The author of this NY Times article about Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon monologues makes some astute observations about religion and clergy in our culture. Some snips:
“… the words of Middle American religious life just aren’t heard much on the public airwaves… It’s the unwritten etiquette of church-state separation, a tradition of reluctance to talk about religion, other people’s religion, on the air…. Bigtime television and movies don’t offer much competition. When organized religion gets a mention at all, it’s usually reduced to a couple of basic clergy clichés — the Rev. Milquetoast Harmless Bumbler and the Rev. Southern-Accent Bad-Guy Evangelist… More than ever, the big entertainment conglomerates are driven by nervous laughter: the fouler the jokes, the more debt the network is probably carrying — the more desperate the need to please in cartoonish ways. There’s little inclination to dignify the daily life of faith.”
Last Saturday, Keillor portrayed Father Wilmar as a supportive colleague to Pastor Inqvist who was feeling hypocritical for preaching a sermon despite his guilt over some recent behavior: his lusting after a woman he had counseled; delight in the untimely death of wealthy, materialistic former priest; cursing at his young sons for playing too loudly. Father Wilmar performed the sacrament of confession for his Lutheran colleague and Pastor Inqvist thanked him. “Don’t thank me, I’m just the messenger,” said Fr. Wilmar.
And that’s the truth for most clergy — those who really see, who understand, whose egos are in check, and whose lives are in balance while they answer their calling day in and day out. Given the state of the Catholic church with all the sex abuse scandals, it was a cool thing for Keillor to do.