Grassroots

 So I’m watching “Rebellion” on Netflix, about the Irish uprising against British rule on Easter, 1916 and the days after. In one scene an Irish Monsignor who helps the Republican side (those in favor of an Irish Republic, to be clear), is telling his Bishop how the executions of those involved (by the British) are stirring anger among their congregants, and several priests are reporting it to him. A change is coming, is his point. The point being the people will not be led, as they will insist on leading. It’s a point any parish priest or pastor would understand.  Sometimes the people get a say, even in non-democratic circumstances.

The Bishop replies as you would expect a Bishop to: dismissively. “Your job is to lead the people, not to be led by them.”

One remembers the story of Augustine, who was made a Bishop by acclimation, almost demand (if the story is to be believed), of the people who knew him. It was a different church then.

But I thought of JMM’s response to the 9th Circuit, how what the people will accept, or what the law should do, sometimes has to move up from below to the few given leadership or charge. And it’s better that it move slowly, rather than capriciously; or than not at all. But in general, that is the way it moves.