undressing the pig

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A saying I have always been partial to is this: "A pig in a purple robe is still a pig." For me, the saying feeds directly into a remark once attributed to former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

Personally or socially, dressing things up can be convincing for a while, but eventually the nitty-gritty brass tacks peek through the fabric. I suppose that one man's brass tacks are another man's fabrication, but as a personal matter I think it is worthwhile to strip away the purple robes in which anyone might dress a favored pig... uncover and make peace with the foundations that support and uphold the fabrications.

In religion, there is something simultaneously understandable and quite saddening about the implicit or explicit expression of the notion that "we are the first-est with the best-est."

The Roman Catholics (as far from the only example) are currently awaiting the mandatory implementation of a change in the liturgy, a change that goes into effect Nov. 27. The change will test longtime Catholics' ability to give responses they may have memorized. New translations aim to come as close as possible to the original Latin ... and to make things less folksy or open to interpretation. More mysterious. More 'spiritual.'  The Vatican hopes to get everyone on the same orthodox and hierarchical page.

Recent popes have emphasized orthodoxy and hierarchy, particularly in the West, where religious identity is increasingly fluid. Catholic hospitals and schools have been required to more clearly espouse church teachings, and Pope Benedict XVI has stressed the sole truth of Catholicism over other faiths, even declining this month to pray with Hindus, Jews and others at an interreligious event.

I have seen and even felt the same "first-est with the best-est" approaches in Hinduism and Buddhism, though perhaps a little less legalistically. And as a matter of personal approach, it strikes me as understandable and useful ... for a while. No one wants to be played for a sucker, so asserting or imagining that this (whatever 'this' happens to be) is the 'one true way' inspires confidence and a willingness to make a determined effort. No getting sidetracked by other 'untrue' ways! As a personal matter, it may tentatively make some sense.

But as a policy matter -- one that interacts with a wider world -- it is a recipe for war of one kind or another. True, I don't want to be played for a sucker and true, I don't want to be harried by doubt, but to assert that such faith could or should create an overarching foundation for all is arrogant and small-minded and greedy ... and a far cry from the 'peace' any religion might claim it was aiming for.

Criticizing such narrowness is really small potatoes. You can't properly undress the pig with lamentations. But what does undress the pig, to my mind, is to recognize the tendency within to aggrandize what does not play me for a sucker, what I see as a true or good way, what I am willing to expend effort on. This is what I choose and, good, bad or indifferent, I have decided to see it through. I have decided to undress my pig, to stop being fooled, to get to the bottom of things ... however foolish I may be along the way. With luck -- but without assurance -- I hope I will not injure or demean others in my efforts. The odds of that happening are pretty small, but I will do my best to make amends where, in fact, I have inflicted my purple-robe mentality on others.

Perhaps the biggest difficulty when undressing the pig is the willingness/need to have the agreement of others ... the willingness to allow the views of others to supersede my own uncertain and yet determined steps. If "everyone does it" and I do it too, then I am OK. But the moment you swath the OK pig in purple robes in that way, life comes calling and the not-so-OK-ness rears its head. To go-along-to-get-along is alluring, but if you look back, wasn't this pseudo-support system the very basis in which uncertainty arose? The uncertainty that might incline any man or woman towards a first-est-with-the-best-est religion?

Honesty isn't easy. But consider the pig. The pig goes "oink!" With or without a purple robe, the pig goes "oink!" Is there something mysterious about this "oink?" You bet there is! Not!

How about that for a sensible and less war-like starting point?
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