And all because they believe America was a great county that needs to reclaim the good in its heritage:
Yep. Mark is beginning to tar and feather children who dare blaspheme the Leftist State. When you start dehumanizing children who might dare challenge the narratives of the Left, I'd say it's time to hit the brakes.
In any event, I'm coming to believe we are living in an age of God's judgment on the Church. For too long we got complacent, lazy, cowardly, and more or less let the world and the spirits of this present darkness have their way in the nation we inherited. If tens of millions of little ones suffered and died on the altar of our era's libidos, well, let's not get fanatical about things.
‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jez′ebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.
But to the rest of you in Thyati′ra, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay upon you any other burden; only hold fast what you have, until I come.
He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father; and I will give him the morning star.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Revelation 2.19-29 (emphasis mine)
The trick is, of course, when God begins using instruments of correction on His people, don't join with said instruments.
FWIW, here is the website Mark references, specifically the list of speakers. .
Some people say Mark is beyond all reason and rational discourse. On this side of heaven, that's likely true at this point. Therefore, some say, we should ignore him. For me, I think we should pray for his soul, and the souls of all who are quickly abandoning the historical Faith to align with this new Power that has arisen.
He's also a cautionary tale. Even those who defend right against evil can end up going down the Pit. But the pressure will be on the faithful to torture the Gospel in order to bow before the emerging State and its emissaries. If we do, Mark is what we might become. And that's a powerful deterrent for caving in this twilight time.
 |
| The once beloved Dr. Hahn at the once celebrated Stuebenville University, now a fundamentalist at best, a fascist predator at worst. The fruits of the modern Left UPDATE: Speaking of picking the wrong sides, I was just sent an image from Mark's Twitter account:  Mark's hermeneutic is rather simple: hate and seek the defeat of white conservatives. Period. If you happen to want to altar the anatomy of children or begin mitigating the outrage against pedophilia, well, nobody's perfect. |
Well Shea's patreon has now dropped to 75 people. If anything I think he's a cautionary tale of what happens when you heed the legacy media complex without any discernment or questioning.
ReplyDeleteYep. I remember years ago one of his frequent taglines was that listening to the press drops your IQ by so many points. Now he takes almost anything the press says as gospel truth. Unless it gets something wrong about the Church in a foundational way, or Pope Francis. Then he used to jump on it, though don't know if he still does. I think Michael Crichton had something to say about people who knock the press's credibility on one story, then believe it blindly in the next story.
DeleteYep. Mark is beginning to tar and feather children who dare blaspheme the Leftist State.
ReplyDeleteHuh? The lecture series would be for Franciscan's various constituents, none of whom are children. He seems to be referring to Franciscan students.
His idea of an 'authoritarian predator' is...R.R. Reno?
One does get the impression that perhaps the term 'decompensation' may apply to Mark Shea at this point.
I typically try to avoid diagnosing people on the Internet, but his general behavior on social media does make you wonder. Either it's just an act for his partisanship, or there are some serious issues there.
DeleteDoes Mark even exist? His internet posts sound less like human expressions than they do the ranting of a broken algorithm
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've wondered that. The last time I tried to discuss something with him I had the idea that I was discussing something with a Macro. It's as if he had a program that when anyone dared question him, he hit a button and it spewed 'FOX, MAGA, Racist, Fascist, Death Cult, etc'. That's why I said he's well beyond any hope of reason at this point.
DeleteMaybe he's a performance artist with a warped sense of humor. There's some evidence to suggest that right-wing loons like Q-Anon and REAL RAW NEWS are actually leftists trying to make the right look dumb. Maybe Mark is the same, but for the opposite side?
DeleteUnknown, check out his blog or his twitter feed sometime. For one thing, performance artists usually don't block people because reactions are part of the show.
DeleteSometimes he defies all attempts to explain what happened to him. Which is why so many still comment on him. For instance, in the early days of his blog (2000s), in the wake of Dawn Eden's 'lying is worse than abortion' bombshell, he broke with many of his readers when he went after Santa Clause. He said parents who tell their kids there is a Santa, or Tooth Fairy, or Easter Bunny are liars and are lying and committing sin by doing so. Now look. Just 'Folk Catholicism". And the sign isn't as harsh as he was back then. Expecting anything remotely consistent from him outside of 'hate white conservatives' is a waste of time.
Delete"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
ReplyDeleteI think we could all do a bit better at bearing such fruit -- certainly I could -- but the fruit of the Spirit is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for anyone who wishes to be any kind of apologist. Sadly, the longer anyone is online, the less fruit of the Spirit he displays; the exceptions, if any, are rare.
(And yes, this applies to me. That's why I deleted my Disqus account a few years ago.)
Mark Shea is an object lesson in this. Back around 2005, I commented on his blog that despite the name "Catholic and Enjoying It", he really did not seem to be enjoying it at all; maybe "Catholic and Grumpy as Hell" would fit better. He took it as a joke. It was not.
I stopped keeping up with him a few years after that. He had become a near occasion of sin for me. Based on second-hand reports like this blog post, it appears that he now is not even displaying the absence of the fruit of the Spirit, but the negation.
Reason and rational discourse are no cure for serious spiritual problems.
https://www.savagechickens.com/2022/04/dilemma-2.html
DeleteI know what you mean. Sometimes we can focus on this or that issue to the point we begin thinking how we focus on this or that issue is the key.
DeleteI've more or less stopped going anywhere near Mark's sites, or his particular brand. But folks will send me links or images and sometimes where he has crossed another line - such as beginning to smear children who dissent - I'll post it as a warning. He is a professional Catholic author and speaker after all. He's also, as you say, a cautionary tale for all of us. But one reader has also said he's a bit of a canary in a coal mine. More and more as the vices of modernity are tightened, we're seeing people we never imagined would go the way Mark has gone start to go the way Mark went, even if they're still way behind.
Sometimes I wonder if just leaving the whole thing would be better. But it is the mode of community today, for better or worse.
BTW, perhaps I'm implanting the memory, but I seem to vaguely recall the comment from all those ages ago, as well as his reaction. That was shortly after I began visiting his blog.
Let me be a little more clear. For several reasons I really hate to say this, but I suspect Mark is suffering from demonic influence. Much can be laid at the metaphorical feet of the world and the flesh, but we know those are not the only enemies of our souls. Normal human frailty and a desire to be among the "cool kids" can diminish the fruit of the Spirit, but when we see not so much a deficiency, but the negation of the fruit of the Spirit, it begins to look like the fruit of an unclean spirit.
DeleteI see what you're saying. I'm typically reluctant to diagnose someone's mental fitness, as some have attempted in trying to make sense of Mark's senselessness. Likewise, I'm reluctant to make too many spiritual guesses about why things are what they are. But given the fruits of what he does, and why he does them, and how he does them, an unclean spirit isn't the most far fetched explanation.
DeleteI think the unclean spirit has a clear name: News Media.
DeleteIt also has a brother (you can tell because they have the same last name): Social Media.
@Nate -- "Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour."
DeleteThe lion is a metaphor, the devil is not. No doubt in the first century people could have made complaints about Greek plays and pagan philosophers and old-fashioned gossip which would be similar to our complaints about the news media or Hollywood or social media, but in any case these are just "the world" from the phrase "the world, the flesh, and the devil". The devil usually likes to hide, so that his suggestions seem to arise from the world or the flesh, but make no mistake, he and other unclean spirits are real.
Anon I was actually agreeing with you. The devil is real and he has many tools.
DeleteGoogle Scholar is currently indexing 75 works written by Scott Hahn. Some are translations in Spanish of other works. Some are in scholarly journals, some are monographs. Some are pitched to professionals, some to the general reader. A few are articles in reference books. I'm not seeing magazine articles in outlets like Catholic World Report. There are scads of mentions of him in articles in Crisis, but I'm not finding anything he's written. AFAICT, he's never been a contributor to Books & Culture or Touchstone or First Things. I'm also not locating anything by him that might be called topical commentary on public affairs. It's all biblical studies, theological work, or discussions of morals. It collides with the discussion of public affairs only now and again in re certain issues. "Authoritarian predator" seems a perfectly kooky way of describing him. The works mentioned cover 27 years in time, btw.
ReplyDeleteThe only way for Mark's statement to make any sense whatsoever is of he's saying "this event is Facist, thus Scott Hahn is Facist for supporting it." His logic would be shaky in that scenario, but at least slightly within the realm of plausibility. If he means that the event is Facist because Mr. Hahn is there, I think that means Mark is finally finnished
DeleteUnknown, I believe Mark is simply using the old tactic I've watched those on the left use for most of my adult life: Define fascist as anything right of center, or that challenges a progressive mandate or agenda. This clearly is a seminar to challenge the CRT/BLM/1619 Project interpretation of America as an inherently racist, genocidal fascist state whose heritage and principles, if not laws, need burned to the ground. As the seminar is challenging this rather leftwing interpretation, it becomes default fascist. For Mark, who has plunged deeply into the lowest depths of leftwing ideology, it's easy to declare it fascist, and therefore everyone involved actively or passively fascist as a result.
DeleteFWIW, more bothersome for me than Mark smearing a man he once admired (he's done that with others), was his derogatory dig at the potential children who might accept this seminar's premises. Mark has himself condemned such rhetoric (equaling humans to lower forms of life), and has obviously condemned besmirching children. That he has done both simply because a seminar wishes to unpack the positives of American history speaks more than volumes.
was his derogatory dig at the potential children who might accept this seminar's premises.
DeleteI'm not understanding why you persist in calling Franciscan students 'children'.
I'm getting the idea that we're mistaken in thinking there's actual semantic content in M. Shea's characterization of the speakers. He could say what he's thinking and feeling by flashing his upraised middle finger.
It's none of my business, of course. I cannot help but suspect that Shea is intensely bitter (at age 63) about his state in life, and is lashing out at people who were figures in earlier chapters of that life.
Because his term is a broad one, and of a manner he once condemned others like Limbaugh for whenever digs were made at students of any age. Geese and ganders for Mark.
DeleteAs for why, it's impossible to say. I'm leaning with the above assessment of unclean spirit. From a religious POV, that would explain much.