Some different blogging for a while

At least in terms of the blogs I've been visiting.  I'm sorry, but I've watched many a Catholic blog turn into a Catholic version of fundamentalist Protestant blog.  Just remove King James Bible and insert Catholic Catechism.  Right now, heading into the election, there is a rabid debate on just who to vote for, with many posts centered around a not-too-subtle attempt to suggest that there is only one way to vote, and any other approach must be from folks who don't love Jesus as much as I do.  Sure, they all deny it.  But stand back and watch, and it's clear that the common Christian tendency of trying to stack the deck in favor of my own personal preferences is alive and well and living in the Catholic blogosphere.  Not all mind you.  There are still some who are maintaining a sense of balance and perspective.  But others?  I can read vitriolic and zealous atheist blogs and barely tell a difference in tone and measure. 

I don't need that sort of frustration.  When I go to a blog and see people saying that my vote is meaningless, with the added insinuation that I should vote for a particular independent candidate or it's because I'm too stupid to understand politics or just don't care about my faith, it's time to move on.  There's nothing uplifting or challenging in that.  That's just good old fundamentalist Christianity, Catholic style.  So I'll be spending more time doing anything other than visiting most of the blogs I've been known to visit, including some that were, in their time, instrumental in helping me in my journey into the Church.  The irony?  Had these blogs been this way then, there is a strong possibility I never would have come into the Church, or if I had, it would have been despite such fundamentalism in Catholic garb, rather than because.

Anyway, on a brighter note, our 7th grader had his first home football game today.  Being one of the smaller schools in the league, we don't fare well as a general rule.  And today was no exception.  They got creamed - though in fairness, they were without their quarterback who suffered an early injury.  Still, they played hard and the defensive coach went out of his way to let us know he's doing great, and is one of the favorites of the head coach.  When all else fails in the Catholic blogosphere, I need only turn to those gifts from God to be uplifted and remember what life is all about.  Well done son.  Now we'll see how our oldest does in his first Cross Country invitational this Saturday!

They may have lost, but he knows he had some great plays in the process