I'm Not Roman Catholic...

But My State Is

I’m not Roman Catholic, but my state is!

Louisiana is indeed a Roman Catholic state. It just is. And the state has just passed a law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.

We have parishes (what other states call ‘counties’) called St. John the Baptist,  St. James, St. Mary, St. Bernard, St. Martin, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. Landry, Ascension (of Jesus), and Assumption (of Mary).

We have cities including St. Francisville, St. Gabriel, St. Joseph, St. Martinville, and St. Rose - as well as a brand new city called St. George.

Our state flag is the iconic Christian symbol of the pelican piercing her breast. 

It isn’t so much a majority thing (though that is the case in my city and parish and region). It is rather a matter of our history and culture. It is the character of our state based on centuries of precedent, of the ancestors of natives who built this civilization in this place.

Similarly, we speak English here. It is not because we have a law that says we speak English; we just do. There is no such thing as linguistic neutrality. We have to speak some language. And here, we speak English. Also, the French language has a “special status” in our state - again owing to historical precedent. We also have a history of Spanish, German, Creole, and various Indian languages being spoken here - but French has the privileged status based on our unique history. Our legal codes are uniquely based on the Napoleonic rather than the English Common Law system. Our cuisine is unique to our region. Our public schools close the entire week of Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. People generally have Good Friday off work. Our states are not clones of each other, and Louisiana’s Roman Catholic heritage is normative.

And this is part of what the United States is supposed to be: independent states with different histories, laws, cultures, and religions - bound in a Union for mutual defense and a common market with a common currency. This decentralization is called “federalism.” This is why you will look in vain for the words “nation” and “national” applied to the United States in the U.S. Constitution, and why “United States” takes the plural verb. In the original draft, the word “national” was deliberately struck and replaced by “federal.”

And so, again, I am a non-Roman Catholic in a Roman Catholic state.

I don’t drive through Assumption Parish with a chip on my shoulder, claiming to be offended and threatening to sue because the government sign says: “Assumption Parish,” as a nod to Roman Catholic dogma. I just don’t. Like the English language, that is simply the reality here. And I’m grateful to live in this little plot of God’s swampy, green earth, and to be a citizen of this Roman Catholic state. People often speak about what Roman Catholic parish they belong to, or what Roman Catholic school they attended. They take it for granted that everyone does. I am routinely called “Father” by nearly everyone I meet (which is also the ancient Lutheran custom). Restaurants have fish-based specials on Lenten Fridays (though sometimes they aren’t exactly examples of temperance and self-denial). Even non-liturgical Protestant churches have fish-fry fundraisers on Fridays in the weeks preceding Easter.

In 1992, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod had a National Youth Gathering in New Orleans featuring a poster based on the iconic Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Louis. My hometown displays a nativity scene on public property every year, and the local Roman Catholic parish hosts a living nativity - including the local parish priest’s reading of the Christmas narrative from St. Luke’s Gospel. There is also the annual appearance of the camel. Yes, a camel. In South Louisiana. Like me, he is not a native. He is most certainly not a Roman Catholic either. And neither are many of the people who turn out year after year to enjoy the Christmas decorations and festivities. At least so far, no sourpuss killjoys or leftist law-firms have shown up to pee on the parade.

I could choose to complain about my being an outsider in the larger culture: getting in fights with people and filing lawsuits. Or I could be civilized and understand that every place has its own history and culture to celebrate. We are not vassal states of Washington, DC - and the fact that Californicatia’s governor Gavin Newsom doesn’t approve of the Ten Commandments in our schools concerns me about the same as his views on seafood and Mardi Gras. Hint: nobody cares what he thinks. Federalism only works when people mind their own business and recognize that, for all the lip-service to diversity, that very concept means understanding that you may not be part of the dominant culture. If you don’t like it, the borders are open. There is probably a five million dollar home in California waiting for you in the happy land of utopian atheism. Bon voyage, mon ami!

As for us in the Deep South, like the old country song says, “We say grace and we say Ma’am. If you ain’t into that, we don’t give a damn.” And we really don’t.

Interestingly, a public charter school rented our congregation’s vacant school buildings a few years ago. They did not display the Ten Commandments in the classrooms, but they did display the rainbow and transgender flags. They had posters about sexuality, and one poster approving the spray painting of public works of art in museums. One classroom displayed tarot cards on the wall. Yes, in tax-supported public school classrooms, on property owned by a member congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The ubiquity of secular religious iconography, at odds with our state’s cultural history and heritage, being employed in public school classrooms - was probably the impetus for the new requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed.

If Iowans want a statue of Baphomet in their statehouse, that’s their business. If Louisianans want nativity scenes on public property, that’s our business. And if California wanted to erect a 50-foot phallus on the town square, painted in rainbow colors, with a ritual of state officials bowing to it - that would be California’s and Californians’ prerogative. That’s how it’s supposed to work under federalism anyway. Instead, US courts have forced all of our states to recognize homosexual “marriages,” and, for decades, compelled a legal child-murder holocaust in our overwhelmingly pro-life Louisiana, and other states - to the tune of sixty million deaths by Supreme Court fiat.

Our Louisiana schools are really not the federal government’s business. They’re not California Governor Newsom’s business. That said, I’m pretty sure the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down the Ten Commandments law (even though the Ten Commandments are ironically displayed at the Supreme Court). But I welcome the Louisiana pushback. We asserted the uniqueness of our state, its Roman Catholic history and its historically western culture, as well as the federalism of our allegedly Constitutional Union. We put the powers-that-be on notice.

I’m glad we did. And we need to do more of it.