Several Cents on !Katepersons Embracing the Whole Gospel....

[ll-xn!uwvax!astroatc!gtaylor (Another Cointreau Lover)]

(In which I come out of the closet!)
So the Break-Through pair have decided to become Christians, and have
decided to spread the effects of their conversion throughout the paper,
eh? Since we've had an agnostic and an ex, I guess I should post a bit
from the "other" side. I'm not really surprised that the result of the
BT twins' conversion tends to the externalization of their credal stuff
at the expense of other KB fans-I've seen something like that happen
quite a lot. What *does* surprise me is that they chose to become 
Christians. The faith has acquired a pretty bad name these days, with
the streets full of Christians uneasy with living in the modern world
and *lots* of crooks and politicians all too ready to give them the
easy Ideological answers. Ditto the language of the whole Christian
tradition. That's one of the reasons that some of us prefer to avoid
the sloganeering and flamage and live quietly and (one hopes) humbly.
I hope it helps to entertain the thought that not all Christians
are raving, drooling, gibbering crypto-fascisti. Trust me, there are
a number of exceptions out there.

I don't know that it will be any comfort to you, but my own experience
is that religious belief looks and behaves like a great number of other
types of human commitments, and that its early stages look remarkably
like that unmitigated combination of lust and clumsiness and gush that
most of us remember with great embarrassment when we think of our own
adolescence. In time, those things will probably fade (although it *may*
take a while, and you may not want to hang around for it); they may fade
to the point where they vanish.

It's also safe to say that, given your experience of the BT editors as
"fans", you could probably conclude that there's a strong similarity 
between their fervour for Kate and their fervour for the Faith. As fans
yourselves, I think this should make some sense. What you're seeing is 
that dislocating kind of perception of similar experiences seen in
unfamiliar surroundings...but don't you tend to find it difficult to
entirely "wall off" your views of other music from your evaluative
criteria for Kate's stuff? I tend to have a strong tendency to expect
anyone who uses a Fairlight to have come to grips with The Dreaming
in the same way that I expect a 2 1/4" square photograph to come to
grips with Diane Arbus' photographs. If any of you have Marxists or
Structuralists for friends, you certainly must know how that can be. I'd
say that, in this case, you've got to wonder whether you see a "similarity"
between the B-T folks as "people/fans/Kateians" and as "believers." To
the extent that there's a kind of internal consistency between the two, it
shouldn't be too difficult to accept. Of course, they can make that a little
easier on you by being gracious. THat will probably be hard for them, for
the time being (I'd bet on it).

As Mr. Hsu says, the metaphorical Judeo-Christian stuff (Catholic,
particularly) portion of Kate's work is probably worthy of some
scrutiny, and they'd be in a good position to provide it....one hopes
without overdoing it. I'd have been doing that sort of thing all
along, but Dante and Charles Williams are more my territory (that and
Javanese Gamelan).

In closing, I'd suggest that you approach them as you would anyone
who's "in love". THe extent to which you're gracious may determine the
extent to which they can avoid going overboard. The possibilities of
belief and passion and commitment attract us just as surely as they
tend to repel us when glimpsed in other. Trust me, the initial
rush/gush *will* fade; Belief and commitment, like any serious
relationship, is a gritty business. There'll be more energy expended
on making the transitions if you can avoid the immediate tendency to
get out the flamethrower.

Regards,
Gregory
:wq