This is a reflection on the current crises we are experiencing in our politics and our culture. I apologize for its length.
THE PANDEMIC OF SELF-GLORIFICATION
Back in the late 1980’s, there was a great amount of interest in Satanism/Black Magick (not to be confused with the White Magick of the Wiccans). This attraction can be attributed to a number of things and events at the time, everywhere from a naivete “Red light Green light hope to see a ghost tonight” mentality, pop culture, and entertainments especially amongst adolescents to those seriously exploring this area of supernatural life. The lives, works, and rituals of renowned Satanists, e.g. Aleister Crowley, were in demand. There was an increase in the number of grave desecrations in Minnesota, and many articles written in the daily newspapers about the topic, including the Minnesota Monthly. One of the greatest concentrations of of witches covens was in Minneapolis/St Paul during this time (I don’t know if that is currently true). I had a good friend who was a public school art teacher who told me he once experimented with Black Magick/Satanism while as an art major at the University. He got out of it when the things that were supposed to happen actually began to happen. Frightened, he left the occult life altogether and, at the time we knew each other, was a very devout evangelical Christian.
At the time, I felt the need to know more about this subject, so I did a copious amount of research. My own children were growing up during this period of history and as a responsible parent and working in parish ministry, I thought it important to be informed.
At this time (essentially the Reagan Era of the ’80’s), along with this increased fascination with Black Religious practices, there was also occurring the glorification of the self, making one’s own self-interests primary in life with the exclusion of the needs of others. This was documented in the scholarly study “Habits of the Heart” in which it was found that the individualism that marked what was great about the United States, e.g. the common good was greater and more important than the individual good, was being replaced with an individualism that ignored the common good and glorified the needs of the individual. From that time to our own present time, the common good of all Americans has been jettisoned as garbage, while the glorified self has become all the more prominent.
Is Self-Glorification synonymous with Satanism? No, that would be like the Church Lady from SNL trying to equate the word, Santa, with Satan (illustrated by the rearrangement of the letters in the word, Santa). One can self-glorify without belonging to a coven or doing Satanic ritual.
So, what does Self-glorification share with Satanism? The common denominator is that Self becomes God. It is the worship of Oneself. It is the worship of “Me”.
In Satanism, the basic tenet of faith is that the one to be worshiped is not Satan, it is one’s own Self. The Self is God. The highest feast day of the year is one’s personal birthday (a twisted, dark kind of Christmas). All the other occult feast days are less important. The practices, rituals, sacrifices are performed to coerce Satan to do the bidding of the Self. In essence, one uses the power of Satan to advance Oneself. To go back to the book of Genesis, what was it that expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? They wanted to elevate themselves to be God. Satan, in the guise of the serpent, tells them to become God they must eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. As we know full well, they did and quickly found out that they were NOT God.
In our present time, we are experiencing the effects of the glorification of the Self. More so than in other times, there is an obsessive cult of celebrity in our culture. It is pandemic. It is visible in check-out counter reading material, or on the television and radio. As the artist, Andy Warhol, once said, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. More serious is the cult of celebrity present in the Halls of Congress, the Cabinet, and, tragically for our nation, in the White House. At the funeral of President George H.W. Bush, when all present were praying the Apostles Creed, only one person refused to pray. The “leader of our nation” kept his mouth shut, the creed hanging statically at his side.
We do not need to host a show on radio or television, perform on stage or screen, write books, be elected to public office etc to fall prey to the cult of celebrity. Do we not to some degree feel the desire to self-worship, to glorify ourselves? It is pandemic on and in all areas of our lives. We can see it evident in our communities, our places of work, in our own homes and even in our places of worship.
In direct contrast to this self-worship, cult of celebrity of our present time, is the person of Jesus. He made it clear that his mission on earth was not one of self-glorification. The self-servicing ethic of the cult of celebrity did not play any part in Jesus’ mission to humanity. He ran away from those who tried to force celebrity status upon him (Note: in John’s Gospel, after the feeding of the 5000, he fled and hid from those who wanted to make him King.) He made it abundantly clear that he came to serve, not be served. Even as he approached his own execution, he prayed that it was God’s will, not his will, that must be done. As the Servant of God, he refused to elevate his own Self, and chose to empty himself of his own Self. He then commanded those who are his disciples to do the same.
This is extremely pertinent to those who are religious leaders. Pope Francis warns against the sin of clericalism in the Roman Catholic Church. Clericalism is a form of self-glorification. It seems that in the last 20 years, there has been a restoration of clericalism in the formation of priests and deacons . I haven’t seen so many black cassocks (something to which I refer as clerical cross-dressing), birettas, and other unnecessary clerical accessories as I do in some of those recently ordained as priests and deacons. As a Roman Catholic Deacon, I am allowed to wear clerics (clergy shirt and collar, something I refer to it as wearing my flea and tick collar). I wear clerics only when absolutely necessary. A simple deacon’s cross is generally the extent of my clerical ensemble. At Mass, I wear a simple alb (an alb is basically a long baptismal gown) a stole, and a cincture (to keep me from tripping on my alb). As a Deacon, I am to be “Christ as Servant”. A priest is to be “Christ as Sacrament”. In neither role, are we to raise ourselves to cultic celebrity. We are to be servants of the Servant of God, nothing more and nothing less. While I cannot speak for any other Christian denomination or world religion, if we are truly religious leaders we will forswear a life of Self-glorification.
So how do we respond to this pandemic? What are we to do? It is as simple as repeating the oft abuse cliché, “What would Jesus do?” And, then doing it! Jesus emptied himself of his self in service to God and to humanity. We are to do the same. Thomas Merton and Richard Rohr are great Roman Catholic sources who have written extensively on this. I am sure that my brothers and sisters in other Christian denominations, in the Jewish faith, and in other world religious traditions can cite other sources in their religious traditions to help all in following this way of life. We seek our entire life to find fulfillment. Paradoxically, we find that we are not fulfilled not in Self-glorification, but, as Jesus says in the Gospels, in losing oneself so as to be one with the One who loved us into existence.
We seek our entire life to find fulfillment. Paradoxically, we find that we are fulfilled not in Self-glorification, but, as Jesus says in the Gospels, in losing oneself so as to be one with the One who loved us into existence.
