{"id":114585,"date":"2022-08-09T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=114585"},"modified":"2022-08-09T17:15:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T21:15:56","slug":"nyt-op-ed-julia-yost-new-yorks-hottest-club-is-the-roman-catholic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=114585","title":{"rendered":"(NYT op-ed) Julia Yost–New York\u2019s Hottest Club Is the Roman Catholic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

As senior churchmen seek to make Catholicism palatable to modernity, members of a small but significant scene are turning to the ancient faith in defiance of liberal pieties. The scene is often associated with \u201cDimes Square,\u201d a downtown Manhattan neighborhood\u00a0popular with a pandemic-weary Generation Z \u2014 or Zoomer \u2014 crowd<\/a>, but it has spread across a network of podcasts and upstart publications. Its sensibility is more transgressive than progressive. Many of its denizens profess to be apolitical. Others hold outr\u00e9 opinions, whether sincerely or as fashion statements.\u00a0Reactionary motifs are chic<\/a>: Trump hats and \u201ctradwife<\/a>\u201d frocks, monarchist and anti-feminist sentiments. Perhaps the ultimate expression of this contrarian aesthetic is its embrace of Catholicism.<\/p>\n

Urban trends can shape a culture, as millennial Brooklyn did in its heyday. The Dimes Square scene is small, but its ascent highlights a culture-wide shift. Progressive morality, formulated in response to the remnants of America\u2019s Christian culture, was once a vanguard. By 2020, the year of lockdowns and Black Lives Matter protests, progressivism had come to feel hegemonic in the social spaces occupied by young urban intellectuals. Traditional morality acquired a transgressive glamour. Disaffection with the progressive moral majority \u2014 combined with Catholicism\u2019s historic ability to accommodate cultural subversion \u2014 has produced an in-your-face style of traditionalism. This is not your grandmother\u2019s church \u2014 and whether the new faithful are performing an act of theater or not, they have the chance to revitalize the church for young, educated Americans.<\/p>\n

Honor Levy, the fresh-out-of-Bennington writer who co-hosts\u00a0the trendy podcast \u201cWet Brain,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0recently converted to Catholicism and lets you know when she has\u00a0unconfessed mortal sins<\/a>\u00a0on her conscience. The podcast\u2019s beat is pop culture, literature, politics and religion \u2014 including practical tips for warding off demons. Dasha Nekrasova, a Catholic revert and\u00a0actress with a recurring role<\/a>\u00a0on HBO\u2019s \u201cSuccession,\u201d is a co-host of the scene\u2019s most popular podcast, \u201cRed Scare.\u201d On\u00a0an episode<\/a>\u00a0during Lent this year, Ms. Nekrasova focused on esoteric Catholic topics such as sedevacantism, the ultra-traditionalist notion that the popes since the Second Vatican Council are illegitimate.<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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"This is not your grandmother\u2019s church \u2014 and whether the new faithful are performing an act of theater or not, they have the chance to revitalize the church for young, educated Americans," writes Julia Yost. https:\/\/t.co\/34DObZKZon<\/a><\/p>\n

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) August 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n