Louis Roney: Pace, Mio Dio

In a past life, this commentator sang on both sides of the Atlantic about “cruel fate.”

In Verdi’s opera, “La Forza del Destino (The Power of Destiny),” I play a nice guy who kills his girl’s father by accident. Her Spanish father, the Marquis of Calatrava — also a nice guy, though admittedly unenlightened by today’s standards — objects to me because of my South American Inca origins. I belong to Inca “royalty,” and sing loud — and high — about it, but Pops doesn’t want me fathering his grandkids. And so it is that I come to his pad one night to elope with the apple of his eye, a peach of a girl named Leonora.

We are almost out the door when Pops comes on the scene. I have a Saturday-night “eloper’s special” in my belt. To show him I am no threat to peace, I throw the piece on the floor. The pistol goes off. It shoots my gal’s dad. He dies right there, singing negatively about me. My effort to guarantee pace (peace) backfires by pure chance.

From then on, “Destiny,” or “Fate,” in the form of coincidence raised to the nth power, plagues Leonora, me, and her brother Don Carlos as we roam, and meet, all over the map. Charley and I are pals. Then he learns that I am responsible for his Pops’ death.

We three keep running into each other, and bringing each other lots of luck — all of it bad. As a malevolent destino relentlessly pursues her, Leonora sings an aria, which is a Verdian gem: “Pace, Pace, Mio Dio” (Peace, Peace, My God).

Being a member in good standing of these ridiculous goings-on, whose gorgeous music is all that keeps the audience from vamoosing, I am wondering why Leonora begs God to change her fate.

God and destino would seem to be two powers separated by theological light-years. God seems to say, “Do it the old-fashioned way: earn it!” Fate seems to say, “Cross your fingers, baby. I’ll be there before long.”

Another, more mystical power, the grace of God seems to be something one cannot earn or count on. In my younger, more naive days, lots of mundane problems seemed soluble to me if people would only stop throwing their pistols on the floor, and daring the “gods” in other stupid ways. People can “influence their own luck” by using brains, foresight, logic, imagination, courtesy, and other positives. People can also “lessen the odds” on failure by eschewing avoidable stupidities. Stupidity is often a rationalized process of asking smart people for advice — and then ignoring it.

The years 1942 to 1945, when people were pointing weapons at me, proved to me that Darwinian conflict is the way of life, whether we like it or not. I was a gunnery officer. My job was to point big guns at people, and say “fire!” I, and those around me, could have just sat and done nothing, and waited for our destiny. Fate would have obliged pronto. Anyhow, who wants to end up as a name in a telegram?

Taking sides on issues, and acting on convictions, is as American as bagels, turnip greens, chili, and pizza. Nowadays most of us confront things, which we want neither to espouse nor to oppose. “How do you feel about...?”

Well, I am for: my beautiful wife, the United States of America, honesty, great music, trust, friendship, red snapper, morning coffee, generosity, privacy, non-violence, high educational standards, good restaurants, wit, forgiveness, ice cream...and other things.

I am against: being judged on any of the above.

All the hot subjects people used to keep in some kind of closet can go right back in the closet as far as I am concerned.

I can introduce myself to you without qualifying myself beyond the word, “American.”

You can see right off that I’m “white,” whatever that means. Really, “pink” might be more accurate, except in summer, when I invest time and money to swim in the ocean, and pick up an evanescent “tan.”

A survey dared to inquire, “What’s your sexual preference?”

My answer was, “Often.”

What other adults do sexually in private is not only none of my business, but ho-hum.

Our local daily once ran a long article with a big headline, “Bible’s Words on Being Gay.”

In the article, six theologians, from Yale and Harvard Divinity schools, as well as prominent churches and denominations, opined as to whether the Bible is:

1) God’s revealed Truth, i.e.: His infallible Word, to be taken literally, or

2) Poetry, folk art, passions and aspirations of truth-seeking people, but not to be taken word for word.

Addressing passages against homosexuality, simply stated in the common Bible which they teach, these professional religionists often come to diametrically opposite conclusions. These leaders seem either to affirm, or to attempt to “make peace with,” words of scripture that won’t go away.

An impartial person might ask: If you are “the Reverend Joe Blow, or Jane Doe,” is it your responsibility to “preach” the Bible or is it your “calling” to interpret the Bible in order to make it palatable to every lifestyle?

Question: In Miltonian terms, does the church exist in order “to justify the ways of God to man,” or to “justify the ways of man to God?”

Question: Is Biblical law negotiable? Can an honest religionist “make a deal” as to the Ten Commandments? E.g.: “I’ll buy ’em — except for numbers three and seven.”

Analogy: Can you “make a deal” with the police force regarding traffic laws? E.g. “I’ll buy ’em —except for the one on speeding.”

Does theological haranguing about Lot and his daughters in Genesis 19:4-6 adjudicate the validity of modern-day arguments for the “right” to sexual preference?

Didn’t Lot know full well that his daughters would be of no interest to the Sodomite men shouting at him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out so that we may know them.”

In the New Testament, both Romans and Corinthians openly condemn homosexuality. Does Paul mean it when he says, “Neither the immoral...nor homosexuals...will inherit the kingdom of God? ”Do some preachers routinely deny precepts that are part and parcel of their religion’s Constitution? Are ministers preaching “peace with the status quo” to their gay parishioners as socio-theological manifest destiny? Concomitantly, are ministers constructing the perception of peace in their own lives by interpreting the Bible preferentially?

Finally, isn’t looking to the Bible for all the answers about homosexuality like insisting that the Pope’s words support both sides of the abortion issue?

Questions, questions....

Pace, Mio Dio. Peace, my God.

Isn’t this a prayer that every human being sings to himself at some time or another?