{"id":3017,"date":"2007-02-08T13:30:47","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T13:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/animal-house-with-a-cross.html"},"modified":"2007-02-08T13:30:47","modified_gmt":"2007-02-08T13:30:47","slug":"animal-house-with-a-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/animal-house-with-a-cross.html","title":{"rendered":"Animal House with a Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fascinating little serendipitous moment…so I’m looking through email (still so, so behind) and I run across T-Matt’s latest column, which is about <\/a>Dawn Eden’s Thrill of the Chaste:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The irony, said Eden, is that many clergy seem to think it would be a good thing if singles kept playing the spot-the-hot-date game in church. <\/p>\n

"I am not an expert in church singles groups because I am not a connoisseur of them," said Eden, author of a controversial book entitled "The Thrill of the Chaste." The title betrays her work as an award-winning tabloid headline writer, as does the book’s pushy subtitle, "Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On." <\/p>\n

While doing online research into the Christian singles scene, Eden found a New York group that was promoting an "Extreme Charity Pub Crawl." Then there was the ski-retreat invitation that told young believers to prepare for fellowship in the hot tub. <\/p>\n

This isn’t what singles need from churches at Valentine’s Day or any other day, said Eden, 38, who currently works as an editor at the New York Daily News. <\/p>\n

"My church life got so much better the minute I stopped trying to look for someone to date at Mass," she said. "I mean, it isn’t a good thing if people learn to look each other over at church the same way they look each other over in a bar."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

…and I field a call from my oldest, who’s talking to me about various things, work, Colts, etc. And then Mass. He goes to Sunday Mass, but he also tries to hit daily Mass with some regularity because it’s a quieter, less jam-packed production. And yeah, I’m sort of amazed, too.<\/p>\n

But he says to me, "Oh, did I tell you what they call the (early Sunday evening)<\/em> Mass at the Cathedral?"<\/p>\n

(I’m trying to disguise this to protect whatever…and by "they" he means, not officially, but among the community. This was the Mass that, from the very beginning, he’d been told to go to, being a Young Adult and all.)<\/em><\/p>\n

"Er, no"<\/p>\n

"They call it the ‘Ass Mass.’ Because everyone’s there to check each other out."<\/p>\n

And he proceeded to tell me about the first (and maybe only) time he went, and he noticed that it was a young crowd, and the level of dress was, well..higher than you’d usually find at a Catholic church. But veering closer to the clubbing mode than the High Tea mode. He said it was a very weird vibe, all round.<\/p>\n

In a way, it reminds me of some scene out of the Renaissance. And in some ways…not!<\/p>\n

And yes, there’s a very vibrant, orthodox thing going on in that diocese, very youthful and much, much good. <\/p>\n

But ah, those hormones are tough to wrangle…<\/p>\n

Heh. And ever was it so – thanks to the reader who sent in this poem, "The Girls of Llanbadarn" by 14th century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym:<\/a><\/p>\n

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…There was no Sunday in Llanbadarn
That I would not be, though others condemn it,
With my face toward the fine girl
And the nape of my neck toward the good God…<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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