Jose Hobday (1929–2009)

Sister José doesn’t exactly write about specifically Native American Christianity per se, although she is a Native and writes as someone from that background. Really she writes as a Catholic Christian…. I can say, though, that even though technically she is (well, that’s the historic present or whatever, she //was//, before she died) a Franciscan nun, the book has a very informal “lay” feel, which probably has something to do with her informal feel of life being a Native. No theological rap battles for her, (and you //know// that’s //exactly// what they //are//, lol).

She also mentions the role of creation in her faith, which kinda reminds me of the big white boy who name-dropped her and therefore, got this book into my life, Matthew Fox. I guess Sister José could be like Matt’s darker, calmer anima, basically. When I first heard about Matt teaching “Creation Spirituality”, it sounded far too bold to me, lol. (Sixes like me reject a lot of things out of fear, often subtly, because we’re afraid of making of fuss.) Arguably some of that’s on Matt, since characteristically he’s like…. (rap battle) Ok pope: you can either take my class on Creation Spirituality, or you’ll be the last pope! We’ll evolve past Roman tyranny in the Catholic Church! (get down and boogie!). But his darker, calmer anima says a lot of the same things, more subtly. Obviously the counter is, “Nature is bad, sex is bad, pagans are bad…. Fear me!” (“Okay, I’m afraid!” chime the Sixes. “Although I was afraid before you said anything to me!”). But how could God create something bad? And why would he want us to stigmatize or “other” other groups of people?

(“I’ll think about that!” chime the Sixes. “Oh how I love to think!” 😸 🤔)

…. Anyway, as I’m finishing this book up today, I have to say that although obviously it’s not the red woman’s fault, I think I’m going to be reading fewer church books and I don’t think I’ll be going to church anymore, as I don’t know of any churches I really want to go to, you know. The church as it exists now just isn’t a place of life, you know. The God who creates Life doesn’t live in our churches, really; just the god who kills and destroys and judges and smashes, and makes people so afraid to step one toe out of line. Obviously there are different sorts of churches, but aside from the difference of what sort of real man it is and whether they’re the real man of the right or the left, it’s always about a god that doesn’t create life, you know. The only even imaginable alternative to the real man for most people is Uncertain Albert or Conformist Sue, or whatever; if not that, then marshal your armies and go to war. Such toxic ideas about money, too—even relatively wealthy congregations view it as dirty and difficult. Even on the left Christians basically only have to point out something is newer or on the ‘popular’ side, and it’s out—confident that people hate themselves enough to side with the-real-men-our-rulers, you know. And even liberal Christians still see whiteness and Christianity, and white Christians, as the assumed standard that can never change, and any person of color or non-Christian tradition is like a visit to the zoo at best. Half the church brags about how they exclude gay teenagers, when the truth is it’s unusual even for straight teenagers to go to church, and if you do, the deal is that you leave everything ‘young’ about you at the door—your parents, or grandmother, wins, and you lose; this is their vengeance for the MTV culture, you know. But it’s like…. As bad as the world system of exclusion is, is church the hole I dig in the ground and position my ass in, so I can do the fetal position and die? It’s like, if poor people are your excuse why you don’t have to like your own children, you’re an extreme-left Christian; everyone else, it’s like, It’s about me, Jack, the others are excluded, and it’s not about letting them into my party, either. It’s that, You’re different—you lost….

It’s like, if you’re a liberal Christian, interfaith means going to the zoo and gawking at the Native. If you’re a conservative Christian, it means going to the grocery store and buying meat…. I suppose maybe in a totally just world, justice and judgment would actually be the service that God renders to the judged, and even the damned, since the pre-judgment state of the prosperous sinner is not happiness, (it’s not unlike the temporary wealth of the poverty consciousness person with a temporary bank balance—it can’t last, and you’re not happy), but it’s like…. God, if people are like that, wouldn’t it almost be better if the atheists were right? I’ve never felt they could be, really, but…. I don’t know.

…. And anyone who you like or who reaches out to you, when you’re unsure of the historic faith, is a sinner/heretic that god has to Godsmack for being disloyal to the tribe. Many Christians draw zero distinctions between non-Christians and everyone else they disagree with strongly, and it’s why people leave the church to a large extent, although it’s hard to leave behind because it’s Christian tradition and it’s Bible interpretation and it’s all the books, you know, all the bookishness. I guess that’s what we really hated the red people for; maybe they fought sometimes over insults or something they wanted, but they didn’t torture people over religious bookishness, you know. And there white Christians really are largely the same; it’s two traditions of bookishness, the naive and inflexible or the elitist and elaborate, but really—who cares?

…. That being said, One day, there’s a girl and she’s sane and happy not like me, and there’s a duck, and he flaps his wings and he’s happy.

They just don’t go to church around here; that’s all. 😉

…. (sigh) There’s a church-shaped wound in my heart.

…. Little boys love baseball, second only to prayer sometimes; later they turn to war, lest we call them foolish.

…. Maybe I’m just not like a Native person myself, but I can’t help but find it unfortunate that the real men, specifically those who run the world or whatever, “benefit” from keeping people in poverty, so that those poor people won’t say much about beauty or “shame” the real men with their own lack of beauty, you know, but who will instead talk about, I don’t know, religious poverty, in this case.

Though of course, I have to allow that there is a world of difference between the simple life (“poverty”), and railing against the soft, rich Christians, while hoarding and scraping to hoard every coin that their fundamental poverty consciousness will loan to them, with troubles, you know—while talking the good talk about the good tough man religious poor man toughie talk to justify their lack of happiness. Or to substitute for an understanding of Plato that they lack, except in a sort of intuitive assimilation of Plato’s illnesses, right.

Obviously this sister here has her own way that’s different, but perhaps also I guess I’m also not like her. Perhaps it doesn’t concern me.… (meer)