John Robson: The trendy paranoia over micro-aggressions is a sure sign of inflated egos
Pope Francis has said communion wafers may not be gluten-free. His comments have offended the celiac community. Has everyone lost their minds?
John Robson
July 18, 2017
Somebody once said that what would destroy political correctness is that you can’t tell satire from the real thing. In hopes of which I offer this headline: “Vatican ruling troubles celiac community.” You tell me.
Correct, alert readers. It’s a real headline from Saturday’s National Post. And yet it reads like satire. And not just the headline. The text, and the substance of the story behind it.
The supposed issue is here that some people are very unhappy that Pope Francis has said communion wafers may not be gluten-free. Which might seem an odd comment for him to make or for them to go nuts over.
Sorry, not nuts. Don’t want to offend the peanut-allergy community. Not that peanuts are nuts at all, actually. They’re the edible seeds of a legume. Please don’t shoot me.
At what point did Jesus take time out of his busy schedule to dwell on gluten?
The point is, a question too rarely asked these days. Namely: “Where’s that in the Bible?” At what point did Jesus take time out of his busy schedule of moral instruction, parable-telling, death and resurrection to dwell on gluten and inflict misery on those unable to digest it?
Well, he didn’t, of course. Nor did the Pope. What Francis actually said, in case it matters in our postmodern “post-truth” times, is that the host must be made of wheat. Or rather, Cardinal Robert Sarah said it, at the Pope’s request, in a reminder letter to bishops, given increasingly laxity in sourcing of communion wafers.
Oh, the humanity.
As one former Catholic remarked acerbically to me, it is possible to think of weightier reasons to leave the church. Or I would add to join it. For instance its resolute defence of traditional sexual morality. Or its habit of saying daffy but trendy things about economics or the environment with the best of intentions.
As one former Catholic remarked acerbically to me, it is possible to think of weightier reasons to leave the church
These are matters on which it might be understandable to lose your cool. But no. Today we are obsessed with minutiae especially if they are of the group identity resentment variety. Because, and this is a key point that somehow did make it into the Post story, in its very last sentence, if you are so utterly gluten-intolerant that even a fragment triggers days of torment, you can receive communion just using the wine.
That’s right. Nobody is keeping anybody from receiving communion due to celiacphobia or cisgutenism or whatever term is slouching toward Bethlehem waiting to be born. Possibly the hospital not the city. (Bethlem Royal Hospital, Europe’s oldest psychiatric hospital, at one time so infamous for its harsh treatment of patients that its nickname gave us the term “Bedlam.”)
Now before we hear a howl from the celiac-alcoholic “community” about this “marginalization” or exclusionarismnesshood or whatever it will be called next week, may I just note that the Vatican does allow the use of non-alcoholic mustum, that is, just-pressed grape juice (formally “grape juice that is either fresh or preserved by methods that suspend its fermentation without altering its nature (for example, freezing)” in rare circumstances, including that the priest, or celebrant, is an alcoholic. (Because of the requirement that it not have its nature altered, pasteurized juice is out, by the way, which I’m sure can trigger a grievance somewhere, perhaps from those who are whatever the PC term for obsessive about germs is.)
It's almost as though we're looking for a fight
It’s almost as though we’re looking for a fight. Salon declared that, “Vatican takes hard-line stance against gluten-free Communion wafers.” The Globe and Mail said, “Vatican ruling against gluten-free hosts troubles celiac community.” The CBC’s Comedy section ridiculed it, though predictably targeting the church for worrying about wafers, not parishioners for whining about them. And something called “The A.V. Club” wrote “Pope Francis doesn’t care about your celiac disease.”
Admittedly the A.V. Club bills itself as “an entertainment” website. So you tell me whether the entertainment is intentional in its declaration that “Pope Francis has earned a largely positive reception since his election to the papacy in 2013 — for instance, he has cautioned against the very real dangers of both climate change and Putin’s government. But over the weekend he dealt a harsh blow to Catholics with celiac disease, wheat allergies, and also your annoying neighbor who thinks that gluten makes her head hurt or something.”
I treasure Susan Sontag’s crack that, “I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them.” I think the specific, trendy paranoia about “micro-aggression,” especially on university campuses, is an attempt to inflate our egos by deluding ourselves into thinking someone is taking the time and effort to persecute us. Actually, as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s “Total Perspective Vortex” would reveal if you dared step into it, they don’t know you exist until the whining becomes unendurable.
Which on this issue it did with such remarkable speed that it feels like satire. If only it was.
National Post
http://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-robson-the-trendy-paranoia-about-micro-aggressions-is-the-product-of-inflated-egos/wcm/73d00a93-7185-48af-ae34-6e54b6d365bf
