The Galli Report: 09.11.20

My conversion, love in suffering, conservative case for unions, COVID super success, and pining after Camelot.

What My Conversion Doesn’t Mean
Many faithful GR readers will have heard that the compiler of this fine report will be confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church this Sunday, September 13.  Given my 10 years as a Presbyterian pastor, and 30 years as an evangelical journalist, this is of some interest to news outlets. And so on Thursday, the Religious News Service honored me with a profile, and Word on Fire ministry, founded by Bishop Robert Barron, published an interview with me.

The reasons for such a momentous change in one’s life are ultimately mysterious.  They cannot be summed up in a short profile or interview.  So I’m not going to try to explain the change here.  Naturally someone like me finds that writing is one way to discover what in the heck is going on.  So those still interested in a few months, can read some of my conclusions at book length. For now, I will entice with one quote from the interview:

Despite the feelings of many Protestants that Roman Catholicism is a version of works righteousness, I discovered that Roman Catholics believe in a grace that is even more radical than the radical Lutherans profess.

In the meantime, I want to assure GR readers that this is not now going to become The Catholic Galli Report. When it comes to religious items, I will continue to draw from evangelical, Lutheran, Orthodox, and yes, Catholic sources--wherever I find insight. And of course I’ll continue to offer quirky articles that help us understand better the time and place in which, by God’s providence, we live.

Finding Love Amidst Great Suffering
Speaking of eclectic religious resources: here is an article by the head of an institute of broad religious persuasion, on a Luther fanboy website (Mockingbird), about a Catholic anchorite from Middle Ages. 

The woman known as Julian of Norwich lived as an anchoress during the 14th century in the English coastal town of Norwich. Her lifetime was one of significant upheaval during which, in addition to the strife of the 100 Years War, internal political upheaval, and the Great Schism in the church, the Black Death was tearing Europe apart.

As the author suggests, this woman might know something about international calamities and pandemics:

Julian, writing in her “Short Text” probably very soon after her own deathbed experience, relates that “everything seems insignificant … in comparison with [Christ’s] love” (ST:18). Living amidst plague, war, and upheaval, none of Julian’s difficulties weighed more heavily upon her than Jesus’ love. This love was demonstrated most clearly on the Cross, where “our Lord Jesus … suffer[ed] for love more than all men could suffer” (LT, XX:66). This was a willing and unspeakable sacrifice, made more present to Julian by the suffering around her, and yet also, in Julian’s thinking, not an inordinate cost: “Then Jesus, our kind Lord, said, ‘[…] It is a joy, a bliss, an endless delight to me that I ever suffered my Passion for you’” (LT, XXII:68).

This may seem like strange, medieval ramblings until you read Julian more deeply.  Which is what this article prompts me to do again.

Organized Labor—A Conservative Cause
And speaking of quirky: I was pleasantly surprised to find a piece in a decidedly conservative outlet (American Compass) that argued thus:

Institutions of organized labor have traditionally been the mechanism by which workers take collective action and gain representation and bargaining power in the private sector. Strong worker representation can make America stronger. Unfortunately, our nation’s Great Depression–era labor laws no longer provide an effective framework, many unions have become unresponsive to workers’ needs and some outright corrupt, and membership has fallen to just 6 percent of the private-sector workforce. Rather than cheer the demise of a once-valuable institution, conservatives should seek reform and reinvigoration of the laws that govern organizing and collective bargaining for three reasons…

That resonates with my brand of conservatism anyway.

COVID Success Story—In Spades
How can a country (Taiwan) with almost three times the population of New York City have dramatically lower COVID deaths (447) than America’s largest city (22,000)?  What can we learn from their success?

Still Pining after Camelot
Another mystery is my continuing fascination with John Kennedy, despite everything I know about him.  He was no paragon of moral virtue (“MeToo” would rightly tar and feather him), and he was a major league political operator, sometimes manipulative, sometimes devious; and it is said he wasn’t above making deals with the mafia! And yet… I find myself dreaming of the fabled Camelot as I viewed this colorized video of the president and his family, overlayed with his 1960 campaign songs. It was indeed a different political era.

Grace and peace,

Mark Galli
markgalli.com