A visit from Sam Rocha

If you recall, I commented on a Twitter post of Sam where he blasted EWTN, Word on Fire, and other Catholic outlets.  He asserted that they avoid discussing the teachings of Pope Francis because they're cowards intimidated by everyone's favorite boogeymen, Republican conservatives.

OK.  I poked fun at how he framed it, and mentioned that it sniffed of the old liberal definition of diversity (that is, anyone right of center is a fascist ready to storm the walls with pitchforks and torches).  Something I've listened to tolerant and open minded liberals claims for decades. 

Anyhoo, Sam visited the comments section to take issue.  Initially his focus was on setting the record straight about his particular job title and educational position.  Fair enough.  A couple of us, however, tried to get Sam to speak to the subject of the post itself.  Sam insisted I had taken the Twitter post out of context from a thread of Twitter posts on the subject.  He also said this existed within the framework of larger conversations he has had about the issue. 

Despite attempts to get him to comment or provide links to the greater conversation, he didn't make further comments or provide links. So I did my best to find what I could to set the record straight.  

I was unable to find any blog posts or articles by Sam that seemed to touch on the subject, though he might have accounts I don't know about or can't access.  With some help I was able to piece together the larger Twitter thread which contained the post I referenced (remember, I personally don't have Twitter, but usually get images of Twitter posts from other sources).   Here is what I found, my comments below:

Maybe it's me, but I didn't see anything in the surrounding Twitter posts that changed my impression of the initial post.  It's mainly saying people are ignoring Pope Francis's teachings, especially referencing Fratelli Tutti, which he sees as prophetically calling the Ukrainian war.  He mentions that individuals refused to read Fratelli Tutti, and then he wades into EWTN and WoF.  After that, he takes a shot at 'post-liberal' Catholics.  

Not sure what he means  by that.  There is such a thing as post-liberal theology.  Go Yale.  If he means the same, but within Catholic contexts, I don't know. Or if he is using it in some other manner I'm likewise not sure.  Nor do I know what he means by coy liberalism.  I guess that's one of those traits of social media that I fall into sometimes - using my own personal terms and assuming everyone knows what I'm talking about. 

The only troubling part I caught was his assertion that WoF doesn't speak to Pope Francis's teachings where they might offend those Conservative Republicans.  With a quick Google search, I found several links to WoF articles and videos where they do cover his teachings, and that includes ones I know that conservatives take issue with.  So that's a case where it's not true they don't speak to those teachings.  Perhaps Sam means they don't speak to them to the degree or in the manner he would prefer. IMHO,  however, that doesn't rise to being called cowards, simply because something isn't done up to a personal standard. 

But there you have it.  Sam provided no links to broader conversations about the topic, so I can't speak to those.  I obtained images from the larger Twitter thread.  I don't know if that was all the context or not.  But unless something big was missing, nothing in the surrounding Twitter posts really changed my assessment of his initial post - a leftwing partisan style swipe at people more or less not on the left side of the tracks, or at least Sam's assessment of what should be the proper side of the tracks.  With scholar talk. :)