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Friday, February 14, 2020

POPE FRANCIS WANTS THE CHURCH TO HAVE INCULTURATED LITURGIES? HOW WOULD WE DO THAT WITH THE SOUTHERN REDNECK CULTURE:

Rednecks gathering for Mass with their banners:
Redneck cantor:
Redneck usher:
Redneck preparation of the altar:


I personally do not think that we should be inculturating the Mass or other sacraments. I think it should be done with personal piety and popular devotions. The pre-Vatican II Church is the model for this. Popular devotions varied from country to country but the official sacraments of the Church including the Mass were universal and from its Roman origins, thus European. We are the Latin or Roman Rite of the Church and we don't need to be ashamed of our European roots whatsoever.

The shaming of our Latin Rite's cultural heritage is a progressive initiative.

But let's say, we must do what Pope Francis advocates. How would a southern redneck Mass look?

Please offer comments on a Redneck inculturated Mass!

Here's some background on southern redneck culture:



History


With origins soon after the civil war, the term redneck has been used by the American people to describe a constantly changing group of white Americans. However, there are reoccurring traits in this subculture throughout. Importantly, however, it is important to realize that the term redneck is commonly used as a self describing label as well as a pejorative term. Rednecks have historically a proud group of working-class people, and even proclaim themselves as a redneck. For the purposes of this page, the term rednecks will be used to describe a group of historically white, working class people with a strong sense of nationalism. Additionally, they have often had right wing, racist ideals and have lived in the rural south. Common, more modern stereotypes for rednecks are that they live out in the country, only listen to country western music, and reminisce to days when slavery still existed in America and other racial discrimination. While some of these stereotypes may be truer than others, the origins of the true American redneck is surprising to most. 

Sharecroppers posing in a field.
Sharecroppers posing in a field in Georgia. They can be thought of as the original rednecks.

The term redneck has strong agricultural ties. Originally used in the latter half of the 19th century, redneck was a slur used by upper class whites to describe lower class white farmers (Huber 1995). These lower class workers would often have sunburnt, red necks from tending their fields all day; hence the name. Interestingly, newly freed slaves due to emancipation also used this term to both distinguish themselves and gain social status above the poor, white farmers. This slur, and continual socioeconomic restrains caused working class southern whites to fall to the bottom of the white social hierarchy ladder (Boney 1971). In order to gain some social currency and further separate themselves from the now free black men and women, these white farmers would refuse to wear the same head ware that was donned as the black farmers. Instead of wearing the same protective, wide brimmed straw hats that the black farmers could now wear, rednecks would instead wear narrow brimmed cloth hats. In this way, the back of their necks were left unprotected and susceptible to sunburn. Even today, common stereotypes about rednecks talk about the brimming of hats.

Coal miner with handkerchief.
A Pennsylvanian coal miner sporting a handkerchief.

In the 1930s, redneck took a dramatic shift from being a term used for prejudice, to one of unification for white coal miners.With the eventual fall of the majority of sharecropping and agriculture in the south, many poor whites turned to coal mining as an occupation; namely in the Appalachian region (Huber 1995). With this turn to coal mining came the rise of labor unions. To many southern whites, the ideas of labor unions went against American ideologies of earning a hard day’s work, and living off of your own work. Thus, those white, southern coal miners who belonged to labor unions were termed rednecks due to their communist ties (Huber 1995). This was meant as a double epithet, since once again many of these coal miners were converted farmers, who were rednecks back then too. Instead of being prejudiced against and discriminated by the term, union organizers instead used the term redneck as means for unification. By using red bandanas, which were already being used for protection in the coal mining industry against dust, union members could be easily identified. This was prominently displayed in coal miner strikes throughout the 1930s. Unification by the once prejudicial term redneck is still common to some today, however its coal miner ties have faded.

Modern Day Redneck

Sam, a hillbilly who lives in North Carolina.
Sam is a self proclaimed hillbilly who lives in Gertin, North Carolina.

In today’s society, the term redneck does not have a regional descriptor attached to it. Instead, it is used to describe a lifestyle with certain ideals still present from the old south. In a piece done by Vice, various self-reported rednecks described what it means to be a redneck:

“A true redneck don’t give a shit about nothing but putting food on the table, working, and getting drunk. A man ain’t got a job and can’t provide for himself can go to hell as far as I care.”

These ideas of working for your own food and shelter, having a strong sense of self pride, and aggressive and violent tendencies to those view otherwise closely mirrors the traits of an old, southern, poor sharecropper. This lifestyle is consistently shown in another common facet of the modern day redneck, country music (Grimshaw 2002). Modern country music still talks of being able to live off of your own work, being proud of your history and of being American, and even of staying true to the south (for better and for worse). A good example of this stereotypical southern ideology is shown in Brooks and Dunn’s hit song Hillbilly Deluxe:

“Hillbilly deluxe, slick pick up trucks
Big timing in a small town
Stirrin’ it up right about sundown
Black denim and chrome to the bone
With a little homegrown
Country girl cuddled up
Hillbilly deluxe”

Acts of owning large trucks, dating southern girls, and self-identifying as a hillbilly, or redneck, are common themes in country music. Country music even tries to address aspects of racism in the modern day redneck. In staying with southern pride, many rednecks fly flags and wear clothing depicting the confederate flag. While a symbol of pride and history to many rednecks, main stream society views the wearing and flying of this flag as a racist act, and one that self-identifies as a racist. 

In a song by LL Cool J and Brad Paisley called Accidental Racist, Paisley (a white country singer) says, “When I put on that t-shirt [depicting the confederate flag], the only thing I meant to say is I’m a Skynyrd fan. The red flag on my chest somehow is like the elephant in the corner of the south”. He even follows up in the song saying, “I’m a son of the new south”, and even “And I just want to make things right”. The modern redneck as depicted by country music is a person who lives a carefree lifestyle, earns an honest living, and is proud of his history. These ideas have been common throughout the use of the term redneck, and the people it describes.

Liberal Rednecks

The logo of the far left militia group Redneck Revolt.
The Redneck Revolt logo.

Modern society and media has often portrayed self-proclaimed rednecks with stereotypes of being from the south, poverty, and being supports of white nationalism and white pride; stereotypes also applied to Alt-Right Subcultures. In recent years, however, there has been a large push back of these stereotypes being associated with the redneck label. In response to the election of President Trump, a group of far left militias from Colorado and Kansas formed the Redneck Revolt. The revolt is founded on core principles of anti-white supremacy, anti-capitalism, and anti-patriarchy. The militia group has branches across the country, and has members from various political, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

In less extreme cases, even poop culture has begun to try and reclaim the Redneck handle from the disparaging stereotypes. The now internet famous comedian and self-proclaimed redneck Trae Crowder has used YouTube to post videos of himself mocking and refuting ideals of trans-phobia and bigotry. Using the handle the “Liberal Redneck”, he aims to reform common societal stereotypes of rednecks to ones of being educated and tolerant. In his most famous video, he responds to an evangelical minister’s transphobic rant on transgender bathrooms. Crowder’s goal is to influence a new wave of southern rednecks to be more tolerant, and let more close-minded rednecks that times are changing (Huntsberry, 2016).

8 comments:

5 said...

Very creative take on inculturation.

The biggest "inculturation" I am concerned about is the current pope's insistence on inculturating the entire Church back to its 70's absurdities of relativism and fuzziness.

Clue: When you hear this pope talk about "EVANGELIZATION" start praying and fasting. For this pope, "evangelization" simply means "dialoging" with other religions and possibly inculturating them. The ultimate results are syncretism and indifferentism--two contaminants the Church actively imbibed during the post-conciliar euphoria of the 70's.

If you want to know what this pope thinks about "evangelization", listen to his comments on proselytization. For St. Paul, it was a mission. For pope Francis, it's a horror to be demolished.

St. Paul or Pope Francis? Whose vision should we trust?

Now I've got to go evangelize some Hare Krishnas...Anyone seen my saffron robes?

Dan said...

The bread and wine could be made more relevant to the culture. How about Budweiser and Chik-Fil-A?

John Nolan said...

The prime cause of the liturgical shambles we find ourselves in was the complete vernacularization of the Mass (in most places) in a little over two-and-a half years (October 1964 - May 1967). Everything else flowed from this.

Anonymous said...

One must understand what the Left in this case the Democrat party is trying to do. There is an all out assault on white Christian males, it is no secret they want to destroy the white American male, and yes I do understand the first thing the Left will say is of course: NAZI, WHITE NATIONALIST, HOMOPHOBE, BIGOT! The name calling is the first line of attack the Democrats have, it is beyond old and tiring that it does not work anymore. The Left has taken down Confederate Statues, War Memorials all over the country trying to eradicate history and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Southern men who died for the cause of states rights not slavery, 99% of the men who died during the war of Northern aggression were POOR and non slave owners. White Liberals hate the South and anything that goes with it such as the Confederate flag and statues, our history weather you like it or not is being taken from us right before our very eyes. When you watch a Trump rally the President points out every time how the radical Left Democrats are trying to destroy our history and purge this country of all that is good and right. Thank God for President Trump who more than likely will be the last Republican president our Nation will have, the reason? DEMOGRAPHICS my friends you cannot change what is happening in this country and that is the demographic shift from a white society to a browning society and YES I know this will be called racist and Nazi of course. But this is why the Democrats want open borders, when you offer people everything for free: health care, college, housing, food, of course you will except it and vote for them. That is the goal of the Democrats to finally control this country and yes there is no stopping it. The 1950's of I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, the family unit, Mass going, is a thing of the past and the 1960's saw to that. Yes America is never going to see those days again, the Left wing White Democrats hated it then and hate it now, they are very open about saying so, look at Sanders, Bloomberg, Omar, OAC, all of these people hate America and everything it stands for. The Democrats are the ones who point out our color, religion, gender.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:39. Goodness me!

Anonymous said...

Anon at 5:39. You say, "The Democrats are the ones who point out our color, religion, gender."

Yet YOU have pointed our race SIX times, religion TWO times, and gender FIVE times.

Hmmm.....

Bob said...

Mass opens with, "The Lord be with y'all."

Am of an age where southerners did not revel in redneck, but aspired to southern chivalry and honor, and why the pride in the Rebel flag as a symbol of that southern sense of duty and honor even in a lost or even dead wrong cause, and as a sign and symbol that the land could be taken, we might lose, but you will not break us as a people....all of that is gone today, and folk revel in white trash and black trash and latino trash and asian trash stereotypes.

Православный физик said...

The whole attitude that Liturgy can be messed with is a major problem.