Providence and youth

It should be plain by now, from the last 2 posts, that we have not been critical enough about culture for our youth. We have been way too nice.

Without sounding fundamentalistic and pharisaical, we really ought – as catechists in the church (a better sounding term than “youth ministers”) – to be critical in our attitude toward contemporary society, which is nothing but youth culture.

Youth culture, because it is nothing more than pop culture, cannot provide the traditions of forefathers and a transition into adulthood. A cursory reading of pop lyrics quickly show that there is mostly a vacillation between the ecstasy of new found love (or raging lust), and the despair of love disappointed (or lust evaporated). There is no vision of a love that extends beyond the rush into the quotidian, but co-inherent, self-immolation required by marriage and family.

As a result, adolescence is extended further in both directions. Children are losing their innocence at an earlier age. Young adults -- and perhaps even middle-aged adults -- are thinking and feeling more within the psychological patterns of adolescence. Thus, it is entirely possible that adolescence now covers the chronological years from 10 (if not earlier) to 30 (if not later).

Adulthood requires an exchange of ecstasy for wisdom, of romance for metaphysics.

Youth culture cannot, by definition, ever know this. They may hear the words. They may even witness the saints doing this very thing. But, as Eliot once said of us all, “We had the experience, but missed the meaning.” Youth and pop culture is all about “missing the meaning.”

In the most important ways, the Christian ethos typified by the Beatitudes is the adult culture into which our youth must be assimilated. That maturational process of spiritual assimilation is precisely the catechetical work of what is known as “youth ministry.” At least, it should be.

But there are other concerns and “folk-ways” that are not addressed explicitly by the Beatitudes, the Apostolic Witness, or the corpus of Holy Tradition. I am thinking here, in particular, of what a common culture really ought to offer – concerns that are as basic as what to wear and what (and how) to eat … how to celebrate feasts and how to observe the fasts … how to celebrate truly happy events and how to mourn at tragedies … how to become an adult, and make the transition from passionate teenage to wise adult. Moreover, a common "adult" culture ought to identify who should lead, and how they ought to be followed.

With heartfelt apologies to my traditionalist brethren, the Rudder does not contain a constitution for such a culture. Our memories (whether accurate or not) of the Byzantine Empire or Tsarist Russia do not contain the DNA by which we can clone an alternative to pop culture. Neither can the monastery be used as a model for such an alternative culture: many well-meaning Christians attempt this, but it is not right. Monastic spirituality is for all of us, but not its typicon. I hate to bring up this disappointing news, and I’m sure there will be some who will take umbrage, if not offense. But the fact remains that these ideas are not “real cultures” – they are romantic ideals, but they do not provide what a culture needs to provide.

And yet, at the very moment I dismiss the ghosts of Great Empire and contravene the appeal of the skete, I immediately hasten to suggest that there is a providential reason why God brought to America the great mass of Orthodox people when He did.

One can argue that after a thousand years of  uninterrupted progress, the advance of Western Civilization lurched to a grinding halt in 1914, right before the Great War. At least Arthur Balfour thought so. This was the year when theism, despite his efforts, was overthrown. It was the year when the traditional aristocracy in England disappeared, and the leadership of society was taken over by commerce and the masters of opinion. It was about the time of la belle epoch, and when cubism reared its head. It was also the season when funny things were going on in Western financial centers, especially in New York. It was the time when Eliot called us in the West the "Hollow Men."

It was the time when the adult culture of the West all but disappeared, and wisdom fled into ivory towers, old wives’ tales, and little houses.

It was in this season, in these decades, that God brought to America the Orthodox people who were not only Orthodox, but were people from intact adult cultures – cultures that still knew how to fast and feast, how to mourn together and dance in groups, how to marry and embrace adulthood and old age as a good and not regrettable thing.

I suggest here, in not so many words, that God brought these same people not only to bring Orthodoxy to America, but also to bring their culture.

So for us “youth ministers,” I suggest these things, in summary of these last 3 longish insufferable posts:

1. We must catechize simply and clearly from doctrine.
2. We must criticize culture sharply, while encouraging youth to enter adulthood.
3. We must utilize our own ethnic culture as a Divine gift – even for those of us transplants who are “grafted in” to these ethnicities – which can replace and complete that which is lacking in today’s pop culture. It will have to be an ethnic culture as transmitted primarily in English, for that is the only way in America that an ethnic culture should survive.

For myself, this means that I look to the Carpatho-Rusin culture as a providential storehouse of wisdom and folkways for my parochial young. For others, that would mean the use of Greek culture, or Russian, or Serbian, or Syrian, or Ukrainian.

There are many second or third generation immigrants who bristle at such a suggestion. I was surprised to hear one young man utter, “I’m tired of having that old ethnic stuff shoved down my throat. I’m in America now.”

Yes, he is, and by all means he should be an Orthodox Christian in America, and there are certainly many blessings for the Orthodox Church now that it is stateside (the absence of tsars and boyars being chief among these blessings). But real American culture is an even more ephemeral and fragile thing than is our Eastern European culture. The latter is robust. The former is almost at dead language status. The culture that is rampant on the streets and airwaves and in the malls has nothing to do with America. It has everything to do with the world of the two 1984's (Orwell's, and Chesterton's).

That old ethnic stuff is a lot stronger, and more helpful, than what for now at least are the dim memories enshrined in images of Washington and Lincoln, and in the pages of Hawthorne and the Agrarians. That work of Orthodox understanding America remains to be done, for it has not even started. For now, youth ministry requires a stronger thing.

Youth ministry requires an Orthodoxy unashamed, and an embrace of the ways of naši ludi.

Comments

[Fr. Dcn. Raphael]

Fr. Bless!

I just read and enjoyed your 3 articles. I agree with your diagnosis (being a former megachurch youth grouper, and CCCer), and take hope from your prescription. Yet I understadn Tamara's scepticism, and see your posts as a starting point....with the end point (resolution of the problem) no where on the radar scope. I am glad the conversation is starting, and trust it will go on.

But in the meantime, our parishes need some real practical help. OUr youth group is virtually non-existant. But should that even be a worry?

How can we catechize? Sunday School? How do we criticiize pop culture? From the pulpit mainly, or are there other ways?

Basically, what should a 21st century American Orthodox youth ministry look like?

I welcome direction from you or any others....

[Tamara]

Dia, I agree that our youth/pop culture is not the culture to transmit anything of value. But my grandparents were from the middle east so I can see clearly the healthy and unhealthy aspects of an Orthodox culture. So while there are good things about the culture I try to retain in my own family I think it is important to look at the goodness which can be found in our American culture as we bring Orthodoxy to America.

In my new parish I see a community of families who take care of one another in times of crisis. We celebrate baptisms, chrismations, weddings and feast days as a parish family. This type of culture did not exist in my ethnic childhood parish. It was very clannish and the ethnic nationalism was suffocating. I believe God is bringing Americans to Orthodoxy to revive it. I see it as great blessing. While western Christianity has fallen into heretical beliefs they have kept the spirit of evangelism, philanthropy and service alive! An American Orthodox culture will naturally flow out from a combination of right beliefs with the three spiritual characteristics the Protestants bring with them. How can it not? Doesn't it sound like a description of the early church?

[Dia]

I understand Tamara's comment, but would like to iterate the point of the article as I understand it.
The point is that ethnic/traditional cultures (including say the Southern American culture) have structure, require responsibility, cultivate the ethos of their members and bring with them the concept of community and civil responsinility (all are affected by my actions) rather than the "freedom" to do as I please thinking it is only my business.
These attitudes are ingrained in many ethnic cultures including the Greek and Middle Eastern, of which I can speak of, and are transmitted to the community members even when they are not as committed Orthodox faithful.
Not to mention the idea and virtue of sacrificing everything for the family. In our generation unfortunately very few "white" americans have this experience and attitude. I am shocked to hear complaints from parents about children who live with them after graduating, who go on expensive cruises when their kids are drowning in debt, who think it's "me" time and refuse to look after the new baby but for a week or for children who think family reunions and holidays are the worst exercise in patience.

I agree it is sad to be nominally Orthodox. In fact it is frightening that we allow baptized Orthodox to receive the Holy Sacraments when they decide to show up in Church when they have not participated conciously or prepared.
However, this I am afraid can become an issue with our convert-based parishes too within a generation or so. It is common that children do not necessarily share the strong convictions of their parents, or that some children grow to be much more faithful and wise than their parents.
There is nothing to say that the children or grandchildren of convert families will maintain the same level of commitment as their parents, though I do think they have a better chance of being well catechized.
This is our Church. It is a training ground, a fighting arena, where the strong have to carry the weaker, where we have the Hope of Salvation but are continuously aware of our shortcomings and unworthiness.
The pillar of our Church is Christ, the life of our Church is the Holy Spirit.
I appreciate the virtues prominent in our ex-protestant Churches, but I also appreciate the piety and sacrifice of the ethnic groups.
These ethnic cultures are so powerful exactly because they come from countries that have been Orthodox for millenia!! Do not dismiss them so lightly. They are the medium through which Orthodoxy is transmitted from generation to generation and from the ages to ages.
American Orthodoxy should develop such a distinct culture too. The point of the article is though that our current "youth/pop culture" is NOT the culture able to transmit anything of long lasting, much less of eternal value.

[Tamara]

Well, I grew up in an Orthodox ethnic culture in a America and I think you are seeing Orthodox cultures through rose colored glasses. Many immigrants are not well-catechized in the faith and are very superstitious (evil eye beads and a host of pagan-influenced beliefs that Orthodoxy tried to shake off years ago.) Quite a few immigrants are ethnocentric and do not welcome outsiders (anti-ethical to the Christian spirit of hospitality). And frankly, I don't see a difference the culture has made on the children of the immigrants. Many immigrants indulge their children if they have the money. Their kids grow up un-cathechized for the most part in churches that use very little English. These kids go off to college, marry a non-Orthodox mate and many times become Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, or evangelicals because their Orthodox faith mainly entailed attending ethnic festivals, going to language school and and belonging to ethnic folk dance groups.

The Orthodox parish I attend now was started by converts who were mostly from evangelical backgrounds. Their children are respectful, industrious, kind, devout, and they eagerly serve the poor. I find these American heinz 57 Orthodox children to be much better role models for my young boys than the spoiled, nominally Orthodox children of the immigrants who attend my childhood parish.
I think the Protestant culture has much to offer Orthodoxy once devout Protestants join the church. They bring with them a culture of philanthropy (tithe), service (care for the poor), and evangelism. On these three pillars will rest a truly American Orthodox Church.