Hellfire and brimstone
it's what's for breakfast.
I grew up in the Roman Catholic parochial school system. The curiculum, especially in the elementary grades always included indoctrinat.... er....catechism. One of our favorite pasttimes was to get the nuns to catagorize our sins for us. Sin was almost as big back then as it is today. The teachers either never got the game or never tired of the subject.
The categories were Mortal sin or Venial sin. And we would go on as long as we were permitted, trying to pigeon hole every less than stirling act or thought of our young lives.
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Born Under the Sign of the Glutton?
Your color is orange.
Your animal is the pig.
And your Hell? You'll be force-fed rats, toads, and snakes.
It is interesting to note that the pig may not share your affinity for him.
'Twas an evening in October,
I'll confess I wasn't sober,
I was carting home a load with manly pride,
When my feet began to stutter and I fell into the gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
Then I lay there in the gutter and my heart was all a-flutter,
Till a lady, passing by, did chance to say:
"You can tell a man that boozes by the company he chooses,"
Then the pig got up and slowly walked away.
Walked away, walked away,
He was really too particular to stay.
"You can tell a man that boozes by the company he chooses,"
Then the pig got up and slowly walked away.
From The Famous Pig Song
(by Clarke Van Ness, with music by F. Henri Klickmann)
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In the Catholic tradition sin leaves a black mark on your soul. A mortal sin unconfessed is a one way, express ticket to an eternal microwave. A venial sin on the other hand is more of a smudge that gets you an indeterminate stay in a kind of minimum security holding cell while you wait to register with Saint Peter. You can appreciate the distinction and the importance of precision here.
So! What, exactly, does all this have to do with the 4th of July, 2005?
For weeks leading up to July 2nd, the networks pounded Live 8 down our throats and up our noses. There were celebrity interviews, political photo ops, previews and a general sense that bringing the plight of a starving Africa to the world through music was the begining of something momentus. Its too early to tell if it had any affect but for the Today Show and NBC it all went down the toilet on Independence Day.
At Breakfast time, on their July 4th show, after wrapping up Live 8, Today aired a segment promoting Gluttony, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
The bit was about competitive eating contests. There were interviews with contestants and record holders just as if they were real athletic role models. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (Their is too such a thing.) had a representative to talk about eating records and upcoming events. The grand finale was an actual competition in which four or five guys gorged enough pie to feed a large African family for a week.
The message was clear. "Sure there are millions of people starving around the globe but what's a little food among friends?" It was obscene.
Remember that discussion of sin we were having just a minute ago? In grade school we always focused on how the sin affected us never its effect on others. Children tend to be self centered that way. But the effect our sins have on others is an important measure of their seriousness.
Last 4th of July the Today show
wasted food that could have relieved suffering, promoted numerous similar events and contributed to the delinquency of at least half a million minors. No picking nits here, it was a deadly, slam-dunk, mortal, sin.
Katie, Matt, Ann, Al, see you in hell.
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