{"id":6540,"date":"2006-08-13T08:35:57","date_gmt":"2006-08-13T08:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/mel-flannery-and-rod.html"},"modified":"2006-08-13T08:35:57","modified_gmt":"2006-08-13T08:35:57","slug":"mel-flannery-and-rod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/mel-flannery-and-rod.html","title":{"rendered":"Mel, Flannery, and Rod"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rod Dreher in the DMN:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Flannery O’Connor, who died 42 years ago this month, was an astute observer of the kind of progressive-minded Southerner who had been educated out of his prejudices, but who in truth traded one form of self-righteousness for a more insidious one. In two of her greatest stories, "Everything That Rises Must Converge" and "The Enduring Chill," O’Connor gave us two very similar characters, Julian and Asbury, both of whom were pseudo-sophisticated layabouts who proved their racial and cultural enlightenment by despising their simple-minded, conventionally prejudiced mothers. Both had harsh epiphanies in which they were forced to see that their self-righteousness, masquerading as moral superiority, not only blinded them to the goodness buried under their bigoted mothers’ messy humanity but also kept them from seeing themselves as they truly were: prideful sinners in need of mercy. <\/p>\n

Both Asbury and Julian were right to reject anti-black bigotry, but they were wrong to rebuke their mothers \u2013 out of spite, not love. And they came to no good. When my friend J. dispatched his e-mail epistle to me up on my soapbox, he was addressing my inner Asbury. It’s a safe bet that the bloggers and Hollywood celebrities who are whaling away on Mel Gibson have more than a little Julian in them. <\/p>\n

Don’t we all? <\/p>\n

Who among us can say for sure what bigotry and crookedness lie hidden away in our own hearts, concealed from ourselves by our wealth, position or pride, awaiting a moment of weakness or stupidity to manifest? <\/p>\n

Who among us, having been laid low by our own vanity and meanness, wouldn’t beg for mercy, for redemption, for the opportunity to show the world that there is more to us than our sins and failings? <\/p>\n

Everything that rises must converge. Though the Holy Ghost might use this Road to Malibu experience to save Mel Gibson’s soul, we should all hope to be spared a humiliating epiphany like that one, in which our secret sins are revealed to the world. <\/p>\n

I know, I know, we’re all Melled out. But after we’ve exhausted the topic of anti-Semitism among the rich and famous, Mel Gibson’s public disgrace is an occasion for reflection on our own humanity. It’s a moment to ponder the prescriptive wisdom in W.H. Auden’s line: "You shall love your crooked neighbour with your crooked heart." <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rod Dreher in the DMN: Flannery O’Connor, who died 42 years ago this month, was an astute observer of the kind of progressive-minded Southerner who had been educated out of his prejudices, but who in truth traded one form of self-righteousness for a more insidious one. In two of her greatest stories, "Everything That Rises…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMel, Flannery, and Rod - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/mel-flannery-and-rod.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mel, Flannery, and Rod - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rod Dreher in the DMN: Flannery O’Connor, who died 42 years ago this month, was an astute observer of the kind of progressive-minded Southerner who had been educated out of his prejudices, but who in truth traded one form of self-righteousness for a more insidious one. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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