Two Things 3/11/24
Emerald Isle voters and red Texas cows
Coffee this Friday, March 15, at the usual time and place.
(1) Irish voters fight cultural tides: One of the intriguing developments of the past quarter-century in the West is the way the sexual revolution wedded itself to a corporatist agenda and, in the process, came to identify the “liberation” of women with her profit-producing capacity within a capitalistic system. Arguably, Paul Kingsnorth (
) writes, “the pre-modern woman, working in her home with her husband and family, had more agency and power than her contemporary counterpart whose life is directed from outside the home by distant commercial interests.” The irony is that women’s overall happiness has steadily declined even as her educational and economic opportunities have advanced—a trend noted by conservatives (early on) and liberals (more recently). The 1937 Constitution of Ireland, rooted in its historic identity as a Catholic nation, stood against this cultural tide in certain ways. It contains explicit protections both for the family (“the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society” and “a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights”) and for women—and not just for women generally, but for “mothers” in particular, who, the Constitution declares, “shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.” Last week, Irish voters rejected, by 2-to-1 and 3-to-1 margins, efforts to redefine these constitutional protections:The 39th amendment would have clarified [“clarified”?] that the definition of family extends to both “marriage” and “other durable relationships” and removed the text identifying marriage as the institution “on which the Family is founded.”
…
The proposed 40th amendment would have replaced the portions of Article 41 describing the role of women and mothers with a statement reading, “the State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision.”
…
With a turnout of 44.36%, the proposed 39th amendment to the Irish Constitution was rejected by 67.69% of voters, while 32.31% approved of the constitutional changes. The proposed 40th amendment was rejected by an even larger margin, with 73.93% of voters expressing support for keeping the constitutional language as is and 26.07% supporting the proposed changes.
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The rejection of both amendments represents a sea change in Ireland, which has recently approved progressive referendums by large margins.
(2) Texas cows “as red as an Irish setter”: Numbers 19 requires, for a certain purification ritual associated with the Temple, the ashes of “a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke.” But at least since the destruction of the Second Temple, a qualified red heifer had not been found in the Holy Land—that is, until Texas cattle ranchers in the Nineties realized they had something to offer: Texas Red Angus, a breed “as red as an Irish setter,” according to a 1998 New Yorker article. Last week, CBS News reported that red heifers “now graze at a secure, undisclosed location in the Israeli-occupied West Bank”:
Instrumental in bringing the heifers to the Holy Land was Yitshak Mamo, of Uvne Jerusalem, a group committed to seeing a new temple built in Jerusalem’s Old City.
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Finding the red heifers took years. The quest led Mamo not to Jewish breeders but to Christian ranchers thousands of miles away.
“After a long search, we found them in Texas,” he said. “Texas red angus.”
To bypass strict laws in place at the time that banned the export of U.S. cattle to Israel, the heifers were classified as pets, Mamo said with a laugh. But to those following biblical commandments, the cows are no laughing matter, he added, stressing that it was no publicity stunt.
“Harry Potter is a good story. The Bible is not a story,” he said. “The Bible is a way of God to lead us.”
But while they’re classed as pets, there are no plans to let the red heifers live out long happy lives.
A massive white altar awaits, where they are to be burned on a plot of land overlooking the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Community Haps:
First Pres Lenten Lecture Series: Wednesdays of Lent, First Pres is hosting its Lenten Lecture Series exploring “what it means to love God and others as Jesus loved.” This Wednesday, March 13, Dr. Brad Hale will give the fourth lecture, “Love and Sex in a Time of Crisis.”
C.S. Lewis Lecture by Kirk Cherry: Mark your calendar for Sunday, April 21 at 11:00 am, when Kirk Cherry will give a lecture at First Congregational Church on C.S. Lewis. Details will follow in coming weeks.
Hope to see you Friday.