached from things and people - it is the tool of the terrified or the insecure. As such, Stein’s musings deserve not teeth-baring scorn, but a gentle reproof and an offer to clarify. Read Stein’s whole piece. He ends on what could have been a poignant note - he almost (almost) allows himself to get a little serious, to examine what it might mean to him to be a person of faith were he not so committed to post-modernism. It is only a brief few words and then he stalls the thought by once again hiding behind flippancy. Just as I couldn’t see getting nuts over Madonna’s latest crucifixion or the Da Vinci Code, I can’t see getting too worked up about Stein’s column. Back then I wrote: The job of the Christian is to hold fast in the face of chaos and to recall that Christ is more powerful than any man or media, and that darkness does not overcome light. To be honest, all the fretting from us Christians is a bit unseemly. If we are secure in what we believe, a cartoon does not take us down, no matter how perverse and offensive, because Christ is alive, and Grace abounds, and because just as an Abbess or Abbot is entitled to use whatever resources his or her community contains to advance the stability of the abbey, the Holy Spirit has a way of confounding us by using what is out there in the world - sometimes very surprising things and people - to do the will of the One. Stein is making fun of himself in his column, as much as he is Christianity which he admits he does not understand. I believe he is actually being as respectful as he knows how to be. So, in response, should we Christians descend into the hotheaded Valley of Hurt Feelings populated by hyper-sensitive feminists and frenzied Islamists, wherein every joke, every satire, every stupid (or plain ignorant) thing written or said about Christianity is worth declaring a sort of Jihad? I can’t see the point. The reality of Christ is so much greater than Stein’s 700 word column, or his childish need to giggle through life. Applaud Stein for worrying that taking communion at this Presbyterian service might insult his friends and their worship. Applaud him for wondering (for probably the space of time it took him to write the words) what it would be like to believe, and then pray for the kid…because it sounds like he could use prayers, and maybe he and the rest of the world could use the example of Christians who love instead of Christians who wander around with metaphorical knives between their teeth, attuned to every insult. We’re going to be insulted. We’re going to be hated. Christ told us that. And he showed us how to deal with it, too. It did not involve pissing and moaning and a demand for apologies or jobs. Some Christians are complaining that Stein’s “blood cult” remark equates Christians with Islamofascists…I disagree. If anything, the angry responses of the Christians themselves are begging the comparison with the hotheads of Cartoon-rage. We don’t want to go there. As we have seen throughout the world, there be monsters. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love…” Remember that old song? It was a stinker of a hymn, but St. Paul was right…this is how our community must be known, or what is the point? If the Christian Community becomes just one more group of aggrieved complainers who demand retribution for an insult - who have lost the grace to transcend what is hurtful and render it both powerless and productive - then what is the point? I almost wish I could take Stein into my family for a while, and let him be precisely who he is, and encourage him to ask questions and drink his milk and tell him he mustn’t write on the walls. I would like him to spend a little time talking metal bands and metaphysics with my deep-thinking, kind and brilliant Elder Son and talking Marvin Gaye and the common sense approach to faith that Buster lives. I’d like to see what his idea of Christians and Christianity-in-general would be after spending a while with my tirelessly-volunteering husband, who sees all service as serving Christ. I’d like to see the column he might write after that. Love trumps flippancy, every time. Stein has not written something mean-spirited here. He simply does not understand. Our job is to love him, and to mean it. http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/10/29/joel-stein-makes-me-want-to-mother-him/trackback/ 12 Responses to “Joel Stein makes me want to mother him” |
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October 29th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Anchoress — for those of us out here (Christian-conservatives) that have the Los Angeles Times as their daily rag, the Joel Stein column is a weekly reminder that maybe we really should call and cancel our subscription after all.
Mostly, each Stein column simply illustrates the contempt and patronization of its readership by the paper’s editorial staff. As I wrote on 10/19 in response to Joel’s anti-Christian screed:
“And, more’s the pity for that. What’s really pathetic is that the major West Coast newspaper thought that this was worth giving space. I’d almost rather have another Johnathan Chait column . . .”
October 29th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
A perpetual adolescent who prefers glib put-downs to comprehension, and who appears to lack the gift of the seeking for God (or suppresses it to be cool and up-to-date).
Not sure whether love can solve that defect, but if it comes from anger, then maybe it could.
October 29th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
[…] I was pointed toward a column by Joel Stein in the LA Times called, An Atheist Tries Jesus - Los Angeles Times by The Anchoress. […]
October 29th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I’m not a Christian myself, but don’t see much excuse for people like Stein. Re your comments about flippancy, I’m reminded of Lord Wavell’s thoughts about sarcasm, which is closely related. Wavell defined sarcasm as “being clever at someone else’s expense,” and that it is “always resented and seldom forgiven,” and he went on to say that the use of sarcasm by a general was much more destructive than explosions of temper.
October 29th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Just In Time For Halloween
The dead have arisen–and they’re still not voting Republican! (Sorry Bart.) Maybe Harold Ford can chart the eschatological implications of this development… Update: Or maybe we could ask Joel Stein of The L.A. Times for his take….
October 30th, 2006 at 5:24 am
I can’t get all incensed over Stein’s column simple because it was so badly written. Who gave that boy a job at the LA Times for goodness sake? He is a terrible writer! I’ve seen pre-adolescents who can express themselves better.
October 30th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Sorry, Anchoress, but my job is to mock Joel Stein, and those like him, and mean it!
Sorry, Anchoress, but my job is to mock Joel Stein, and those like him, and mean it!
October 30th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Good spanking, Anchoress!
This reminds me of something that the Apostle Paul told the Ephesians, mainly,
Jeol Stein reminds me of a character in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress named… Ignorance. His end was not very good, I must say.
October 30th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Anchoress, I found you through Powerline when you were the blog of the week, and you are now one of my favorites. You write beautifully, and you are a great example of a person of logic and faith (many would snicker at their self-determined contradiction in that statement).
As a christian, I agree with you whole-heartedly. Columns like Stein’s would never receive a response from me. I can understand why someone might be irritated and feel the need to respond, but I feel that responding serves no purpose really. I’m not sure even a gentle reproof is warranted because I don’t feel a person like Stein is really interested in learning or exploring faith. He is interested in backing up his own views and keeping his reputation for sarcastic wit healthy. Well, he succeeded on both goals, I suppose.
As you say Anchoress, as long as one is confident in Christ, things like this should just roll off.
May God bless Joel Stein.
And may God bless you Anchoress. You do a great job! Thanks.
October 30th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I find that the longer I spend visiting with The Anchoress, the more closely I find myself aligning with my Catholic faith and values, which makes her a blessing in MY life and the life of anyone she encounters, which means that Mr. Stein really should become her “child” for a couple of years.
November 3rd, 2006 at 9:34 am
[…] Right before Halloween, before John Kerry single-handedly sucked all the oxygen out of the Northern Hemisphere, The Anchoress wrote about a Joel Stein article that has really stayed with me. In his article, Stein describes Christianity as a “death cult.” He admits up front in the article that he himself has limited experience or knowledge of Christianity - so of course, in the warped and snarky mindset of Modern Journalism, that makes him an expert! That aside, The Anchoress proceeds to unravel his lame and unfocused article to the point that we see what Stein really is….a little boy. During that journey, we read His column has some Christians fuming and feeling insulted, but I read it and thought the piece was by turns sad, mildly amusing, childish, self-deprecating and - ultimately - sad, again. I am also sad to see the Christians so quick to carry on about wounded sensibilities, so quick to jump on the victimology train that has so been careening so destructively through our nation for the past 20-or-so years. If anyone should be able to “take” Stein’s column, it should be the Christian. […]
December 28th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
[…] Wherein I submit to a journalistic grilling, decide to mother someone, and later relate something personal. […]