Diferen care separă sublim frumusete de la excremental spaţiu de gunoi (neconsumat) se reduce treptat, până la identitatea de paradoxal opuse. . . . El nu pretinde că fiecare element dreptul de a ocupa locul sacru al Thing excremental, prin definiţie, un obiect, o bucată de gunoi care nu poate fi niciodata "de până la îndeplinirea misiunii sale"? Această identitate de opusul determinari (elusive sublim obiect şi / sau excremental coş de gunoi) [coincide cu] vreodată de-prezent ameninţare pe care o va transforma în altă parte, că sublim Grail va dezvălui în sine, pentru a fi nimic, dar o bucată de [balegă ] "."
--Slavoj Žižek, The Fragile Absolute
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This comment is not original. It is my response to a thread on the Faith and Theology Blog. But it pertains to what I am doing with this blog.
My congregation enacts most elements of worship well. We preach the Word and we celebrate the Eucharist and we it at least weekly. We do this at all our Sunday services. And we hear able sermons.
However, I do have few quibbles. Awful liturgical innovations sometimes trouble me. There are too many to name, but some of the worst deserve attention and suppression. To me the worst is hiding the baptistery. In my congregation, you would hardly know we had a baptistery. We hide it behind a poor and graceless substitute for a rood screen.
Further, I disdain the failure in my denomination to practice paedobaptism.
Altar calls have always troubled me. They reveal bad theology because they demonstrate our coming to God rather than God coming to us. We act as if partakers in worship are supposed to make the pastor happy with his sales pitch sermons. We make these altar calls some kind of unbiblical sacrament. This is almost as irritating as the cheap coffee served between services. The sinner’s prayer is no substitute for catechesis and baptism. In fact, it is an utter abomination.
The tiny cups of grape juice undermines the entire notion of sacrament or ordinance as we Disciples call our sacraments. Grape juice is not wine even if the Greek indicates it is. Using grape juice is a complete break with biblical witness, something astounding for a denomination that claims roots in primitive Christianity. I think that the tiny cups of grape juice came from the temperance movement. Even worse than the grape juice are the dim-witted excuses for not using wine.
Developmentally inappropriate children’s sermons bother e as does dismissing children about a third of the way into the service.
Flags have no place in the chancel. We forget that the church transcends nationalism and politics. The so-called Christian flag has no pedigree. It is apparently a late nineteenth century Methodist innovation.
Projection screens are high on my lists of techniques to suppress. Watching an entire congregation stare at one amazes me. I am a Protestant, but I think that the
Versus populum was a dumb idea. The only worse innovation is the PowerPoint sermon, but I think that someone might learn how to use it well. I am waiting.
I do like some banners. A wonderful artist in my congregation makes splendid banners.
However, my pastor runs around during the service like an organ grinder’s monkey. He hands out token coffee cups to visitors. I feel that I have wandered into a Tupper Ware party. I wish he would find a nice place to stand behind the pulpit.
Then there are praise songs. One had such hope for them. What we get are hackneyed tunes with clichéd lyrics. The tedium of these things constitute liturgical torture and probably qualify as an abuse of human rights. They are worse than the stuff churches once lifted for Billy Graham rallies
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