Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
A Parade, a Kiss, and a Longing for the Beautiful

A Parade, a Kiss, and a Longing for the Beautiful

Last updated on: November 24, 2018 at 6:55 pm by Mary Pezzulo

A Parade, a Kiss, and a Longing for the Beautiful 2018-11-24T18:55:33-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thanksgiving.

I’ve been wanting to write something Thanksgiving-themed all week but I got so busy with this and that that I just re-shared a cutesy old post from several years ago instead. This is my first chance to talk about my Thanksgiving, and here it seems to be a post that’s going along with the unofficial theme of the past week: Christians getting hysterical about things I dislike but feel compelled to defend against their fears.

You may recall that I ended up writing a post this week defending Harry Potter, a series I don’t care for too much, from a Catholic mother who thought it was demonic. Then I ended up writing, in a roundabout way, about Celine Dion’s ugly unisex clothing line and how I don’t agree with my fellow Catholics who think it will make you possessed by the devil. During the past week I was also planning to draft a post about Joseph Sciambra’s bizarre denunciation of a tacky painting he found in a Catholic spiritual center in California– he denounced it not because the painting was ugly but because it portrayed the four elements of wind, water, earth and fire. In contrast to Saint Augustine, the Angelic Doctor Thomas Aquinas, and just about every Medieval Catholic including the illuminators of the Book of Kells, Sciambra believes that the four elements are a Satanic infiltration of the Church and also somehow homosexual. That post never really got off the ground because I couldn’t think of anything to do but laugh.

That brings me to what I did on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was fun because I watched the Macy’s Parade just as I used to when I was little. I didn’t find an annoying livestream this year; instead, I got a one-week free trial of Hulu Live so I could enjoy the traditional NBC coverage of the Macy’s Parade and the Kennel Club Dog Show as well, just like I did as a child. I love the Macy’s Parade and I love NBC’s kitschy coverage best of all. I especially like the scenes from Broadway musicals they show before the parade reaches Herald Square. Rosie and I have been doing an extensive homeschooling unit study on theater history and theater appreciation, so I made her sit and watch some of the Broadway musical scenes with me.

Rosie wasn’t very impressed by the musicals– nor was I. The My Fair Lady revival looked pretty good, but nothing else really stood out. We were particularly unimpressed by the number that followed My Fair Lady, from a musical called The Prom. It had that grindy bouncy electric guitar music that unimaginative musicals tend to have in lieu of catchy tunes. I couldn’t discern a real melody. The dancing wasn’t remarkable either, and the costumes were just okay. In the last seconds of this musical number, there was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it female-on-female kiss.

Rosie didn’t notice the kiss at all. She’d lost interest, and was setting up a field day racecourse for her teddy bears. Rosie and I have been studying plays for months; she’s seen scenes from Shakespeare filmed in the Globe Theater, award-winning numbers from really excellent musicals from years past, and even the first five minutes of a traditional staging of Oedipus Rex (“It’s an ancient story about a man who accidentally marries his mom,” I told her, and left it at that). She knows a bad play when she sees it, and she filtered it out. So did I, until the uninspired number was brought back to my attention the next day.

You guessed it. yesterday, the same type of Nervous Internet Christians who were terrified of unisex clothing and Harry Potter were condemning NBC for showing the kiss. There was a tweet about how children all over the country had their innocence “shattered” by what was meant to be a family show. This, too, it seems, was the work of the devil.

I can safely say that my daughter’s innocence was not shattered by two actresses kissing on television this Thanksgiving. It was also not shattered earlier this year when a male MasterChef contestant kissed another man and called him his husband. I paused the MasterChef video and explained to Rosie that, as she knew, in our religion we believe that the sacrament of Holy Matrimony is for a man and a woman, but other people not of our religion have different notions about what can be called marriage than we do, and that people who have different beliefs are not dangerous or trying to hurt us, and that we as Catholics should follow Christ in everything– including in being kind, friendly and loving to people whether we agree with them on every point or not, and I expected her to be kind. She said “I know that,” and we went back to watching the cooking contest. It was one of the simplest things I’ve ever had to explain to Rosie. By contrast, it was far more difficult to explain to her why the guests we visit at The Friendship Room don’t have safe houses or food to eat, or why she heard from the news that children are being kept in cages at the Southern border, or why the people on the bus keep saying in her earshot that she’s lucky to homeschool because she won’t get shot. There’s plenty that could shatter a child in our society. The Macy’s Parade didn’t do it.

That makes four times in less than two weeks that I’ve found myself defending something I didn’t like. Harry Potter is all right, if you don’t have A Wrinkle in Time or the Dalemark Quartet in hand. The other things are just plain bad. But none of them represents a dangerous and life-shattering Satanic attack on Catholicism, families or the innocence of children. They’re ugly and boring, that’s all. An un-aesthetic painting is not a demonic painting. An okay children’s book series is not a gateway to the occult. A tasteless white sleeper with eyeballs silk-screened on it is not going to make a child possessed. A bad musical for adults, which has already been panned by critics, about people whose values are not the same as Catholic values, is not going to “shatter” the innocence of children. They’re probably not going to notice, and if they do, explaining it to them is not hard.

And I’m tired of talking about this now.

I have spent way too much energy this week, refuting my fellow believers about things I don’t like in the first place.

I’m tired of writing about things I don’t like.

I want to write about things I like.

The word “Catholic” doesn’t mean “afraid of your own shadow.” “Catholic” means “universal.” There’s a big beautiful universe out there so full of wonderful things to look at, praise God for and enjoy. I’m tired of defending boring and ugly things that shouldn’t take up our time from people who see demons around every corner.

I like the Macy’s Parade. I like teaching my daughter about theater history. I like Eastern iconography and Latin Catholic Gothic church architecture. I like the polyphony of Victoria and Palestrina and I also like Sacred Harp and Taize. I like Shakespeare and I also like Rodgers and Hammerstein. I like art museums. I like things that are beautiful, fun and challenging, but I also like a good bit of harmless kitsch now and then. I want to talk about that.

Thanksgiving is over, so we’re already in the secular Holiday Season. Christ the King Sunday is tomorrow, and then we’ll be in the Advent season, a great time to talk about beauty. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to continue meditating on the Lord’s Prayer a bit at a time, as I started to do this week, all the way up until Christmas. I’m also going to commit to writing a post about aesthetics and beautiful things at least once a week until Christmas, because the world needs more of that. It doesn’t need more pearl-clutchers who seek the devil in everything. We’ve got plenty of those.

I want to write about beautiful things.

(image via Pixabay)

America

art

beauty

catholic conspiracy alarmism

Catholic Oppositional Disorder

inter-religious dialogue

mess

mystery

nonsense

Public face of Catholicism

Previous Post

November 23, 2018

What is the Work of the Devil?

Next Post

November 27, 2018 Migrants, Conspiracies and a Facebook Racist

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Why were the plagues significant against Egyptian beliefs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Each plague targeted an Egyptian god They were meant to test Pharaoh’s patience Pharaoh had offended the Hebrew people They were random acts of nature