Catholicism as a Fandom

While prospecting for quotes about Catholicism and fandom a few days ago, I ran across this intriguing essay by Paul Sofranko. In it, he argues that Catholicism and fandom participation aren’t all that different, and that those who are drawn to such things have a lot in common:

Catholicism and [f]andom do the same thing for me; they help me detach from the temporary and transitory world around me and help me focus on things that are not bound by the constraints of the ‘here and now.’ They help me to rise above the sundry and mundane and consider other possibilities.

I have to admit I’d never considered it in this fashion before. Instead, I’ve always lamented the fact that Catholics tend to be pretty hostile to fandom; and fandom tends to be pretty hostile to Catholics. Each side routinely accuses the other of immoral behavior, and not without reason. The voices of those of us who participate in both subcultures are often drowned out by those who are adamantly for or against the other one.

It’s something I’m used to, as both a fan and a Catholic. In fact, it’s one of the reasons that, until a few years ago, I used a pseudonym within the fandom community. The practice isn’t at all uncommon there, so it raised no eyebrows. I was hardly the only one who’s caught flack for being a fan; I’ve dealt with everything from mean-spirited teasing to outright accusations of being in thrall with evil. Long-time Dragon Con attendees usually have a handful of stories about conflicts between that, Black Pride, and the Aflac Kickoff Game, since all three events happen the same weekend, in the same area, and attract audiences that stay at the same hotels. I’m no exception to that rule.

I’d long since begun countering nasty comments about being media fandom with counter-comments about sports fan behavior, but I’ll admit that until I read Mr. Sofranko’s essay, I had never thought about Catholicism as being a fandom.

The analogy has its limitations, which he admits in the very next paragraph after the one I quote above. Fandom is a subculture that formed around a group of common interests and activities. Catholicism is a religion that carries its own worldview and way of life. But the two have something pretty major in common: they both exist in tension to the wider popular culture around them, and have from the beginning.

That, argues Mr. Sofranko, is the commonality of the argument: Catholics and media fans alike are both “discontented with their temporal and cultural surroundings and seek other places and times.” By finding one another, participants in both groups, who “grew up being disconnected and detached from most of their peers,” can finally find a place to “fit in” without having to try and adjust our behaviors and activities to conform with norms that we frequently find to be foreign and, more often than not, nonsensical to the point of the ridiculous. We find “our people,” and the joy that comes at that moment is truly euphoric in nature.

I’ve experienced this myself, including the tension, by way of being an alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. At the time I attended, NCSSM’s main program was the residential campus in Durham. Because the students there are almost all minors, they have more restrictions on their movements and activities than college students usually do. In other words, several hundred teenagers are confined into an area of two or three city blocks for weeks at a time, in a situation where many of them are encountering challenging academics for the first time in their entire lives and all of them are experiencing new ways of life at the same time as they themselves are going through some of the biggest changes in their own development.

Not surprisingly, a subculture exists there. It has evolved and changed over time, but even thirty-plus years after my graduation, when another “unicorn” and I encounter one another, we’re instantly connected. Further, I used to have to make a conscious transition back to the outside world during time away from school. The norms and expectations are were different; the common referents made no sense to outsiders; and behaviors that are acceptable there are not acceptable elsewhere (and vice versa). I’ve learned how to do it, but at reunions I often go right back across that transitional line. Many of my former classmates have made similar observations.

I suspect something similar is true for everyone who’s ever been involved in a counter-culture or subculture.

Unfortunately, Mr. Sofranko has chosen to conclude his essay with a common cliché about Catholics and media fans, assuming that the former have no need for media fandom and the latter have never encountered Catholicism. He and I are both evidence that this isn’t universally true — it’s quite possible to be both — and I’m well aware that I’m not the only Catholic in fandom (or media fan who is Catholic). The overlap is small, but it is definitely there.

That said, the challenge he issues to the media fans is still a valid one, and one I think I’m going to try: why not treat Catholicism as if it’s a fandom? Why not explore the various aspects of it the same way we might explore the various aspects of a media fandom? Both subcultures have much larger “tents” than the dominant culture is even aware of, and both have various pockets of people who might not otherwise have common cause. One commonality between the subcultures is that this isn’t considered a bad thing; media fans can accept that some like to do cosplay and others like to write fan fiction, while Catholics can accept different liturgical traditions and devotional practices.

All either group needs to do, then, is simply reach across whatever aisles may exist between us. As I mentioned, there are many of us who already do, and we feel the tension from doing so. But what if, rather than lamenting the hostility, we looked for the commonalities instead? They obviously exist, and the opportunities, on both sides, could potentially be endless.