The Idea That Won’t Die.

Writers sometimes speak of “zombie ideas,” notions and trends which, however terrible they are, just won’t go away.

A recurring question at the diocese is: Should parishes, modelling themselves on the Divine Renovation-inspired plan utilized in places like the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in West Lafayette, be asked to place large electronic viewscreens in their sanctuaries?

For our part, we had thought that perhaps the idea had been put to bed (since these are garish, out-of-touch with liturgical reverence, and of course expensive). But this seems not to be the case, and there are rumblings that a push for the shiny megachurch marvels is back on the table.

Let it never be said that a risible idea passed, friendless and unconsidered, through the halls of our diocese’s chancery. This one–which might have been cribbed straight from a book entitled, “How to Make Your Church Look More Like a Holiday Inn Conference Room in Three Easy Steps,” or “I Have Gazed Slightly to the Side of You in the Sanctuary: How to Make God’s Time into Even More Screen Time”–has apparently been drawn, like a child unto its mother’s bosom, into the Uniting in Heart vision.

But like all the rest of 2020’s misfortunes, The Simpsons weirdly saw it coming, and satirized it as passé, distasteful, and unappealing nearly two decades ago. The lesson, even coming from the yellow cartoon mouth of the secular culture, is plain. Run the Church like a business, throw in some ugly and irreverent gimmicks, and finally, plant large glowing jumbotrons in the sanctuary to hover, gleaming wanly, around the Body of the Lord. Then wonder why people seeking the transcendent presence of God, beauty and authenticity in worship, the sense of timeless adoration once breathed within the silence of the catacombs, turn away with the disillusionment of Lisa Simpson before the worthless spectacle.