Thursday, January 31, 2008

One Goofball = Widespread Inability to Function

This is why a lot of people think that Mark Shea needs to calm down a great deal and empty a few cans of Raid into the ol' bonnet.

At the March for Life in DC last week, our group (mostly young teens) came across a marcher holding aloft a Crucifix with a big sign: "Latin Mass = Truth; New Mass = Abortion". As I respectfully disagreed with him, he brought up receiving the Eucharist by hand, as if that somehow that had to do with saving unborn children.

See, this is what I'm talking about when I note the widespread inability of Traditionalists to function outside of the bunker. Traditionalists are going to have to figure out how to be fully Catholic or they are going to disappear, because true Catholic faith evangelizes and, like it or not, this is not evangelizing: this is shouting "Repel boarders" and then pouring boiling oil on the your own archers.

Well, I've encountered just about the same kind of nonsense from the ultra-traditionalists on several occasions. But I guess it hasn't made me so embarrassed to be a Catholic that I've tried to write all traditionalists out of the Faith by calling them a "doomed faction", based on the misplaced fervor of one or two straw-men.

Also, why isn't this person "fully Catholic"? In my experience with these people I've learned that they just usually aren't that bright. But that's never made me feel like intellectually bullying them.

On that note, I'll stop and let commenters react to his ending quote regarding the Fruits of the Spirit.

7 comments:

  1. Pauli, if anyone uses fruits of the Spirit to evaluate Shea's posts and thought, he would find that Shea is a barren tree.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The thing with Mark is that he writes unplugged. He reads stuff and we all get to see his immediate gut reaction. He bares his soul more than many bloggers - and like all souls still on Earth, Mark's isn't perfected yet. Neither is mine.

    Nonetheless, I like the way Mark writes because most of the time his gut reactions are spot-on, and any misunderstandings are usually cleared up in the combox.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "The thing with Mark is that he writes unplugged. He reads stuff and we all get to see his immediate gut reaction"

    unplugged is a nonsense word in that context. try "unhinged".

    I can tell you from experience Shea doesn't "read stuff". he scans at someone's writing, failing to consider it carefully, and exploits it by responding in such a way as to make himself look scintillatingly intelligent and the other person look like a dolt. Moreover, he's proud of this because he thinks it displays his superior intelligence when it's really hotheaded, blinkered egomania. It's all the more pathetic because it comes at the cost of him spending entire days in front of the computer when he could be out earning a living or actually contributing to humanity, or even just "enjoying catholicism" instead of enjoying his own rhetoric. The fruits of Shea's spirit seem to be diabetes and a low standard of living. I realize this is harsh, but the man himself has written about these things and his situation is not unconnected with how he chooses to spend his time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Patrick, you're a thoughtful guy and a nice guy, but Kathleen is right: you're not making any sense here. The term you want isn't "unplugged" but "off the cuff".

    And anyway, I've been arguing for years now that "baring your soul" on a web log is not a good idea. My challenge has been thus: "Explain to me what good comes of living out loud on the internet." No one has ever taken me up on this challenge. Why not? There is obviously no defense of this, Christian or otherwise. Send a letter or private email to somebody if you want to do bare your soul.

    Finally, I don't think anything gets "cleared up" in the comboxes. That's why you don't see my comments over there anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ...and I suppose that I, as an unperfected soul, would find it easier to extend generosity to someone who extended to others the same luxury of voicing their opinions, at least without having, say, St. Athanasius sicced on them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'll stop and let commenters react to his ending quote regarding the Fruits of the Spirit.

    My reaction:

    **snicker**
    **giggle**
    **guffaw**

    And, what Kathleen said.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shea runs his blog like Keith Olbermann runs his show. The only ones allowed to post their are people who agree with him or are in his clique.

    ReplyDelete