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Dan Zak

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Photo by Linda Davidson (The Washington Post)

Photo by Linda Davidson (The Washington Post)

'Every time and place needs prophets'

December 30, 2013

Earlier this year I wrote about three activists who penetrated the grounds of one of America's most protected nuclear weapons facilities. Last week, a Roman Catholic priest at a parish outside Ottawa used their action as inspiration for his Christmas Day sermon. He graciously e-mailed it to me, and so I will excerpt parts of it:

Fully aware and willing to face the consequences of their actions, this unlikely trio sit in prison tonight with the potential of ending their earthly days behind bars. They are there willingly because of their passion; yet their country could easily label them as terrorists. If you are a little uncomfortable about these characters, you’re not alone. Why couldn’t they just have stayed at home and wrote letters to their members of Congress? Why couldn’t Sister Megan have just started a blog from the comfort of her community’s convent? Were there not less threatening ways of making their point? But it begs the question: how could three senior citizens so easily break into one of the most secure facilities in the country? No one can reasonably explain how such simple folk could penetrate this fortress built to keep the world out. It wouldn’t take much to classify these three as senior-citizen extremists in their own right. Equally, they could also be seen as zealous souls, blindly detached from the judgments of any form of earthly court, willing to sacrifice -- and yes, even die -- for the cause of righteousness and peace.

Criminals? Kooks? Prophets?!

The story of Christ’s birth, proclaimed in our midst again this night, is actually even more radical, political and not without complexity. A carpenter, a teenage girl and a newborn baby born in the backwaters of nowhere is how God the Most High chose to become God with Us. While generations long awaited the arrival of the Messiah, never could they have imagined that he would break into the world in the middle of the night using such unlikely folk who risked home and reputation to freely cooperate with the plan of salvation. Just as God broke into the world through the mystery of the incarnation, even now we are shocked -- and perhaps a bit scandalized -- to think that we could be so very loved as to have God go to such lengths to fall in love with us.

[...]

Every time and place needs prophets to shake things up; to remind us of what is lasting and of what is passing. We need to let unlikely characters make us feel uncomfortable from time to time, only so that we can reclaim what is right and just. And if we let their passions stir ours, we may be able to rekindle the hidden corners of our souls that have grown cold. Because of the birth we celebrate tonight, the veil between heaven and earth is forever pierced; the ultimate barrier has been toppled and life can never be quite the same. With the incarnation the work of making God’s love known is a story that is never quite done, and for that he is always in need of prophets unafraid of going forth into the night.

Since being convicted in May of damaging federal property and intending to harm national security, Michael Walli, 65, Megan Rice, 83, and Gregory Boertje-Obed, 58, have been held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga. They will be sentenced Jan. 28 in Knoxville, Tenn. The maximum combined penalty for their crimes is 30 years in prison.

This post originally appeared on washingtonpost.com.

In religion, activism, nuclear weapons Tags God, Megan Rice, The Prophets of Oak Ridge
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Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo for The Washington Post

Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo for The Washington Post

A man possessed

October 31, 2013

On Tuesday I had lunch with the man who is responsible for giving me one of the greatest scares of my life: William Peter Blatty, author of "The Exorcist" and the screenwriter-producer of the film version, which traumatized me (truly) in 7th grade. My piece on him tries to arrive subtly at the intersection of exorcism and abortion -- not to compare the procedures, obviously, but to consider spiritual horror alongside earthly horror (the former made his career long ago, the latter motivates his current activism). I recognize that it's politically dangerous to say that abortion is a horror, but let's all just admit that it's an element of a free society that isn't pleasing to anyone, no matter his or her stance. For Blatty, there are demons still to chase, even at age 85, and I found this fascinating. Anyway, before I get too deep into it, I'd like to excerpt the novel, which is actually one of my favorites. It's an unabashed page-turner, and demands to be read in one sitting, lest the demon remain at large in your mind between reading sessions. This is a quotation from Fr. Lankester Merrin, the titular priest who has battled this demon before, to his apprentice. It's a beautiful, gentle indictment of ourselves, and anchors this supernatural, Catholic tale in the secular, real world. 

 ... I tend to see possession most often in the little things, Damien: in the senseless, petty spites and misunderstandings; the cruel and cutting word that leaps unbidden to the tongue between friends. Between lovers. Between husbands and wives. Enough of these and we have no need of Satan to manage our wars; these we manage for ourselves ...

And how delicious was the pairing of this headline and photo in the paper itself? 

exorcist.jpg
In profiles, books, film, religion, spirituality, clips, newsprint Tags William Peter Blatty, "The Exorcist", abortion, exorcism, possession, Satan
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Copyright © 2020 by Dan Zak. Washington Post articles and photos are property of the Post. Credits for photos and illustration on the home page (left to right, top then bottom): Blue Rider Press, Marvin Joseph (The Washington Post), Bill O'Leary (The Washington Post), Chris Earnshaw and Joe Mills, Michael S. Williamson (The Washington Post), and Bob Kotalik (AP).