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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1999)
Sr- • ' ri ■ A new testament Protestant Reformation ends after five centuries Sing alleluia high upon the _ . rooftops, and shout it from the spires of every church. It is finished. The Protestant Reformation is over. And after five centuries of war and brow-beating and other theological battle, it’s not a moment too soon. Chi Sunday, Oct 31,1999 in Augsburg, Germany, exactly 482 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to die door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Lutherans and Catholics got together to solve die last riddle of the Reformation, and together signed a doctrine that says salvation is through faith in God and die mysterious saving power ofhis grace. As a Lutheran; I could nary contain myself at the news - a victory - not only for Lutherans, but for the Catholic Church as well. Nearly 500 years of debate and struggle - ended, to the higher glory of God. It has been my passion for nearly all of my life to come to grips with die ynknowable mystery of God and his ~ love, only to come to die immutable truth that I cannot, by any desire or action of my own, comprehend in the least what God has done in saving humankind. And while some theological differ ences exist - the squabbles over tran substantiation can always be a point of contention for us amateur theologians - between the Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church, the base problem is solved. And that is all that matters. I can’t say that I am anything but overjoyed that this reconciliation has come now, when so much of die world has shrouded itself in the fundamental ist dogmas of Protestantism or right wing Christian militancy. This latest act gives due tribute to what Luther had tried so hard to accomplish and define in his lifetime - that he was not protesting anything, but doing something altogether more radi cal: attempting a reformation of die Church. And he finally got it The victory be in Christ, as Luther would say. Among other things, Luther saw what a depraved beast man was, and how fruitless it must seem that men should think that we could be anything more than wretched and try to save ourselves by good works. So he posited die doctrine of faith alone and salvation through die overar ching grace of God and tried to moti vate his fellows in the monastery to follow him. He had a few takers but was eventually excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Still, Luther clung to die legitimacy of the Catholic faith as die one true church. Therefore, Lutherans are not Protestants, only reformed Catholics. But it doesn’t matter anymore, as far as I’m concerned. We have recon ciled and come to a'clearer version of what it is that saves and who is doing the saving. I don’t know what I’ll do first, now a that it’s over. It seems akin to a cease fire in a five century war, of which I have only fought the last 20 years. There is a memory of die battle, but it’s so long ago and archaic that I can hardly recognize it I’ve said my prayers. I’ll continue to say them, lauding and magnifying the glorious work of God in this. What we have now done here on earth can only soothe our fears and anxiety and give us hope about what happens when we leave this place for our true home, in heaven. And that soothing comes in now recognizing, both Catholic and Lutheran, that there is nothing we can do here but accept that we can do nothing and be saved by an illimitable Love. I can only imagine what happened yesterday in Augsburg at the service held jointly by fee Baroque Roman Catholic Cathedral and fee Lutheran Church of St Anna’s. There were 3,000 people gathered to witness the most' historic event in fee last half of the Reformation’s legacy. And, wonder of wonders, there you had it for all fee world to see, Catholics and Lutherans in open embrace, free from fee bondage of the Reformation and its memories of bloodshed, suffer ing and endless argument. Pope John Paul II, from fee Vatican, fee seat of Luther’s scorn, praised the reunion and was echoed by his Lutheran colleagues, including Bishop Christian Krause of fee Lutheran World Federation. It was as if fee Christian world had awoken from hibernation to come to grips wife fee fact that God loves everyone, and we all -3CSS believe in that same God, and that he is most decidedly neither Lutheran nor Catholic, but something else, > something changeless and free of doctrine. Finally, wife fee reconcilia non oi doctrine, L-nnsuamty can v move on and shift the focus away from the manmade pitfalls of dogma and concentrate on the true meaning of it all, the undeserved yet abundant love of God. So what will we have to argue about anymore? The consecrated Eucharist and other communion arguments aside, Catholics and Lutherans are brothers and sisters in doc trine once again, just where God would have us. And now, with one fewer thing impeding the Christian brother hood, maybe Lutheran boys can come home with Catholic girls and vice versa. And we can recognize that it has been the same God, the same Jesus, the same Holy Spirit throughout, regardless of what is on a piece of paper. Entire new portals have been opened, from the most trivial to the most potentially catastrophic, remem bering the Christian religious wars in Europe and the unspeakable, whole sale slaughter of Christians by Christians. It would appear that 482 years of bickering may have been enough. I’m sure God thought so. Megan Cody/DN Adam J. Klinker is a junior English and history major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Sketchy humor ‘Kids in the Hall/ similar shows hold key to precious, original comedy s - f»■siiiiiiiitiiiSiiiiiiiiiiiiii Mynmjni mrm ■——^■11 MIMln | lil — I love Halloween. It’s die only day of die year when you can become any thing, or anyone, that you want to. This is why I wasn’t surprised when only one person out of 73.5 knew who I was. I will reveal who I was, and then, I will let you know where my passion for becoming this man sprung from. (It probably sprung from Uranus, but I’m not really sure.) I was Blueberry Johnson. Don’t tell me you don’t know who - he is. Hels the rejected children’s show host that “looks like a trickin' blueber ry!” Blueberry is a highly acclaimed producer; not educated with the acting skills to be a host, but because of the fact that he’s a “freak of nature” and was bom with blue hair, he thinks he should host the show he brainstormed, aptly titled “Blueberry Muffins in die Morning.” Blueberry even talks in a high pitched voice like a puppet and is con vinced he was put on the earth for this children’s show. Needless to say, the executives in charge didn’t heed a word of Blueberry’s, simply because he had never taken an acting class. Instead they hired Richard Dreyfuss - “a great choice,” the execu tives say. And a much funnier one, too. If you have no idea what I’m talk ing about, Blueberry Johnson was a skit character done by a comedy troupe called The State. After watching people watching me and not knowing who I was (I even wore a name tag that clearly stated “Hello! My name is Blueberry”), I started wondering if sketch comedy was a dying breed. Where has sketch comedy gone? What have they done with it? (They, of course, meaning the aliens and the secretary of defense.) The answer is that sketch comedy hasn’t gone anywhere. It has simply always been a sort of “lost art,” or per haps a “floating art” It’s not entirely “lost,” because mil lions of people watch these obscure shows, but these people are few and far between. I say “floating art” because sketch comedy troupes come and go on the TV screen (if they are lucky enough to be picked up by various stations at var ious points in tone), but usually they have been together for at least five years, trying to get their big break. Lome Michaels, producer of “Saturday Night Live,” gave a troupe called Kids in the Hall its first big break after it had been trying to get on the air for several years. “KITH” ran on HBO from 1989 to 1994. It is now syndicated on Comedy Central at 1 p.m., and I would highly recommend that you arrange your class schedule around it. 'I just quit going to college alto gether, and I am going to be a groupie for the Kids’ coming reunion tour. Around the time this Canadian class act was ending, “The State” (the birthplace ofBlueberry) was rearing its ugly head. “The State” is definitely my favorite show, but several others have helped shape me into who I am today. ... Socially messed up and termi nally ill (brained), I find time to watch as many of these remaining or syndi cated stows as possible. “The State” aired from 1993 to early 1996 after the cast decided to leave MTV and try to get picked up by Fox. The pilot was a bust, and all 11 of the troupe are woiking on various pro wrote a play titled “Sex. aJc.a. Weiners and Boobs.” They’ve come a king way since their somewhat juvenile sketch titled “Booger, Booger and Fartybutt” There will always be upcoming comedy troupes, and the newest one that is thoroughly engaging is “Upright Citizens Brigade” on Comedy Central. Its stirring rendition of “Spaghetti Jesus” (a simple tale of one man who saw the face of Jesus arranged in noo dles on his plate - which gradually descends, or is it ascends, to Vomit Jesus and Fecal Jesus) had me in stitches for hours and hours to come. After I told everyone I know of the sketch plot, they put me in more stitch es for wasting their precious time. The wounds have yet to heal. Well, folks, no time is too precious for “Spaghetti Jesus” or sketch come dy in general for that matter. I would just encourage you all to respect die sketch comedy, because, no matter how bad it is, it’s original, and feat makes it so much more worth while than the usual formulaic TV shows and movies that we are used to. With sketch comedy, you know who is writing die material because the writers are right in front of your face. They don’t have hundreds of writers there to tell them what lines to memorize. -W They don’t have to follow any rules except one - anything can hap pen as long as it^s tunny and inexpen sive to produce. “Saturday Night Live” is the longest running sketch act, but it is dif ferent because the actors come and go seasonally, and that’s how it has always been. They can be replaced on a whim and most often are. Shows like “Mr. Show,” “The Jenny McCarthy Show,” “The Tracy Ullman Show,” “Mad TV” and of course “The State” and “KITH,” all started together and burned out togeth er. The decisions they made, they made together, and if their station did n’t like it, they got dropped like an empty shampoo bottle. I think Jenny McCarthy was doomed from the start after her damp character on MTV’s “Singled Out.” She then hosted ESPN’s “Maui Sport Challenge” and finally landed 20 shows with MTV I thought she was hilarious. Lately I’ve beenjonesing for Jenny, but there’s no way to get reruns unless 50,000 people write MTV and plead mercilessly. It’s the same deal with “The State.” It doesn’t own any rights to its material, so the fans are out of luck. I guess the joke of sketch comedy isn’t for everyone, and neither was my costume. So if you went to a Halloween party as Doug, Barry and Levonne, Cabbage Head, or the “It’s a Fact” girl, then we can jive about whether or not you really can get Wood from a stone. P.S. You can. You just have to throw the stone hard enough. Karen Brown is a junior English andfilm studies major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist