The Slippery Slope

[orichalcum]

So, the Catholic Church in England (and America) is trying to preserve and restore dignity to the service. One recent change is to discourage priests from saying "Good Morning" to their congregations. When asked why, a spokesman answered: ""It is a debate that has been going on in the Church for a long time – are we doing a cabaret or are we actually celebrating the Eucharist? The fear is that if some guidance is not given and general decisions are not put down, the interpretation of the liturgy leads to unsuitable things, like strobe lights and girls in hotpants."

Now, I deeply respect the right of the church hierarchy to modify their liturgy and guidelines as they see fit. But I do love the mental image of the direct line from "Good morning" to "girls in hotpants."

On a more depressing note, the only professional academic prediction I've ever made in print has come true. When I was writing my article about HBO's Rome series a few years ago, I analyzed the new appearance of incest as a sexually racy theme in television and mass media from 2004-7, with actual incest occurring for the first time and not being universally condemned. I suggested that it would not be long before incest became an insult or slander that was acceptable to use against modern political enemies, at least in non-official contexts.

Well, today, the blogosphere has gone there, sadly, and is in the midst of a tawdry debate about whether Bristol Palin's ex, Levi Johnson, has "overly close" relations with his sister. We'll see how long it takes before it hits the tabloids and so forth. But I do think that HBO and the networks have succeeded in desensitizing some portion of the American public to the idea of incest as absolutely unacceptable; what will they come up with next?

Comments

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Good Lord - and I use the term advisedly!

(Happy Passover, btw.) :)

[gee-tar.livejournal.com]

Not that I have a horse in this race, but I actually understand the intention of the Catholic Church in eliminating informal salutations, though I do say that their reasoning is dubious at best.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

I disagree with the desired outcome, but I also understand the intention. (I actually have more theological problems with the other mentioned change, from "And also with you" to "And with your spirit.")

But hotpants? Really?

[emilymorgan.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I was raised in the Episcopal church, and we used both of those responses, depending on the season. It wasn't a change, just a reflection of whether we were in the Rite I or Rite II liturgy.

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

Accusations of incest were a part of the American political dialogue in the Founding era-- I believe that was part of what led to the Hamilton-Burr duel. In some ways, I think what we're seeing is the collapse of a set of norms about media coverage that dominated the 20th century, after the decline of the yellow press but before the rise of the internet. (Actually, I find myself wondering if it is coincidence that that matched the period when US media was subject to extensive censorship-- TV and radio dominated most of the 20th century, but were never really treated as worthy of the same levels of First Amendment protection as either newspapers or the internet.)

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting conversation that we should have later in person. :)

The Internet is for porn!

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Sequential Tart, a webzine about the comics industry (staffed by practitioners/producers, not only consumers), has an interview with an assistant professor of my acquaintance about Wincest. (SPN.)

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

My friend gnomicutterance is heavily involved in the Organization for Transformative Works, which features prominently in that interview. Nifty!

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Cool--I'm acquainted with Cat from a couple of conferences, but (under my legal name, or part of it) I'm part of OTW's small Webmasters team, which is already a bit more time than I can afford to give. :)

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's RedState. Erick Erickson specializes in saying completely crazy things. Andrew Sullivan linked to it to point out that it was completely crazy, but I haven't seen any mention of Levi Johnson's sister anywhere else, and I just went looking at a bunch of sites that mainly exist to make fun of conservative blogs. Sadly No is all about the mockery of Erick Erickson, but they didn't even touch this one.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Wait, exactly what is the evidence of incest? I saw that he posed next to her with guns. All rednecks do that. I saw that she has his name tattooed on her hand. Is that, like, some secret sign that I don't know? It's _strange_, I think... is it some indicator of an incestuous relationship? Did I miss some text in that post?

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Erick Erickson is worried that Levi Johnson will make Sarah Palin look bad, and that's all the evidence he needs. Really. Completely crazy.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

So, Levi has Bristol's name tattooed on his ring finger, and his sister has his name tattooed on her finger. Leaps of extreme dubiousness ensue.