Death By Deathworks

On the Los Angeles Dodgers, profaning the sacred, and the new public orthodoxy.

Credit: Los Angeles Times.

Over the past week, I’ve found my thoughts returning again and again to the ongoing ballad of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

For those unaware, last week the Dodgers announced their intentions to honor an activist group called The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at their tenth annual Pride Night on June 16th. The Sisters, featured in the lead image at the top of this post, are exactly what their name would invite you to believe they are: men dressed in a combination of drag and nun’s clothing who fight for LGBTQ rights and refer to themselves as “a leading-edge order of queer and trans nuns.” The Sisters were to be honored with a Community Heroes Award “for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades.”

In reading about this story, I was surprised to learn that almost one-third of Los Angeles is Catholic, which at least partially explains where the original controversy began. Multiple groups petitioned the Dodgers to reconsider, with Senator Marco Rubio referring to the group in a letter to the commissioner as “a group of gay and transgender drag performers that intentionally mocks and degrades Christians.” After this, the team appeared to walk back their plans to honor the Sisters (or “fail miserably, crumble under pressure,” depending on who you ask). That is, until the onslaught of backlash from the LGBTQ community became so overwhelming, with some groups threatening to boycott Pride Night altogether, that the Dodgers reneged on their reneging and reinserted the Sisters into their plans for Pride Night, effectively showing the protesting Catholic community the door.

Source: Twitter.

I find this story compelling for two reasons. First, I believe the mere existence of and outpouring of public support for the Sisters is representative of the cultural moment in which we find ourselves. Second, the outright triumph of the Sisters in this case should instruct our expectations of the road ahead as we seek to walk wisely in the world.

The Assault on Sacred Order

In the 1960’s, American sociologist Philip Rieff coined the phrase “deathwork” to describe the act of taking a sacred symbol or icon and desecrating it through mockery and perversion, thus destroying its original meaning and purpose. A deathwork is an assault on the sacred order, a means of deconstructing the holy by making it hilarious, horrifying, or both. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, by their very existence, are themselves a walking deathwork. They co-opt the idea of what a Catholic nun is and remake it in their own image, a scandalous image which demeans the station and drains it of any reverence. A nun goes from being a venerable, chaste office to a sexualized birthday clown in a leather vest.

When asked to describe their work, the Sisters initially present themselves as little more than a gag, not to be taken too seriously, full of “frivolity” and “humor;” however, after a short while you can observe the parlance changing to something akin to honor and veneration for the worthy task that is being pursued. We see this clearly demonstrated in an article from this past Friday written in the Los Angeles Times, the first line of which reads as follows:

“Ask the L.A. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence why they decided to join the order of drag nuns, and most of them will tell you it’s because they felt the call.”

Throughout the article, religious language is used to ascribe to the Sisters the kind of transcendent mission and purpose as is traditionally reserved for people of faith. A cursory read of the article finds it further laced with still more religious trappings, including ministering, confession, and benediction.

When questioned about the apparent irreverence and abject mockery of Catholicism, the Sisters dismiss the notion with little more than a hand wave:

“We’re not mocking anything,” said Sister Harlot D Lite (red ribbed mini-dress, red tassel earrings, ornate pink makeup). “We appreciate nuns, and we’re doing it our own way, for our community.” (LA Times)

Notice the lip service paid to “appreciating” what nuns do, only to then explain that they are doing things “our own way, for our own community.” It appears that appreciation does not extend to the Sisters honoring and revering the principles by which those nuns are called to live by. As we will see, such patronizing language has since become part of the new standard of public discourse for those who wish to participate in the culture.

A Liturgy of the Powers

If American Christians were still on the fence about whether or not we now live in a Negative World, this story reveals the undeniable reality. When a professional sports team, the paragon of American capitalism, publicly capitulates to the demands of the people, they do so in the service of the only god they serve: the Dollar. The Dodgers bear no obligation to suss out the moral implications of their choices until those choices offend their god. At that point, restitution requires making peace with those who can do the most damage to the bottom line. And that group is definitively not Christians.

To be sure, being a Christian in America today puts you at a cultural disadvantage more than ever before. The Moral Revolution has taken a conservative faith holding to traditional moral values and effectively demonized it as the problem, rather than the means by which we solve problems.

In a video essay for First Things entitled “The New Public Liturgy,” Carl Trueman outlines the many ways this move has changed the politics of what is expected in the public square. Trueman cites what he refers to as “the liturgy of the powers” as the new standard by which people are expected to publicly perform in order to be allowed to continue doing what they want to do. Virtue signaling becomes the coin of the realm, and eventually all must bow the knee to the new orthodoxy to remain in good standing. Through their actions this past week, the Dodgers demonstrated perfectly what it looks like to acquiesce to this, complete with a healthy dose of public groveling when you’ve been caught with your pants down.

These days, we see deathworks all around us. For instance, in 2015, the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision became a cultural deathwork with regards to traditional marriage. As the idea pertains to Christianity, the goal of a deathwork is nothing less than dismantling the faith through mockery and deconstruction. It’s a good strategy by those who would stand against the knowledge of God and the free grace of Jesus Christ. Mockery has a unique power in the public square, and it doesn’t take much to see the sway a group like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence can have on our collective social imaginary (one USA Today article ran with this headline: “Hate loses: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are the heroes of this Dodgers story.”)

Christians in the West should reasonably expect the road ahead to get harder before it gets easier. The days of New York City skyscrapers being lit up with crosses in honor of Easter aren’t coming back any time soon. The task that falls to us, just as it always has, is to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. To preach the Good News and to pray for the lost. To bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim freedom in Jesus to those in bondage. Despite the challenges we should expect to face, we press on knowing that Christ is Lord of all, and ultimately, death will be swallowed up in victory.