Article: Embodying praise.(analysis of Catholicism's hypocrisy in the use and suppression of body movement in prayer)(Column)

Ambiguity about the body reflected in how we hold ourselves in worship

The church says: The body is a sin. Science says: The body is a machine. Advertising says: The body is a business. The body says: I am a fiesta.

-- Eduardo Galeano in Walking Words

Generally I fancy myself a flexible sort, comfortable inside my skin, willing to move with the rhythms of the universe.

Then somebody suggests changing the familiar sit-stand-kneel of the liturgy and I freeze into lockstep.

You want us to do what with our arms at the Hosanna? Slowly raising my arms in praise feels like jumping out of a helicopter without a parachute. Stand with ...

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