It’s New York’s turn this year to host the event that inspired the following lines. I suppose I shouldn’t expect any invitations to one of those parties featuring the local kosher deli’s all-you-can-eat Super Sunday special (where they’ve at least got the right idea about what a real hero is).

Morning dawns.

It is Sunday but not just any Sunday morn — it is the dawn of the Hallowed Day. America a secular land? Hah! Silly Hitchens Dawkins and fellow New Atheists — sacred devotion is so very much alive in America.

There are of course those who are deeply faithful throughout the year and perform the Ritual of the Watching and all the ancient rites attendant thereto each Sunday in Temples throughout the land. The most pious of these even make the Pilgrimage to the Sanctum Sanctorum itself in which that day’s Confrontation will take place partaking first of course of the sacred parking lot Feast. But on this Hallowed Day we are all men women and children part of — to coin a phrase — a “kingdom of priests a holy nation.”

Rise then with alacrity and tend to what chores need be done for the afternoon cometh speedily when all thine work need already be complete. And there is much to be done in anticipation of the Watching.

Much of the beloved work has been done in advance of course and pity those foolish souls who’ve waited until the Hallowed Day to prepare; do they not know for what it is we are on this earth that in important matters we dare not tarry but plan well ahead of time?

There is first the Convening of the Faithful the summoning by personal invitation of one’s kith and kin to gather at the designated Temple at the appointed time and to perform as one the Watching. Most often each group consists of those who belong to the same Sect who venerate the same Saints and who have studied in depth the most intimate details of these men their great acts and truly wondrous deeds for the Faithful do not well suffer infidels in their midst.

Next there is the Preparation of the Sacraments those sacrosanct foods and beverages that will be ritually consumed during the Watching. Most often these portions of meat and fowl and strong drink are prepared by others in bulk for the Faithful of each Temple and delivered thereto with great attention paid to ensure each worshipper receives a ritually sufficient portion of the holies to consume and imbibe.

And of course the host (whose patron god is presumably the Lord of Hosts) must see to it that his Temple is in proper condition for the Watching with ample seating and of course an appropriate Shrine before which to kneel as one performs the Watching and if things go not well supplicate and remonstrate.

There are also additional rituals in which to engage each man according to his faith and temperament. Some don the hallowed Vestments of their particular Sect so as to announce without fear indeed with pride to all the world: “Behold I am faithful to my chosen Saints and will remain thusly loyal to them come what may.” Others adorn the Temple the walls and doorposts thereof with a variety of cherished symbols and depictions of their heroic leaders.

Thankfully most of the Faithful perform the Watching at a Shrine in the very center of their homes so that their offspring might thereby learn what is truly important and to what they might devote their hearts minds and resources all the days of their lives.

A lesser number however flock to special communal Temples wherein Congregations of the Faithful gather to worship at a common huge Shrine. There large amounts of intoxicating drink flow freely the better to rejoice in the good fortunes of their sect’s anointed ones or Heaven forfend to drown their sorrow at the descent of their revered Saints to ignominy. Woe woe to those who perform their devotions outside the home caring not enough to raise their progeny to appreciate life’s precious meaning.

Finally the hour of the Watching draweth near.

First however the faithful gather to watch and listen as Elders of the Faith speak to them from the site of the Sanctum Sanctorum itself about the upcoming Confrontation of Faith to take place therein and give their views based on their many years of study and contemplation of prior Confrontations. Every last detail of the Confrontation and the Saints of the respective Sects who will vie for greatness therein is dissected and studied closely pondered and argued over by the assembled in each Temple as it is stated: For it is our lives and the length of our days.

And then suddenly as wintery afternoon sunlight turns to dusk the Ritual of the Watching is upon us.

It will last for several hours holding tens of millions of the Faithful in its mesmerizing thrall. As one traverses the length and breadth of this great land two types of fearsome sounds are to be heard rising up from countless Temples dotting the landscape.

Some are great and ferocious cries of exultation and oaths of undying allegiance to and profound pride in one’s chosen Sect and its towering Saints. Others are the gnashing of teeth rending of garments and wailing and bemoaning of one’s fate and that of one’s beloved Sect whose Saints have suffered so in expiation of their sins.

Salvation for some suffering for others a deeply meaningful time for all.

Life itself.

SILENCING TRADITION The past week’s news cycle was considerably enlivened by New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s remark about New York Republicans:
Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life pro–assault weapon… is that who they are? Because if that is who they are and if they are the extreme conservatives they have no place in the state of New York. Because that is not who New Yorkers are.
Representative of the conservative commentariat’s animated response was an editorial in National Review critiquing both Cuomo’s grasp of where New Yorkers actually stand on issues like marriage and abortion and the deep intolerance his remarks conveyed:
The governor needs to meet some New Yorkers…. According to the governor seven or eight out of ten New Yorkers are not who New Yorkers are and have no place in the state….
Governor Cuomo is the perfect example of the modern Democrat who cherishes “diversity”… above all things — so long as he never has to encounter anybody who is not exactly like him nor hear a point of view with which he disagrees. It is one thing to have strong political views but another for a governor the highest executive power in the state to declare those who do not share his preferences to be persona non grata.
In truth however an equally intolerant statement made by another politician the same week didn’t receive nearly the same level of coverage as did Cuomo’s. This despite the fact that the latter remark was far more exclusionary and patronizing considering that it was made by the chief executive of not just one American state but of the country comprised of all 50 (or 57 as the case may be).
On the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade thus spake President Obama:
[W]e recommit ourselves to the decision’s guiding principle: that every woman should be able to make her own choices about her… health. We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe affordable health care and her constitutional right to… reproductive freedom.
After hacking one’s way through that thicket of euphemisms one realizes the rhetorical trick our president has pulled with just one word: “We.” He has spoken for me and you and every other person in these United States of which at last count there were about 150 million or so who believe he is advocating a moral outrage however much he strives to prettify it. (Knowing Mr. Obama of course I suppose one might offer in his defense that his “we” is of the royal sort but I doubt that’s how the listening public perceives it).
Both statements are small but foreboding signs of a larger phenomenon: The growing stridency and militancy of elements of secular society in regard to moral and religious issues and the resulting stigmatization of religious believers and other traditionalists in both perception and reality.