When I was a United Methodist clergy, I found that to continue as such, I had to check my sexuality at the door. Then I became clergy in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, where it was fine (even preferable) for me to be gay…but I discovered, to my bitter disappointment, that I was expected to check my intellect at the door. It seems as though the Church feels strongly the need either to control people’s bodies or people’s minds (or, often, both).

The Church has historically flexed its muscle (at some points with strength, at other times in a fairly feckless manner) to silence all the voices of those who have dared to call Bullshit. That is, the Church has worked hard to handle challengers who would do as they believe right with their minds or with their bodies–by persecuting them, isolating them, shunning them, damning them, ridiculing them, branding them (sometimes literally) as heretics, excommunicating them, and even killing them. The idea that God has led any of these people to believe or act as they have is not even considered.

Today’s saint, Pope Victor, had his hands full in the late 100s. At long last, there was enough of a critical mass of Christians either yearning for or willing to accept more centralized authority; however, this critical mass had yet to represent anything even remotely approaching hegemony. Heresies to the left of Rome, heresies to the right. Heresies in front, heresies behind. Understood another way, people who held certain beliefs that were vital to their faith were not willing to simply forgo them because some group in Rome told them to.

One fascinating heretic that Victor sought to stifle was an incredibly smart, well-educated Christian named Tatian. Tatian’s faith crime was that he and his community taught a life of vegetarianism and abstinence from alcohol. This doesn’t seem, at first glance, all that serious until one finds out that Tatian and his community took these beliefs so seriously that they used WATER INSTEAD OF WINE AT COMMUNION!!!

These people were called… wait for it… Aquarii (the plural of Aquarius)! Apparently the moon had yet to enter the Church’s Seventh House.

But seriously–WHY should anyone in Rome or anywhere else care what non-poisonous beverage anyone might use in the Eucharist? The logic that the Aquarii relied upon was this–in the Eucharist, the wine and the bread (just as orthodox Catholicism teaches) become the body and blood of Christ, the same Christ with the power to turn water into wine. So of course water could be turned to wine be turned to blood–it’s not like God is limited by liquid!! The so-called Aquarii sought to have their rituals reflect their ethical convictions, and this was sufficient to brand them as heretical and lead to Tatian’s excommunication (and putative damnation).

Here is the gloss the Church used to justify this mean-spirited micromanagement (is this a redundancy?), as relayed by Butler:

The ancients observe that Tatian’s fall was owing to pride, which often attends an opinion of knowledge; and of this there cannot be a more dangerous symptom in a scholar than a fondness for novelty and singularity, especially if joined with obstinacy and opiniativeness. St. Victor was watchful to cut off these scandals in their root, and every where to maintain the purity of the faith with unity.

Even as I scribe these words written centuries ago about beliefs held even centuries earlier, I am nauseated. This anti-intellectualism, this need for control and uniformity, this ad hominem approach to differing ideas, this need not only to oppress but to blame those being oppressed: it maintains resonance today in way too many instances, not merely religious.

As an added note, even though no one slew Pope Victor for his faith, the Church saw fit to name him a “martyr” because of all the headaches he had to put up with in bringing people’s beliefs and practices under one pure (uggh), unified (gimme a break) faith (is this faith–doing what others tell you?!).