After a very busy few days taking exams and completing the rough drafts of term papers, Bryce and Damon gave a huge sigh of relief when their last class was over on Friday, October 1. They piled into Bryce’s Mustang, and headed to Chicago to spend some time with Damon’s sister Vanessa and her children. As they were not able to leave Clifton until after 3:00, they supped along the way, arriving in Chicago in the evening, in time to make contact before the kids had to be in bed, but not in time to actually do much beyond greet the kids and talk to Vanessa. Activities would take place the next day.
Rather than visit the Navy Pier, as Nathan wanted, they returned to Six Flags so all the children could be included. This resulted in Nathan pouting some, so Damon had to sit down with his nephew and give him the Dutch uncle treatment about being a good big brother, considering the younger children, and being a role model. Evidently it worked, as Nathan perked up and visibly assumed the leadership role appropriate to the eldest when they arrived at the amusement park. They spent most of the day there, all morning and afternoon, including lunch and supper. But after supper Bryce and Damon departed for Clifton, leaving Vanessa with four exhausted but happy children, each clutching some souvenir of their visit to Six Flags.
Bryce did not want to search for another compatible parish on Sunday morning, so it was agreed beforehand that they would return to Clifton in time for the usual 11:00 Mass at St. Boniface.
On the road between Clifton and Chicago and back, Bryce had complied with Damon’s request that he at least begin his explanation of his opinion about the necessity of religion. After all, Damon pointed out, he already knew Bryce thought religion necessary, and thought that those without some religious commitment were lacking in some way. This was not news. But Damon wanted to understand his partner’s thinking on this matter. He promised not to get angry, “no matter how outrageous” Bryce’s position might be.
Bryce had complied to the extent of offering what he called “Chapter One, Background.” He decided to adopt the approach suggested by Father Miller, treating the social utilitarian aspect of the argument as a beginning only. He made it clear, he hoped, that it was only a beginning, not his entire position. Damon was very considerate and understanding. As he said, he already knew that Bryce thought those without a religion were in some way disadvantaged. When they arrived back in Clifton after midnight, Damon thanked Bryce, but said nothing about his reaction to Bryce’s exposition. When asked, he replied that Bryce had insisted that it was only the introduction, and he wanted to hear more before saying anything.
The next morning, they went through their normal routines without touching on Bryce’s theories. All the usual crowd gathered at St. Boniface for the 11:00 Mass, including not only Bryce and Damon, but also the Sandovals, including Kathy Collins and David Simpson, and Jason and Nate. This Sunday, there was another candidate for the position of organist and music minister in charge of what emanated from the choir loft. While the results were by no means as harsh and objectionable as the first candidate’s, they were also not as pleasing as those of the one Jason continued to laud.
Father Fenwick had the sermon this Sunday, one of those indistinguishable Sundays “in ordinary time.” On this occasion, the Gospel assigned for this Sunday was taken from that of St. Matthew, Chapter 18, verses 23-35. It recounted the parable of the master who wanted to settle accounts, and, finding that one servant owed him a huge sum which he could not repay, ordered him and his family sold into slavery. But when the man pled with him, the master relented, and wrote off the debt. However, when that servant went out, he came to another who owed him a great deal less. When that man could not pay, the first had him thrown into jail. Hearing of this, the master called in the servant, and rebuked him: “Should not thou also have had pity on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?” And he handed the wicked servant over to the torturers.
Father Fenwick then drew the attention of the congregation to the passages in the ‘Our Father’ which say, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is the same lesson as contained in the parable. Father then pointed out that, in Chapter 6 of that same Gospel, immediately following the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says, “if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offenses.”
Forgiveness, and hence eternal salvation, is not free. It is not something decided without reference to our actions. What we do here on earth has a direct bearing on where we will spend eternity. We all need forgiveness, whether for great or small offenses, whether directly against God, or against our fellow humans. If we hold grudges, if we seek revenge, if we carry out vendettas, we endanger our eternal salvation.
Over Sunday dinner following Mass, there was discussion of many topics, including Father’s sermon and the current candidate for organist. Kathy and Kyle both admitted it was difficult to forgive her parents, and especially her father, for the position they had taken concerning their marriage. But both stated that they were praying over it, and making the effort to achieve forgiveness, even though they were not there yet.
“I simply cannot understand how someone could reject such a perfect grandchild as this,” Kathy said, holding up little Peter Charles. Peter Charles gurgled and grinned, upholding his reputation as perfect.
Jason held forth on the organist, comparing today’s performance to that of last week, and that of his favorite candidate on September 19. He still preferred the earlier candidate by a wide margin. While not having the same technical expertise as Jason to back up their opinions, the others also agreed that that candidate was their favorite. Isobel promised to pass that on, not only to her friend in the choir, but also to Father Fenwick and the selection committee.
It was while they were in transition from the church to the car, and from the car to the restaurant, that Damon managed to pass on to Jason the fact that Bryce had at last given in to the extent of being willing to discuss some preliminary ideas about the necessity of religion. Jason then insisted that he be informed of Bryce’s exposition, and even Nate requested that Bryce share with him his approach to the subject. Bryce was taken by surprise, although he should not have been, by this turn of events. He had not anticipated Damon letting Jason, and then Nate, know of their discussions in the car to and from Chicago, although he never asked Damon to keep anything to himself. As a result, after Sunday dinner at the Olive Garden with the Sandovals, the four men gathered at the Winslow-Watson apartment for further discussion. To insure that they did not lose track of time, and to give Bryce an escape option, an alarm was set for when he had to call his mother.
Putting things off as long as possible, Bryce insisted on appropriate libations to accompany his presentation. At that, Jason stated, “Bryce, I appreciate the Bourbon, but why are you dragging your foot like this? As Damon already pointed out, we all know you think religion is necessary, and we’re waiting to hear your arguments in favor of that position.”
Bryce replied, “I really like you guys. All of you, although Damon in a special way, of course. I’m afraid something I say may tick you off, and I don’t want that.”
“That’s pretty shitty,” Jason forthrightly declared. “You think so little of us that you don’t give us credit for being able to discuss this matter without being completely emotional about it, and taking your arguments personally. I’m disappointed in you, Bryce.”
At that, Bryce was stunned. It struck him that Jason was right. He had been patronizing of his friends, and that was wrong. This was definitely something to consider, and to talk to Father Miller about next time. Another example of pride. The look on his face indicated to his friends that he was distressed, but only when he spoke was the reason made clear. “You are absolutely right, Jason. I owe all of you an apology. I have been so caught up in my own worries and thoughts that I did not give you credit for being reasonable companions and good friends. I admit to being completely in the wrong here.”
Damon grabbed Bryce’s arm and raised it above his head. “The champion!” he proclaimed. “I have never heard anyone make so complete an admission of failure. I admit, I feel a lot better about all this now. So, reformed Bryce, let’s see what you make of the position you laid out while we were on the road.”
Bryce was red with embarrassment. But he insisted, “While I admit I was wrong in my attitude towards you guys, that does not constitute any admission of error in my position.”
“Then spill it,” Jason insisted.
Bryce began. “As I told Damon in the car, this is only a kind of introduction or first chapter, not my entire position, so cut me some slack, okay? Once this is laid out, I will go on to more aspects of the argument. And, considering the time, we may not even get through the introduction before time to go to the soup kitchen.”
“Then quit wasting time and get started,” Jason insisted.
Bryce gave him an exasperated look, but began. “I want to start with Aristotle’s statement that we are a social animal. By that, I mean it is natural for us humans to live in society, not separated off by ourselves on the hypothetical desert island. That beginning, of humans outside society, is fraught with logical errors. Contrary to what it claims, it is not natural at all, but very unnatural.
“So, if humans are by nature social animals, that means we have to live together with a certain degree of harmony. Given the fact that we tend to disagree a lot, there has to be some limits on that disagreement if we can live together with any success at all. So, on what basis can we form some kind of social agreement, or consensus, or social contract?
“Theoretically, it could be just about anything, but practically speaking, that is a non-starter. As an historian, I think I can say that there has never been a society, much less an advanced society, held together by anything other than religion. Self-interest, which a lot of people seem to think sufficient, has never worked, as the self-interest of one segment of society always seems to be in conflict with the self-interest of other segments of society. Secular ideologies have also not worked for any extended period of time. Confucianism in China seems to be an exception, but only when one ignores the fact that the vast majority of the population adhered to traditional religion, invoking the gods, leaving the wisdom to Confucius to the ruling elite. The same is true of Stoicism and Epicureanism during the Roman Empire. As Dr. Caldwell pointed out to Damon and me, this, too, was the ideology of only the ruling elite, never that of the common man. In modern times, the chief example of the attempt to found a society on a secular ideology is communism, first in Russia, then elsewhere. As an economic theory communism may have something to recommend it. I say nothing about that. But as a social theory it obviously failed miserably. It had to be imposed by violence, and maintained by violence. There is no evidence that it was ever accepted by the majority of any given population. As a political and economic system, it collapsed first in Russia, then in China and elsewhere, not by being defeated on the battlefield, but because it never had the loyalty of the people.
“In the West, we are faced with another secular ideology, often called humanism. While I question the appropriateness of the name, I don’t want to get bogged down in non-essentials, to we’ll use that for the time being. I do want to make the point, however, that modern humanism is absolutely NOT the same thing as Renaissance Humanism, which very definitely assumed the existence of God and a spiritual reality as a basis for its exaltation of the human. Renaissance Humanism involved a shift in emphasis, but not a rejection of the spiritual. The growth of secular humanism in our society has NOT resulted in greater social harmony, but rather in polarization. I maintain that the moderate and rational middle ground has been undermined, so we are left with either a strident left wing, demanding the complete abandonment of religion and the Western Civilization which includes Christianity as one of its components, or else the equally strident right wing, which demands the adoption of an unthinking fundamentalism, which is equally contrary to the mainstream of Western Civilization, of which American society has always been a part.
“So, where do we go from here?” Bryce concluded his introductory remarks.
“Are you saying it is impossible to have a harmonious society without religion?” Jason asked.
“Yes. But please note that I am not saying that religion guarantees a harmonious society. Remember, I am an historian. Or, at least, a student of history. I do know about religious wars and persecutions,” Bryce qualified his position.
“There have been any number of proposals for social harmony based on purely secular concepts,” Jason objected.
“True. But none of them have succeeded in lasting more than a few years,” Bryce replied. “I maintain that such proposals are based on the naive, and entirely unrealistic assumption that people are naturally good and rational once you remove this or that factor, whatever the bugbear of the proposer is, whether private property with Rousseau and Marx, or religion with some modern ideologues, or anything else. There is not one iota of evidence to back up that assumption.”
“So, you’re saying that unless there is some outside factor, a god or something, people will not live in harmony?” Jason pushed.
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. It can be common belief in God, who will reward the good and punish the evil, or it can be based on simple power, when some human group in charge decides to do the same thing based on their own idea of what constitutes good and evil,” Bryce agreed. “The difference is, a religion based consensus has been proven to work in just about every society throughout history, while a secular based consensus never has.”
“That doesn’t prove that a religion based consensus has any more claim to be any kind of ultimate truth than any other ideology,” Damon inserted.
“That’s also true,” Bryce admitted. “But that’s another chapter in the brilliant opinions of James Bryce Winslow.”
Even as he said this, his wristwatch sounded, indicating it was time to call Martha Winslow. “Sorry, guys, but you know what happens if I fail to call Mom on time.”
“Maybe we should discuss a society based on the power of mothers,” Nate contributed.
But Bryce retreated to the library and called Martha. He discussed his and Damon’s visit to Chicago, and the on-going affair of his sister and her boyfriend. Then, he turned his phone over to Damon, and prepared to depart for the soup kitchen. However, he did promise to continue the discussion. Now that it had begun, he was anxious to find out what the other three guys thought about his position.
However, the immediate future was reserved for the soup kitchen. They again departed in two vehicles, so DeShawn and Malcolm need not be uncomfortable on the short ride from their apartments to the soup kitchen. The two youngsters were in a good mood. DeShawn had been contacted by the guys from Mike Sandoval’s fraternity and by Curtis Manning, and it looked like they had a steady job car watching any evening they wanted, and in addition had the prestige among their peers of being in a position to get jobs for others. Of course, this only covered evenings and weekends, as both the two guys and their friends were in school for the mid-day period during the week. Even so, they were expecting to reap untold riches and influence. Damon told them that they had been very reliable as long as they had been working for Bryce and him, and for the Sandovals, and as long as they continued that, they could expect to continue to prosper. Both boys got the message, and promised to do a good job.
Jason could not refrain from discussing the organist with Deacon Jeffers, who promised to pass on his comments, even though Jason was not only not a member of the congregation, but was not even a Christian. The deacon also thanked the guys, as the supply of volunteers had increased over the past week, alleviating some of the pressure on him and some of the older workers, who no longer had to put in every day of the week. Bryce and Mike both promised that the help would continue as long as school was in session. There were even enough brothers of the two fraternities remaining in town during the break to cover the next few days.
After completing their work at the soup kitchen, Mike and the other Sandovals had a family matter to deal with, so it was only Bryce and Damon, Jason and Nate, who retired to Pat’s Tavern. There, at Jason’s insistence, they resumed the discussion of the necessity of religion topic begun that afternoon.
“I take it then,” Jason set the tone, “that you do not agree that American society today is better than that of, say, a hundred years ago.”
“I cannot answer that without asking what you mean by ‘better,’” Bryce replied. “We are richer, but the riches are just as unevenly distributed. We live longer, but we seem to have less idea what to do with our lives. We claim to be better educated, but we keep making the same stupid mistakes. We are more accepting of minorities, so we keep inventing new ones all the time, so there is no majority, no broad middle or common ground. We mistrust the government just as much as then, but we not only allow it to tell us what to do under hundreds of new circumstances, but we insist on it. Are we as a nation any happier than our predecessors who lived a hundred years ago? I see no evidence of it.”
“That’s a pretty pessimistic picture,” Jason complained.
“Perhaps,” Bryce responded, “but that does not mean it’s an inaccurate one.”
Damon looked uncomfortable, but decided to stick in his two cents worth. “I don’t think I would have the least chance of being in college a hundred years ago, and I probably could not be drinking in the same bar with you guys a hundred years ago.”
Bryce started to reply, then stopped. He considered. “You’re right. For some people, things are better. I have to concede that point. I was thinking of the nation as a whole. Hatred and discrimination were public, even enshrined in law, a hundred years ago. I deny that there is any less hatred and any more acceptance of differences, but there has been a shift in how hatred is expressed, and what or who is despised, and it’s less obviously enshrined in law.”
“That seems contrary to all I know about our society, Bryce,” Jason stated. “Who are we hating today comparable to blacks a hundred years ago? How is hatred enshrined in law today comparable to the segregation of a hundred years ago?”
Bryce replied, “I was not around before integration, obviously, but the reports I have read about the things said about blacks by segregationists sound an awful lot like the things Mr. Collins, Kathy’s father, says about blacks, Hispanics, and anyone not white, in fact, today. The same class of people who lynched blacks a hundred years ago would gladly do the same today. That hasn’t changed.
“A hundred years ago, there was a lot of hatred based on opposition to the arrival in this country of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, many of whom were Catholic. The only difference I see today is that the immigrants are arriving from Latin America, from the Philippines, and from Vietnam.
“In addition, the media, which self-righteously proclaims itself in favor of toleration and inclusiveness, is bitterly antagonistic towards my Church, and, in fact, towards any expression of authority.
“And then, while I’m sure many will disagree with me, I see the current situation, whereby a woman is allowed to kill her unborn child more or less any time she wants and for any reason or no reason at all, as an even worse case of enshrining discrimination and hatred in law than the segregation legislation of a hundred years ago. Depriving someone of dignity is terrible, but depriving someone of life is the ultimate act of hatred. And this is part of the hatred for Christianity I see exhibited by the more radical proponents of secularization.
“And, as I said, I know many people disagree with me on this, but that’s another example of the lack of public consensus on basic values which is chronic in our society today. I don’t know how to measure out the bad and the good in society, or how to compare it to another age, or another country. It’s like trying to play a game of baseball with no rules and no umpire. The absence of common ground is exactly like that, so just as you can’t agree on who’s winning without rules of the game, so also you can’t agree on whether things are better or worse without a common set of values by which to measure what is better or worse.”
“In other words, you’re saying there is no way we can agree on whether the absence of religion is a good thing or a bad thing or an indifferent thing,” Jason stated.
“Exactly,” Bryce concurred. “I can explain why I think as I do, and so can you, but I don’t think there is any chance we’ll agree on this.”
“You don’t think that good will and reason will provide an answer?”
Jason pushed.
“No, I don’t,” Bryce firmly stated. “The most we can hope for is mutual tolerance, and that only from a segment of the population. And it seems to me that the tolerant segment is decreasing. The rest is based on the ever increasing presence of force, in the form of government regulation, in our daily lives. When consensus fails, we have to rely on force to avoid chaos, and we all equally lose our freedom to the government. We all equally have to put up with stupid bureaucrats telling us what to do in some of the most personal aspects of our lives. We all equally live lives set out for us by circumstances beyond our control. And that’s just the theory. In practice, the equality is not there, it’s just that the discrimination is more arbitrary and less predictable than before.”
“I think we are getting into matters of opinion, where, as Bryce says, there is no way to reach agreement, so I suggest shelving this topic until another time,” Damon suggested.
And so they did.