Andy Nowicki, with whom I have sparred numerous times (and with whom I have agreed numerous times), has posted a great video about Mark Shea and his ostensible derangement. I advise watching and listening to the entire thing.
Mark Shea definitely has some Trump Derangement going on now. Like Nowicki points out, this has been going on for a long time before Trump came into power. But it seems like Trump has given people like Shea a pretty huge target as a filthy rich philandering Republican it should be admitted.
I believe that the "dark energy" Nowicki mentions is simply the glamour of the left. The people who have become Shea followers in recent times are all on the left, and his beliefs mostly follow modern leftist orthodoxy.
(Nota bene: This is a real guy named Andy Nowicki, not me. Yes; I know we look alike.)
Oh give me three or four hours, LOL! Seriously...am working on a deadline now, but I am deeply concerned about this subject. About to listen to Andy's video now. (This will help keep me awake while I do keyword research. ;))
ReplyDeleteOK, I totally agree about the "dark energy." I could so easily get sucked into it -- and I have, on many occasions -- but unfollowing Mark really, really helped with that. When I do venture over to his page, I am usually so gobsmacked by the nastiness that...I dunno, it doesn't even seem real. And his sycophants are almost as bad. It's as if they feel that he has given them license to be viciously nasty. Or, as I prefer to put it: Jerks for Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThere are many other Jerks for Jesus who do get my goat -- big-time!!! -- which is why I am de-toxing from Facebook during Lent (except for Sundays).
I've known Mark for many years, and no, he wasn't always like this, really. He was always kind of full of himself, and he always had a temper, but he wasn't always relentlessly nasty in this outrageous over-the-top kinda way. It's a terrible tragedy, because his books are great. They really are. This Is My Body and By What Authority are exceptional. I wish that Mark Shea would return. He really did seem as if he was "Catholic and Enjoying It."
"[G]obsmacked by the nastiness" pretty much nails it. You get immediately shouted down for questioning ANYTHING Mark or the commenters write over there. And Mark hurls accusations at you like "You just want poor people to die!" It's all textbook leftist playbook.
DeleteI think the coffin nail in Shea's sensibility was when he got canned from National Catholic Register a year-and-a-half ago. That seems to have embittered him toward any Catholic whom he perceives as being right of Center which -- unfortunately for him -- includes a whole lot of serious Catholics.
I actually understand this more than he would probably think. I have had a somewhat similar experience. However I think I've handled it better because I haven't been public about it. But his experience was public by nature, so it couldn't really have been avoided.
I very much enjoyed By What Authority which is a good argument for why tradition is part of Divine Revelation as well as scripture. But I'll never recommend or even read a book of his again; he has stained his credibility recklessly and irreparably.
Yes, I agree. I think the public humiliation pushed him over the edge and embittered him. I, too, can totally understand that. I don't want to expose myself to the results -- the relentless vitriol -- but yeah, I can understand. Getting canned sucks. Been there. Having it all be so public -- I can't even imagine the pain. I need to start praying for him daily.
DeleteOn another note, though: Why are you using the unborn as human shields in order to grind the faces of the poor?? You Christianist, you! ;)
DeleteOh, another thing about the old Mark Shea -- before he started behaving so nastily: He was really funny. I think he still has a great sense of humor, but he rarely shows it anymore.
DeleteI should clarify that when I stated "it couldn't really have been avoided" I mean the fact that everyone was going to know about it, not his continued nastiness.
DeleteAt some point you have to take some responsibility for what happened to you and say, "I am at least partly to blame."
I'll admit Shea did have a sense of humor and that helped put him on the map. But the temptation is to use your sense of humor in a vindictive manner, then you become less funny. I think Colbert has succumbed to this tendency.
I got what you meant! :D
DeleteAnd I agree...when humor gets nasty, it's not pretty. I once worked with a guy who prided himself on his sarcasm, which he felt made him a superior human being. Uh, no. It just made him an abusive bully.
Yes; an "intellectual bully". And this is where it gets interesting to me.
DeleteI have known several intellectual bullies in my life. They tend to over-perform in school, then underperform in life, and several of the ones I know at this point have bad cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Mark Shea wrote this today for the feast of Pentecost: It's Pentecost. The gospel is proclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit. On Facebook, good white Christians are telling me that if toddlers don't want to be ripped from their parents arms then they should not flee the deathlands of their origin. They are telling me that guns matter more than all the slaughters of children in all the world. They are telling me their fellow Catholics who are brown need to shut up and quit complaining when their president calls Nazis very fine people and peaceful black protesters sons of bitches. They are telling me that the Holy Father is a heretic and the enemy of the Faith that they alone stand for. They are lying through their filthy teeth that the children butchered in Santa Fe were "sacrifices" and not murder victims who were killed because these gun worshippers offered "thoughts and prayers" as a prophylactic against *acting* in obedience to the gospel.
ReplyDeleteCome, Holy Ghost! I cannot bear this diabolical freak show parody of the gospel any more. Cleanse your Church and bring us the light of Christ!
Unhinged.
Mark Shea is a blasphemer who is going to Hell. Full stop.
ReplyDelete