FACES AND PLACES: "Externals" and the new iconoclasts (03/05/06)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

"Externals" and the new iconoclasts

In his Christmastide letter of January 29, Father Michael Fill dismisses my concern with Christmas "externals" in one of my recent columns as unimportant.

He argues that Christians ought to focus on living Jesus' message of love rather than in quibbling about manger scenes and Christmas trees in the public square.

"We will then have 'grown up,' " he writes, " 'matured in Christ' knowing that Jesus is not born in the town square, not in the homeroom, not in the Christmas program (all of which are nice) but more importantly, 'born in us this day.' "

Father Fill is right. Ours would be a hollow faith indeed if it only consisted of externals. We need to practice our faith, to love others as we love ourselves, to cherish the less fortunate in our midst. In addition to good works, however, some of us need symbols provided by the Church, spiritual gifts such as icons, stained glass windows, rosaries, carols, molebens, hymns, holy cards, religious traditions, and the bells and smells of liturgies to remind us of who we are. I treasure these religious "externals." I was brought up with them, and they are an integral part of my Christian life.

There was a time, of course, when religious veneration of "externals," icons in particular, was frowned upon, even punished by some early leaders of the Christian Church. Several bishops of the Byzantine Church condemned icons, relics and similar representations of the faith as forms of idolatry, the breaking of the second commandment against worship of graven images. Byzantine Emperor Leo III published a decree in 730 forbidding Christians to continue the practice. Those who resisted, especially monks, were persecuted. Monasteries were destroyed, monks were executed, tortured or banished.

The Western Church condemned these "iconoclasts" as heretics. In 731 Pope Gregory III held a synod of 93 bishops in Rome during which it was decreed that all persons who broke, defiled or stole images of Christ, or his Mother, the Apostles or other saints were subject to excommunication. Veneration of icons was finally re-approved by the Eastern Church in 787 when Empress Irene convened the Second Council of Nicea (Seventh Ecumenical Council). The council made a distinction between the veneration given to icons because they are images of God or holy persons, and adoration which is due to God alone.

Some Christian historians now believe that the rise of iconoclasm in the East was due to the influence of Islam, which even today condemns (to death in some cases) any representation of Mohammed. The Islamic Taliban went as far as destroying devotional images of other groups. In 2001, for example, they obliterated the centuries-old Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan.

The Puritan followers of John Calvin promoted the destruction of Catholic works of art, claiming they were idols. Father Fill mentions that Puritans in Boston outlawed the celebration of Christmas suggesting that we shouldn't romanticize "the good old days (for perhaps they really were not)." Father neglects to mention that, in contrast, the older Jamestown settlement did celebrate Christmas. In any case, my "good old days" did not begin with the Puritans.

Although Christmas was not recognized as an official federal holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870, our founding fathers were not atheists. God the Creator is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution forbids Congress from "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion.

As articulated by our founders, the United States was established as "one nation under God." George Washington held that it "was the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God." John Adams believed that "our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other ..." "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," Thomas Jefferson proclaimed. "Here is my creed," declared Benjamin Franklin, "I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe."

Symbols continue to remind us of our patrimony. Moses and the Ten Commandments are honored on the Supreme Court Building, in the Library of Congress and the U.S. Capitol. The Capitol also has statues of Father Damian of Molokai, Father Marquette and Mother Joseph, as well as medallions of St. Louis, Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX. The same Capitol has a small chapel where senators and representatives meet to pray. Congressional sessions begin with a prayer.

In the words of New York University law professor Noah Feldman, people think that official symbols do matter because they are a proxy for the most fundamental question affecting Christian legal theory, namely, "whether religious values should inform public policy choices or rather should remain a private matter, irrelevant to the state's public decisions and the public reason that justifies it."

And it is precisely these official symbols that America's current crop of iconoclasts seeks to obliterate. As Daniel Peres points out in "Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless," one of the first "externals" the Bolsheviks tried to eliminate were those associated with Christmas. Get rid of the true symbols of Christmas in the United States and what comes next? The phrase "under God" in the "Pledge of Allegiance," "In God We Trust" on American currency, prayer in Congress, tax-free Churches, Thanksgiving Day, the wearing of crosses by public servants, Bible study groups on public property, the acceptance of Darwinism as fact and intelligent design as fiction, are all part of the national discussion today.

Like it or not, America is in the throes of a culture war. It is not a war begun by the so-called "religious right" of which, contrary to Father Fill's assertion, I am not a member. Nor is John Gibson, author of "The War on Christmas," who in his book mentions that he "was raised outside the Church ..."

The first shots of this war were fired by the secular left that continues to ever so "righteously" undermine our religio-cultural society under the mantra of "sensitivity to all." All, that is, except Christians.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: [email protected].

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