December 29, 2004
Becket
You’ll probably never find anywhere among a mall and the night visitors shopping there a remembrance of Thomas á Becket. The irony that he shows up today in a calendar loaded with all the Twelve-Day heavy hitters, however, must not be lost.
Right or wrong, we remember Thomas á Becket as one of the great mediaeval figures in the English Church, not alone for championing the things of God over the things of Caesar. His pal Henry II did his best to persuade him otherwise, but Thomas knew better — even before his Jeffersonian namesake — that the separation of church and state was a workable and more salutary solution. He won out, but not until after Henry’s hit men made a martyr out of him.
This Christmas finds us and our mideast beneficence all in the name of democracy both creeping toward theocracies, instead. The word on the street over there is that if they pull off an election at all, they’ll probably get an ayatollah. The word on the street over here is that we’ve already got one. Even if we use slightly different titles, the claim is made and remains that we’ve got God’s chosen in the catbird seat.
If only the church would get its sex life straightened out and remember Thomas in some other, more efficacious way than a darkened nave with wilted poinsettias, perhaps then we could at least, even if reluctantly, make a case for what we’ve already got before we lose it altogether. On the other hand, the hit men are formidable up there in the Loop.
ps. Please remember to visit the Episcopal Relief & Development website at www.er-d.org and support its work with the tsunami victims.