As I've said a thousand times, we Protestants had people like Fred Phelps. Sad but true. But even the most hardcore fundamentalists I knew wouldn't get near Phelps with a 10' pole.
Yet Mark is frequently picked as a contributor to, or speaker at, Catholic publications, Catholic podcasts, Catholic seminars, Catholic parishes and Catholic colleges and schools. See the difference? That's one point for Protestant discernment.
UPDATE: As if to demonstrate, I saw this link where Mark goes after his favorite undesirables, the white conservative Christian with white skin, preferably of the male variety. Nothing really to bother with, any more than I would go to Westboro Baptist and try to reason with them. It's enough to make people aware and then move on. There are some people who are beyond reach on this side of heaven. All that's left to do is prayer and fasting.
Well going by the twitter engagement can't even get double digits there's no telling how much exposure Shea is getting if any.
ReplyDeleteHard to say. I don't know how those things translate into the real world. But I still think it difficult to believe he gets the exposure he gets.
DeleteTim LaHaye wrote a brief and polite letter of complaint about some memorial offered at Wheaton College in 1968 and that's the motor of recent complaints over school curricula. I can never figure out if it's flagrant mendacity or if he really is a candidate for long-term care.
ReplyDeleteAs for the invitations extended, I'm remembering an interview with the broadcasting emcee Bill Cullen about how he landed his various positions.
"This is how it happens every time," says Cullen. A known packager comes up with the idea for a new show. The network says, do a run-through. They do. The network likes it, and they say, we'll give you a pilot. Then the network says, Who are we going to get to host it?
Packager: Who do you have in mind?
Network: Let's go with someone new.
Packager: Great idea. Who?
Network: Don't you know anybody?
Packager: No. There's so-and-so, but we tried him in a run-through and he didn't work out ... How about you? You know someone?
Network: No.
Now, the sets are constructed, the game is worked out, the staff is hired, it's two weeks before the show is to go on, they are ready to shoot the pilot.
Network: Well, have you thought of anybody yet?
Packager: No.
Network: Let's go with Bill Cullen.
That's almost exactly how NBC picked the host of Hot Potato
I'm guessing the church-o-cracy employs a great many midwits whose decisions can be explained by sheer inertia.
There is the old rolodex approach - pick a card, any card. But with the numbers of outlets who turn to him, some have to know. If they don't, they should do their homework.
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