Inaugurally Blessed

One more tattered remnant of an outdated medieval monolithic ideal, refusing to face up to the realities of twentieth century society . . . Most of us didn't know it happened, didn't know it could happen! If we had known, we wouldn't have given it a second thought anyway. I'm referring to the University Inaugural Church Service held in a downtown Baptist Church on a dreary Sunday evening a week or so ago.

As it was, 90-100 academics and hangers on turned out to this ritualistic moment appended to the university year. But like the Chaplaincy and so-called christian clubs on campus, the irrelevancy of the whole exercise is only too apparent.

Attempt to assess the contribution "christians" make to student affairs, social, political and economic issues, let alone scholarship in the university! They only come out of their coffined-closets for the abortion debate, it seems. Leftist critiques remain the refuge-outlet of the activist while the silent masses blindly follow each other from library to lecture to library ad nauseam.

Blisfully oblivious to the dialectical intricacies and nuances of the cut and thrust of Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist-Maoist praxis as it is manifested in "student politics", these masses would never think of manifesting themselves in such a pre-determined set-scene. Unless, of course, a significant amount of that filthy capitalist lucre of theirs becomes the main debating point.

To get back to that anomaly from the Middle (Dark?) ages — one sifts in vain though the multitude of ecclesiastical trappings, theological dogma, pietistic-ascetic fossilisation and middle-class capitalistic ideological self-justification for the truth that sets men free.

This Inaugural service, picture it . . . dutifully singing centuries-old and dying hymns to a centuries-old (and dying?) God, combined with prayer-baptising the present political, economic and social order, morally idealised.

Then the "preacher" from, and I quote, "the evangelical alliance relief fund", proceeds to deny the value of his agency's aid by contexting it with a homily on a few paragraphs of Scripture, cleverly managing to turn the meaningful thrusts of such passages into a nice comfortable conscience-appeasing appeal for a bit of financial support.

Now, I shouldn't be so hard on such obviously warm and sincere people, but let's face it, all of this is just a bit irrelevant to the modern secular university, to students affairs and to university scholarship. The real depth-dynamic of the cultural critique of their prophets of old, not to mention Christ himself, is distorted beyond the recognition in its force-sitting through layers of Hellenistic mysticism, church-allegiance and cultural conservatism.

A genuine non-capitalistic ideological alternative to the Marxisms of the university radicals lies stillborn under the comfortable cushions of a church pew. For Christ was not a christian as Marx was no marxist.

Kultique