Quantcast

Currently: Fair and 58° F

OPINION & EDITORIAL

Ash Wednesday: reason to reflect

Mark Baumgarder

Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.

Also by Mark Baumgarder:
Related Stories:
by Mark Baumgarder
Wednesday, February 9, 2005

As you walk around campus throughout the day, you will likely see at least one person with a black mark on his forehead. Today, the Catholic Church marks the beginning of Lent with a day known as Ash Wednesday. On this campus, with a significant Catholic presence, Ash Wednesday is traditionally widely observed among those who practice Catholicism, even more so than significant feasts and holy days of obligation within the church.

Catholics who attend Mass at their church of worship today will receive ashes on their forehead. These ashes come from burnt palm branches used on Palm Sunday the previous year, and, as the priest uses them to mark the Sign of the Cross on foreheads, he says these or similar words: “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.”

These words serve as a reminder of human mortality, and the ashes represent the dust to which humans will eventually return. Also, as explained by Father Robert Altier, a priest in St. Paul, Minn., who appears weekly on Relevant Radio (a Catholic radio network), “The ashes also have another purpose for us. Throughout history, putting ashes upon one’s head is a sign of public penance.”

Altier continues, “In the ancient world of Judah of the Jewish people, they used to put on sackcloth and they would put ashes upon their heads and on their faces to be able to demonstrate that they were doing penance, that they were fasting and they were allowing themselves to suffer … So the ashes on our heads today also remind us of the penance that each one of us is to be doing during this Lenten season.” This penance refers, among other things, to fasting and the removal of sin that may prevent salvation.

Certainly many things in the Catholic Mass celebrated daily have deeper theological meaning, of which the Holy Eucharist is paramount. So the theological meaning of the ashes does not solely explain the widespread observance of this day among Catholics.

Last year, one of my friends suggested that perhaps the ashes give Catholics an especially unique way of identifying themselves as members of the church. Her suggestion that American Catholics have lost some of their identity seems especially correct and agreed on by others.

In his introduction to George Marlin’s “The American Catholic Voter,” Michael Barone writes, “American Catholics are as numerous as ever, more prosperous than ever, more diverse in their opinions than ever; but they are less of an identifiable bloc than they were well within living memory, when America had not elected a Catholic president.” Barone also explains that within the church, varying degrees of observance exist.

In the past 40 years, many American Catholics have adjusted their beliefs to blend in with society, even as politically correct thought has drifted away from notions of right and wrong. Catholics on this campus must resist the temptation to do the same on important issues frequently discussed at this university.

Contrary to popular (but fortunately slowly diminishing) belief, abortion is not merely a medical “choice,” but the taking of an innocent human life. Likewise, embryonic stem-cell research also destroys an innocent human life, regardless of how much money and jobs it brings to the university and the state. And no matter what our sick society and individuals at this university try to say, marriage is only between one man and one woman. Two men cannot be married and two women cannot be married.

Catholics on this campus have many occasions to speak out with both charity and resolve against these and other vital issues. On a day when Catholics will walk the campus with a visible sign that identifies their faith, they should consider these other ways of asserting their Catholic identity — opportunities that arise every day at this university.

Mark A. Baumgardner (mbaumgardner@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.


Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 4:52am):

Ah, thanks for reminding me why I left the Church.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 5:15am):

YO ASH W3DN3SDAY IS 2TALY ABOUT HATNG ON FAGS!!!111! LOL U DA MAN MARK11111 WTF LOL DESPIET 90% OF UR COLUMN BNG ABOUT DA ORIGINS AND IMPLICATIONS OF DA ASHAS U RILLY DO A GRAAT JOB OF WRAPNG THNGS UP AND STIKNG ON3 UP TEH ASES OF THOS3 SIK SIK PEOPLE WHO PRAACH 2LERANCE AND LOV3!!1!1111 ITS ALSO RILLY AEWSOME TAHT U MAEK SUCH AN INFORM3D DISTINCTION BTWEN TEH CATHOLIC SACRMENT OF MARIAEG AND CIVIL MARIAEG OR DOMASTIC PARTNARSHIPS11!!111 OMG IN FACT IN UR HONOR I 2TALY PROPOS3 TAHT CATHOLICISM AD ON 2 DA CONC3PT OF P3TRIEN AND PAULIEN PRIVIELGE WAL CAL IT BAUMGARDNERIEN PRIVIELGE!!!1! WTF TAHT WAY IN CAES U ACIEDNTALY MARY A DUDE U CAN G3T IT DISOLV3D ONCE U RE-MARY (SO LONG AS TEH PERSON U RE-MARY IS CATHOLIC AND 2TALY HAS A VAGINA)!11!1!11 WTF SWET!!11!1! OMG WTF

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 5:33am):

Gosh, sounds like conservatives are getting to be as extreme as liberals are. I hope we don't see a riot any time soon. What a mess that would be!

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 8:10am):

Yay! Religion spreading hatred! Woohoo!

And Mark, can you tell me what exactly is so "sick" about our society. Personally, I think a society that allows people to do things that won't harm other people (who are actually, you know, born and all) is a very healthy society. Didn't this used to be the dogma of conservatism? That people should be allowed to do things unless they harm others without the federal government butting in? Oh wait, now I remember. Conservatism has changed to religious rightism. Oh, and don't even try calling me a liberal. The nearly socialistic hippies who have no idea how anything works in the real world are just as bad.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 8:32am):

After 8 non-related paragraphs, he gets to the point. Anyone with whom he disagrees is simply wrong. It's nice to see someone paint with such broad strokes as Mr. Baumgardner. I never knew Mark was the foremost authority on the "facts" of abortion and marriage. I guess it must be the gospel truth though, since he is never wrong, and never has been kicked out of student government...

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 8:52am):

Point one above is absolutely correct. The reason the Catholic Church is something I no longer associate with, but who's teachings I absorbed (minus the hate, misogny, homophobia, and pedophilia) is this close minded rambling.

Honestly, how is it that passing judgment, literally condemning people for their choices, and creating rifts in our "sick" society is a Christian action?

Baumgardner, like the VAST majority of Christian right wingers, has no Christian values whatsoever. He does not understand the compassion that Jesus preached. He does not comprehend that Democratic politics are the politics of compassion.

What is Christian about condemning someone as "sick"? What is understanding about screaming in the face of a young woman who needs to get an abortion because of her drug use, lack of financial resources and overall emotional immaturity? What is compassionate about letting businesses run rampant and hoping that their own "Christian business values" will take care of the rest of us? What is that? A rich man has as good a chance of getting into heaven as a camel does getting through the eye of a needle? I love that quote...it makes you realize that if they do believe in the afterlife, all those rich as Republicans are going to have to worry about suffering an eternity in hellfire for their avarice on Earth.

Mark, your hatred and bile puts you on one path.

Highway to Hell!

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 9:05am):

This writer makes me feel ashamed to be a Catholic.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 9:50am):

I was raised Catholic for the first 18 years of my life. I went to Catholic school for 12 of those years before I came to Madison. While I no longer adhere to the Catholic (or any theistic religion) I do remember and adhere to what I learned all those years in the presence of Catholics: Tolerance. Maybe I lived in a weird catholic community, maybe I went to an abnormally liberal catholic high school. Even so, all those years of studying Christ both scripturally and historically I was instilled by my learning, and my Catholic parents, a sense of tolerance and respect for everyone. From what I learned, and what most Catholics learned, is that Jesus (the historical figure) preached a respect for everyone and a compassion for all. Oh and Mark, if you even think of bring up Leviticus as the defense for hating gays, I'll remind you that Jesus (your savior not mine) stated that all the old laws were void and they were replaced by only two new ones. Obviously Mark, you have forgotten that these new laws are "Love God, and Love your neighbor". I'm not sure where hating homosexuals comes in with loving anyone, but maybe you can enlighten me. The very sad fact of all of this is that I went to the same Catholic high school as Baumgardner and to see him spewing hatred and misinformation in the name of Catholicism makes me physically ill. Mark you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself for manipulating religion to defend your fascist beliefs. Catholic fundamentalism is in itself, an oxymoron as the majority of Catholic tenements are founded in historic reference, theological debate, and discussion within church communities. Somehow, Mark has discarded this tradition to promote his narrow-minded views about the world in the name of Catholics. I know lots of religious people, and everyone, including the Catholics I know, is open minded. I don't believe in hell, Mark, but if I wind up there for some reason I'll take solace in the fact that hate mongers like you will be there too.

Z

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 9:56am):

Don't mistake the so-called "tolerance" in the Bible for the "anything goes" of today's pop culture.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 9:59am):

maybe i missed the point, but what does hating people have to do with ash wednesday? the last paragraph doesnt really seem to fit...

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 10:12am):

Hombre, if you think homosexuality and abortion are simply pieces of modern "pop culture", you don't know much about the history of homosexuality and abortion.

In other words, your statement was too broad. There are certain things for sure the Bible would not agree with. For example, a bunch of college kids running around getting plastered and being promiscuous. Of course, there is the strong possibility that the Bible actually is mostly fiction. But that is a very long discussion on its own.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 11:22am):

Ha! Absolutely! (referring to the un-Catholicism of drinking and whoring about like we do, like we do)

This is such a great thread here, I hope Mark is reading (or would respond to it). It shows how tolerant, interested people just don't swallow this simplistic crap.

What is clear is that Mark drinks the Kool-Aid of the religious right. Hey Mark, did you favor the invasion of Iraq? Do you support the death penalty for our most heinous criminals? Do you pass the homeless by everyday without giving change?

Frankly, if you support any of the above things, then you are a "bad Catholic" But damn boy, you sure put those fags and sluts (and slutty fags) in their place. You hypocrite. You clearly support the party that shits all over the poor, supports war, and upholds hatred as a family value and yet you still pretend that you're a devout Catholic because you have a smudge on your forehead?

A swift kick to the ass from JC himself should straighten you out, but since I doubt he's got time for your ass, I'll just put it simply.

You are not a Christian going to the right place. You are a hypocrite who barely understands theology, you simply pull that which supports your homophobic, classist, narrow vision and leans on it for support.

Have fun living with yourself knowing how wrong, hellbound, and hypocritical you are.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 11:28am):

Well, I think that comment could have been said more briefly and politely. Mark is a hypocrite for conveniently leaving out a staunch opposition to the death penalty and the war in Iraq because they do not toe the Republican party line.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 12:04pm):

I agree with all the posts on how Mark is a neo-con fascist, but seriously, what the deuce is up with the second poster?

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 12:05pm):

Great column, Mark! I hope you'll help enlist your fellow Catholic students against these bleeding-heart gay professors who want health insurance for their limp-wristed butt-buddies at home.

- Johnny G. (R-Sun Prairie)

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 12:07pm):

"I agree with all the posts on how Mark is a neo-con fascist, but seriously, what the deuce is up with the second poster?"

I believe that it is an attempt to parodize Mark's column in what is referred to in Internet parlance as "leet-speak" or "AOL-speak."

Props for using the phrase "what the deuce?"

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 12:54pm):

Mark displays the finest in Catholic tradition: we don't need to be perfect to condemn others. Quite the contrary - a sinner can spot sin a mile away. But that begs the larger question: are we just going to bend over and allow people to live freely and love whomever they want to love? Despite the progress made by such Godly people as Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson, there really are people who espouse such radical beliefs, who think that it's ok for grown adults to choose to live their lives differently from Catholicofascism. It's the Saved like Mark who are being truly Christ-like by reaching out and chastising the oppressed for allowing themselves to be oppressed. Amen!

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 1:11pm):

Did Christ not teach us, "He who is without sin shall cast the first stone"?

I mean, we all know Mark is self-righteous, but he's not personally righteous, so what the fuck gives him the right to make such hateful judgments? The things you do in Christ's name, Mark, have Him spinning in His grave.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 1:24pm):

Mark, if you're so enamored of doing things the Biblical way, why can't I marry multiple women? Why can't I sell my daughter into slavery? Why can't I put my neighbor to death for working on the Sabbath?

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 1:52pm):

Wow-

I am truly ashamed to be a member of the same religion as you, Mark. I completely disagree with your ridiculous comments, and think you have no right to speak on the behalf of all Catholics.

P.S. your writing is HORRIBLE! That second last paragraph came out of no where. It was so randomly added to that column that I had to go back and read it a couple times to make sure that was ACTUALLY what I read!

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 2:22pm):

"...I'll remind you that Jesus (your savior not mine) stated that all the old laws were void and they were replaced by only two new ones."

Wrong. Jesus didn't void the old laws, he merely clarified what was meant by them. Catholics were only the first Christians to screw that up.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 2:23pm):

Mark, um, suddenly you are not so hot-looking anymore.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 2:37pm):

I'm not going to comment on your argument, but it bothers me that you speak of Ash Wednesday as if it's exclusively Catholic. I am not a Catholic, but Ash Wednesday is most definitely a sacred holiday in my religion. I'm afraid your credibility suffers when you don't understand the concepts you are using as the basis for your argument.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 3:18pm):

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" has got to be the most truncated version of a Bible story ever.

The point I got out of that story was not "it's okay for us to do whatever we want because everyone else sucks, too."

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 5:16pm):

You know what I love about Baumgarder? Every week he starts out with some really vague intro, and you start thinking "Maybe, just maybe this is the week when I might agree with him." Then you are reading along, and then bam, third paragraph he incorporates some random hate filled out of context argument. No matter what he's starting with. It can be about campus cafeterias, and then out of no where he will say something like "While we all like convenient campus food, we cannot bow down to all the jews that want us to kill our babies and be taken over by Osama." Thanks Mark, thanks for keeping me on the edge of my seat, always guessing how you are going to connect some benign statement with your radical hate filled world view. Pius XI should be ashamed that you are their alumni. Wasn't the head of their highly praised theater department gay?
~J

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 5:44pm):

Good for you Mark, now tell us about the first time you got on an elevator.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 5:49pm):

Dude, did you really learn any thing in Engeering.
I like how Mark makes sure to describe abortion as destroying an "innocent" human life. So, that releaves him from feeling bad about killing all the Iraqis and many other by troops with his beliefes.
How do you define Innocent? White? Catholic?

Here is an Idea, let's do stem-cell on non-white, non-catholic embrios.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 6:37pm):

I am proud to be a Catholic cut from the same cloth as Mark. Let me explain to all the people who misunderstand.

Today, practicing Catholics are noticeable because of the ashes on the forehead. But we are given occasion to be noticeable beyond that but are infected with a culture that enslaves religious values to secular values. As Catholics, we are duty-bound to act with charity but also to assert age-old truths regarding the sacredness of the human person. That means we may be unpopular at times because we contradict the culture of which we are a part. We oppose embryonic (not adult) stem cell research. We oppose abortion, and we value the enshrinement of traditional marriage only.

In the Christ's Sermon on the Mount we are told to rejoice at our persecution because the prophets were treated the same way. What better way to model Christ than to be put in the position of public disdain and venom!

In this way, by living the Biblical truths we are witnesses to on Sunday, we are as identifiable as if we had ashes on our foreheads every day.

Mark, keep being a prophet. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 6:44pm):

"I'll remind you that Jesus (your savior not mine) stated that all the old laws were void and they were replaced by only two new ones."

Catholics are not taught to believe that. Jesus said that "I have not come to abolish the law but rather to fulfill it" and "Not one letter of the law shall pass away before the end of the age." Any Catholic who suggests otherwise contradicts the Church and the Bible.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 7:10pm):

Reinforcements for Mark! Start a Crusade folks!

Your article is still retarded.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 7:40pm):

Why are religious people are more obsessed with sex than the "sinners" are??? Even abortion only gets noticed because it comes after SEX. There's a world out there full of deadly diseases that local doctors aren't allowed to cure because of patent law - where's the outrage? There's more money spent on Bush Administration PR than on finding a vaccine for malaria - where's the outrage? There's ten times the money spent in Iraq to repatriate every local well, forest, and fishing ground to hungry people of the Third World who have been forced to give up 'ownership' of them to foreign debtmasters - where's the outrage? I understand that abortion and production of human clones, hybrids, and such monstrosities are of major concern, but I see no compassion for people with serious diseases and no attempt to come to a serious philosophy of what constitutes the actual beginning of a human life (such as the reverse of the "brain death" criterion we use on adults). Worst of all, it makes a farce of everything to equate abortion, that chops up fetuses sometimes capable of motion and sensation, with gay marriage, that only "violates" some preconception of what sorts of pieces of paper the government ought to print out.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 9:29pm):

SEX IS GOOOOOD!!!!

Anonymous (February 9, 2005 @ 11:21pm):


Wow, Mark. You're about as smart as a 2x4. Congratulations on "Not Learning Anything In College" (as well as "Not Learning How To Write")

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 1:04am):

"And no matter what our sick society..." It's people like you Mark that make our society "sick."

How about a little acceptance in the name of your Catholic church? You need to adapt to modern times. Your writing is extremely biggoted and misguided.

I hope that your career in electrical engineering takes you out of this BLUE state and to the far south of the U.S., or better yet to another where they can kick your ass.

People are laughing at you right now, Mark.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 2:33am):

after reading this article i am looking forward more than ever to eating a large steak every friday during lent. i think i will plan a 32 ouncer for good friday.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 10:30am):

.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 1:04pm):

Mark-

Since you seem to follow these "Catholic Guidelines" so strictly, I'm assuming you do the same throughout your life? As in - no premarital sex? I'm sure you followed through on that one as well. I would hope anyways, since you accuse others of being sinners for straying from the church.... one would assume you're perfect then!!

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 3:38pm):

Hey, get the hell off the Herald Opinion Page and write for that Rag the Mendota Beacon! The Herald is ALMOST a good paper now that there is a new Editor in Chief, they just have to get rid of you racists and bigots that remain.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 4:24pm):

way to go baumgardner, you told it right. i guess catholics never take a day off, at not least from hating.

won't you ever graduate? knowing our luck, you'll take a page of of the jeff gannon/guckert book on hack journalism and weasel your way into a job that would force us to be exposed to the pure feces you write. maybe you should take gannon/guckert's new advice and just give up. if prayers only worked that way.

oh, and i bet all of those people in hell are kicking themselves for not knowing that all they had to do to go to heaven was put some ashes on their head. penance sounds like a heartless excuse for being a total asshole for your life, "well, i can just put some ashes on my forehead or go do some penance (or pay the church) and i'm totally forgiven" god may forgive you, but the whole world thinks you're a dick, and i'm pretty sure god would think the same about you, too.

p.s. everyone posting/reading, don't put it past baumgardner to post comments anonymously. i don't have anything to hide, do you?

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 4:50pm):

The intolerance of the atheistic left is beyond belief. They cannot consider for one minute that one can sincerely hold beliefs contrary to their own and hold those beliefs out of charity and a genuine concern for humanity. They label what they do not understand as racist, or worse: intolerance. Intolerance is the only sin that liberals admit. Everything else is somehow okay.

The UCLA defends NAMBLA and attacks the boyscouts. The LEFT cheers. The Supreme Court says that the Ten Commandments cannot be posted in school because they "might be read and followed." The LEFT cheers. The 9th Circus Court of Appeals takes "under God" out of the pledge. The LEFT cheers. The Declaration of Independence cannot be read in certain schools because of the references to Creator and nature's God. The LEFT cheers. Abraham Lincoln is called a racist because a Republican freeing blacks does not fit their paradigm. The LEFT cheers. The litany of laughable-positions-if-they-weren't-so-horrible goes on and on. The LEFT cheers.

And they call Mark and people like me intolerant. It almost makes me smile.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 8:53pm):

Jesus would be seriously saddened by your ignorance, Mark.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 9:20pm):

I assume by the UCLA you mean the ACLU...

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 10:59pm):

Holy fucking shit, I'm a Lutheran and I celebrate Ash Wesnesday!!!

Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 11:02pm):

All unborn babies of mine go down the slip-and-slide through the toilet

Anonymous (February 11, 2005 @ 12:25am):

Mark,

I know you've been getting a lot of flak on the board, here, but I have one genuine question for you.

I am a Buddhist, so I don't fully know the entire Catholic theology. However, I'm pretty sure that because of unbending doctrine of certain Jewish (or Roman, I've never been sure) priests, a very great man with a wonderful, love-filled message was destroyed. A man who never sought to hurt anyone in his life.

Now, we find ourselves in a time when members of your religion are so unbending in their doctrine that they see certain people, many of whom have no desire to hurt anyone, as an unclean influence on their society. This is not an indictment of you, Mark, simply an observation about fundamentalist Christianity.

I've read many of your pieces over the years, and nearly all the theologically based op-eds. You seem like a young man deeply ingrained in your beliefs. So, I ask you, what is the difference? Who else has to be broken because of blind faith and fear?

-W. Northend

Anonymous (February 11, 2005 @ 11:42am):

One thing that I have always valued about the University of Wisconsin is its diversity of ideas and openness. However, reading these comments makes me reconsider my pride. I respect each one of you for giving your opinion in response to the article; however, I think before anyone goes calling someone else or their work "retarded" or "bigots" he/she should consider his/her level of tolerance and openness to other individuals. I guess that I have always been under the impression that "tolerance" refers not to those who are similar to you, but those who may be different too (including their opinions). You have the right to respond to the article (and it is Mark's right to say what he wants--its is the opinion page after all) but I don't think that gives anyone the right to call names, say hateful things about anyone else, or use terms like "retarded" to describe the article in response to it. Say what you have to say but do so in a manner that is respectful of his right to his opinion, without name-calling or labels. If we all maybe incorporated a little more "tolerance" we could really assert our identities as Catholics, Buddists, non-christians, or even just members of the University of Wisconsin.

Anonymous (February 11, 2005 @ 3:09pm):

It's always funny how the religious right write the most intolerant things, and then when tolerant people get mad they yell "but I'm not being tolerated!" If someone personally doesn't agree with abortions then you can be tolerate of their position. They have a stance that they do not force on anyone. But when you take your stance and turn it into hate speech at the opposition then by all means you are allowed to call it intolerant filth. People aren't angry at Mark because he holds a different opinion, they are angry at him because he wants it to be forced on everyone else and because he holds absolutely no respect for the opposite side. He has a right to hold his opinion, but when he tries to force his opinion upon me then I have a right to call him the asshole that he is.

Anonymous (February 12, 2005 @ 10:06pm):

How can Mark force an opinion on anybody? What empowers him to do that? It is the atheist left that power in this country to force opinion. That is exactly what Roe v. Wade was. Notice that abortion was illegal or very restricted in almost all the states prior to 1973. And those laws were the results of democratically elected legislators. Who elected the Supreme Court to negate the opinion of the people expressed through their legislators? The left has hijacked the judiciary because they know that they cannot win the support of public opinion. Case in point: homosexual "marriage."

Find bars and restaurants! Place a shout-out! Forward Music Fest
Top Classified Ads (view all)

Place your classified ad online and have it show up here. Your ad will hit thousands of viewers a day!

DON'T READ ME! Too late. If you're reading this, guess how many other people are reading it. See... advertising in The Badger Herald does work!

Place a classified ad

Advertising