Minor Thoughts from me to you

About two weeks ago, I stumbled on to an interesting article. The founder of Domino's Pizza is planning on building a town that would be run strictly according to Catholic principles.

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino's Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria's pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town's cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

The town will be centred around a 100-foot tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university's president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should "help rebuild the city of God" in a country suffering from "catastrophic cultural collapse."

Monaghan has argued that the owners of the town's commercial properties will be free to impose conditions in leases -- notably the restriction on the sale of contraceptives. But that has been challenged by Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Simon said the U.S. Supreme Court had already ruled "ownership [of a town] does not always mean absolute dominion." "If he wants to build a town and encourage like-minded people to come and live there, that's fine. We get into problems where he tries to exercise governmental authority."

Adam and I promptly discussed this idea. Because we were using instant messenger to discuss it, you can read our thoughts.

Adam: Wow. That's fascinating. So what's your reaction?

Joe: I like it. It's going to kick up a huge mess of controversy. Probably spawn a Supreme Court case (or seven). It gets back to the roots of a lot of Constitutional areas that have gone off of the rails, freedom of contract being the most obvious. Jefferson, Washington, Madison, et. al. would have considered it to be constitutional. I'm not sure about Messrs. Scalia, Alito, Roberts, Souter, and Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Breyer. The only person on the court that I know would rule the town legal is Justice Thomas.

Adam: And in the eyes of the LORD?

Joe: Biblically, I don't see anything wrong with it. It's basically the church, writ large. I see it as an Acts 2 type of situation. Only, more formal.

Adam: How is Ave Maria like Acts 2? Not sure I follow.

Joe: It's a bit of a stretch, admittedly. but the early church was a lot more closely knit than the modern church is. I think Ave Maria would do a lot to bring back the centrality of the church, to life. Church members would actually be required to live according to church teaching, which is a fairly radical concept right now.

Adam: But the original church was surely more closely knit because of the oppression it faced and the maturity and belief of its members, not simply because they had people looking over them more. And is centrality particularly important to the work of the Gospel? The Christian church only truly began to grow when its very head was cut off.

Also, if this is ultimately what it seems to be-a haven for Catholics-what does that say for those people's understanding of their mission here on Earth: to go ye out onto all the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature? That is, the Church is a missiological creature, not an institutional one.

Joe: The Great Commission still applies, obviously. And witness in the local town is only a part of the Great Commission. A larger part involves going out into the surrounding region: county, state, nation, etc. This town could provide a valuable (both in the material and non-material sense) base of operations for missions work. A place to raise a family and a place to return to in time of need or when spiritual renewal is needed.

Having the town literally built around a church need not necessarily involve centrality of government (although that will obviously play a role). It will, more importantly I think, emphasize how faith is supposed to be a central defining part of our daily lives. Having the entire town run along those lines will only reinforce that centrality of faith to life.

I think excommunication has always been a vital part of church discipline. Obviously, it's a last line of discipline, but I think it needs to be a valid option. In today's society being excommunicated from a local church doesn't mean a whole lot. Being kicked out of town, certainly would mean something.

I also view the aspect of "people looking over them" with a somewhat benign eye. It's true that the church would have a lot of authority in the town. On the other hand, everyone that lives there does so with the full knowledge and expectation that that will be true. Thus, the "coercive" aspects could be viewed as a form of hyper-accountability.

Adam: Hm. I take issue with the idea that there is any relief from the Commission, or that separation from mainstream society will ever ultimately service it. I am certain at the least that the raising of a man's family is not to be, as conventional wisdom would dictate, done in the most secure place possible. Every man's possession is to be given up freely to the LORD's service, and that includes his family, as horrifying a thought as I know this is (and one day, it will be all the more horrifying to me; I can't know the half of it now, quite literally). Point is: a Christian in NYC has far more opportunity to serve the Master and affect change than a Christian will in this Ave Maria, because all our knowledge and keeping of the law is ultimately of no consequence. As for excommunication, I agree that with far more individual churches out there now, many of which might not look into a new member's history, it might not mean as much-were we the full arm of God. But we discipline to our extent, I think, and should not concern ourselves with anything further. I guess what I'm saying here is that I see $400 million going to the creation of a greater structure-Catholic town for people who are Catholics-which is not an increase in the Church, which would be $400 million going to, say, church planting by Catholics for heathen. Community transformation.

Like Roberts Jr. said: If this Catholic town were wiped off the face of the planet, who would miss it? Catholics. Who does it serve? Catholics. Am I calling this foray selfish? No; but self-centered, yes. And the two are different, I think.

A friend of mine I consider a spiritual father to me has always told me that if you want to grow in Christ, in your faith, the best way to do it is to pray for others and to serve others. We might extrapolate from that and say that the best way for the Church to grow in Christ and in its faith is to pray for and serve others. I'm inclined to think that in focusing solely on such, I neglect myself and leave myself open to corruption by not 'shoring myself up', and perhaps if there is a total imbalance this is certainly the case. But might there not be point to the fact that Jesus's immediate reaction to hearing about John's death was to start ministering to others again?

That is, the recipients are not the only ones to receive. And this seems to me very characteristic of the Gospel.

Joe: Paul grew up in a devout community and learned from the best before beginning his earthly ministry. Jesus was 30 before He began to minister. Samuel grew up in the temple, before beginning his ministry. Moses lived a fairly insulated life before getting kicked out and into reality. These may be isolated exceptions to the rule, but I'm not positive that they are.

I'm also certain that I'm over-simplying the case a bit. Still, I think it's possible that Ave Maria has the potential to become a training ground for evangelists, apologists, ministers. I don't think it's a town that one should necessarily spend one's entire life in. On the other hand, I don't think that living there for a few years would be a negative experience either. I think it would be a good place to be from.

Adam: Moses may be out. He spent nearly 40 years being raised by the royal family, another 40 in Midian, which was pagan. And the royal family wasn't exactly a group of synagogue-lovers. :)

Joe: Well, yeah. My broader point was that ministry didn't always start at a young age. There is precedence for going through a long period of preparation. Of course, the opposite is true as well. Which just goes to show that the Boss likes to mix things up.

Adam: This is true, which is why I'm not outright condemning it; not sure it's possible to condemn any approach when He's that versatile.

What do you think, readers? Please hit the "Comments" link below and let us know your thoughts on this idea.