Thursday, April 26, 2018

Alfie Evans: Two Catholic responses

John C. Wright takes up the Alfie Evans case.  No wondering where Mr. Wright stands.  He attacks those preventing the parents from seeking treatment.  He mentions Pope Francis stepping in and pleading for the sake of the child.  He also uses this issue to suggest this is indicative of the type of Socialism that so many today seem to want.  He then offers a requested prayer on behalf of the child in this situation.

Mark Shea, well, doesn't really speak of the issue.  He says he knows nothing about it and doesn't want to comment out of ignorance.  He then gives us his take on a conversation he had with someone he says represents prolife individuals.  There is no link, so we have to take Mark's word that it went down exactly as he reports.  Given how Mark misrepresented what I wrote over the years, that's a tough one. 

Mark then goes on to use the conversation to attack prolifers, explain why he rejects prolifers, and went further by insisting that they don't really care about Alfie Evans at all, but merely exploit him as a club to beat up people like Mark.  No further comment on the actual Alfie Evans case. 

That is an interesting contrast, at least IMHO.  If I were actually a person who considers myself prolife, which of these would I fall behind?  Or is there another angle worth looking at.

Update: On a second reading, it's unlikely that Mark's appraisal of the conversation can be taken at face value.  After all, do we really believe anyone would actually write:
"Reader: But don't you think the doctors are all evil?
Perhaps the reader said just that, but I find it difficult to believe.  As I said, I've seen how Mark framed my statements in the past, and that tends to make me skeptical at best.

Plus, Mark suddenly leans on the Pope's lack of expertise in a particular area in order to justify not merely following the Pope's lead, as opposed to his usual feelings relative to subjects like the economy.  That's an interesting turn of events, and one that suggests inconsistency in applied standards to say the least.

19 comments:

  1. Another sad example of where Shea now stands, or perhaps doesn't stand, and what it tells us about the "new pro-life" people. I also think that some of his claims of comments or letters from "readers" are constructions of Shea himself for the purpose of setting up a narrative/straw man.

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    1. I don't doubt there are people who have said terrible things - on both sides. Any movement has its bad apples. But that he chose to step in and make it about trashing the prolife movement rather than commenting on this case that the Pope has made pretty clear the position to take is telling. Especially since he's quick to condemn those who don't follow the Pope's guidance in other situations.

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  2. Memo for Mr. Shea:

    When a government is literally using armed force to prevent parents from getting private medical treatment for their child, and your instinct is to put up a post about how much pro-life people annoy you, maybe it's time to reassess your priorities.

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    1. He will never do that. He only gets more and more shrill and hysterical in his defense of the left

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  3. Mark constantly engages in projection. He tirelessly attacks conservatives for being tribalists. Well, Mark is clearly a member of the Leftist Tribe now and he will not go against his tribe over Alfie Evans, even if it means ignoring his beloved Pope. I can only imagine the scathing comments of his current cult if he dared call out this judicial murder of Alfie.

    Compare and contrast this with what he said in 2010:

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2010/03/terri-schiavo-rip.html

    But that was in another time and besides the wench is dead.

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  4. The best thing Mark Shea ever did for me was to ban me. I haven't really been back since and find that sunsets are more beautiful and puppies are more delightful since the poison of his rage has left my system. I will just pray for him and feel blessed that I am not required to interact with him.

    AnsonEddy

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    1. He banned me after falsely accusing me of falsely accusing him. I still get links and see Facebook links. That he not only supports the termination of Alfie's life, but attacks those fighting for Alfie shows how far he has sunk. Prayers are definitely needed. Not just for Mark, but because the Culture of Death now has a very loud and determined ally willing to help others along the path he has followed.

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    2. Don't get me wrong. I think what you are doing is critical for internal Catholic debate and constitutes the spiritual work of mercy of admonishing the sinner. I think it is great. I am just glad you're doing it and not me.

      AnsonEddy

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  5. Dave-Keep on keepin' on! Great day to be a TBFC.

    Comment I posted in an English paper today re Alfie and Big Bro Britain, in a Suna rticle re a man-weighs 11 pounds, been in his baby body since a year old-but alive:

    "This is why India needs an Alder Hey Killing Fields Hospital. And a British Natl kILLING Service to take the baby- which in Great (really?) Britain would be the property of the state - away from these incompetent moms and dads, to the Alder Hey Hospital & Baby Parts Store, there for harvesting and killing with compas$$ion; for not only all the monetary savings, not only saving$s to the stupid, non-owning parents, but to society as a whole (hole?). Hey, Hey Alder Hey, how many parts have you sold today? Hey, Hey Alder Hey, how many kids you killed today?Hey Hey Alder Hey, how many vaccines gone wrong today ? Hey Hey Alder Hey how much you feed Alfie today? Guy McClung, Texas"

    It may be that if Alfie lives to 9 May, all of a sudden under UK law, claim can be made re harm from vaccines he got at Alder Hey Mortuary.

    Guy


    TBFC-take your picK

    Terro Blogger For Christ
    Truth Blogger For Christ

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  6. I haven't been blogging or doing much social media lately, but have been following this sad situation. I thought of what Mark Shea would say, and I guessed he would ignore the bigger picture but would instead use this as an opportunity to somehow call out pro-lifers for being hypocrites.

    And so I came here and I see I was pretty much right on the money.

    The man is so sadly predictable.

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    1. I hate to say it, but I had a paragraph in my previous post on the topic, I had a paragraph predicting this is what Mark would do, but I deleted it. I felt it wasn't fair to prejudge like that.

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    2. It is easy to figure out what Mark and his minions are going to do on any position. They are always going to take the alt left position with no offense to Mark Shea's #1 disciple and defender Scott "I am not on the left I just support everything on the left" Alt.

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    3. I notice that Scott Alt has become Mark's biggest defender. They seem to have an almost tag team approach now.

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    4. Yes David you are correct. Scott was once a conservative but obviously got lost in the blogosphere so he took a hard and I mean hard left turn and embraced Shea and his version of Catholicism. The laughable thing is Scott is still calling himself a conservative. His devotion is to Mark Shea and defends every little criticism of him.

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    5. I notice they keep saying they are conservative, but I have no clue how. It's as if they have fully embraced our modern era of 'if you say it, it will be true.'

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    6. Yes those are the type of people I have zero respect for. They are completely dishonest. If you're a liberal just say it. Don't hide behind the I am conservative but support everything liberal nonsense

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    7. Shea and Alt seek to conserve the social-progressive liberal welfare state.

      You know: deep-state, swamp creature conservatism like that espoused by noted 90s Eisenhower conservatives William J. Clinton and Dick Morris. and currently practiced by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell.

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  7. Shea's latest claim is that "Contrary to Mr. Dalton’s claim, nobody is starving Alfie to death. He has food. He has oxygen. He has hydration. There is no evidence, none, of a conspiracy to kill him." I'm honest not sure if he's unaware that the hospital expected removing his ventilation to kill him within minutes, and that they then deprived him of food for nearly forty-eight hours, or whether he's just covering it up to avoid having to admit that the "Christianists" might have a point.

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  8. I find it difficult to get to the facts. The most I've found is that this was not the same as Charlie Gard, and yet it was treated the same, which is what set off the concern a month or so ago. Mark's near pathological obsession with the right simply reminds me of the ex-smoker who now hates and despises anyone who smokes. That, plus he seems to feel the need to see in the best colors the side with which he aligns. And since that aside is pushing to broaden abortion rights, euthanasia, assisted suicide, human cloning and other breaches of a life ethic, it causes him to deflect by keeping the focus away from his new allies.

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Let me know your thoughts