On full display here:
Heh. I know. It's Mark Shea. Still, you have to love Mr. Seamless Garment New Prolife Catholic. He basically tells the GOP to stop cheering. Because they won Florida and Texas, which are friendly toward retirees. That means their gains were among the elderly, who are old and will die soon.
Maybe it's me, but that just doesn't strike the old 'What would Jesus say?' tone. But then it is the New Prolife Catholic ethic, and I think we're all clever enough to know what that euphemistic label actually means.
Golly.
ReplyDeleteLet’s see.
We have the bench with youth an beauty.
They have the bench with withered crones and senility.
The voters? The young and foolish will mostly come around after having been schooled by reality.
Now Mark, what accounts for your descent into madness?
Many have pondered what went wrong with Mark. At this point, he exists mostly as a cautionary tale for the rest of us.
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ReplyDeletePerhaps one can gently suggest he read Joel Kotkin's new posting "A Tale of Two Americas", in which the facts speak differently: that it is red America that has more young families and is growing demographically, and not blue. Yet I find the more rabid the ideologue, the more impervious to such mundane things as "facts".
Mark and Facts went through a bitter divorce some years ago. At this point, he just says - things.
DeleteOh you missed the best one. He has now pinned to the top of his profile:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/chezami/status/1590411074406584320
"Dear Catholic MAGA prolifers: I'm just contemptible vermin. But maybe now would be a good time to mend fences with those of us who oppose, not the Church's teaching, but your stupidity and deep corruption. Maybe think about listening for a change?"
With such welcoming and loving language like that, who could refuse??
Good last sentence there Marko. May we suggest that you follow your own advice?
DeleteHeh. How inviting. The level of hatred he brings to the table is beyond what I normally see in even the most fanatical corners of the worst discourse.
Delete@David Davies -- I think his first sentence was the most truthful. Only in his imagination are people rushing to reassure him that he is not contemptible vermin.
DeleteDon't worry. I'm sure that Steven Greydanus will condemn his friend's comment any second now. We all know how deeply principled he is.
ReplyDeleteThat does undercut Deacon Greydanus's credibility. Especially since he has publically bemoaned all those conservatives daring to bring their politics into the Church and causing endless heartaches to the beautiful believers. That he then gives thumbs up to Mark suggests strongly that he really doesn't care about brining politics in the Church, just which politics. And if you're bringing the correct politics in, there are no rules, just right.
DeleteI guess Mark forgot to look up the economic stats on FL and TX, two of the fastest growing economies in the country, and as noted by others, states which have growing numbers of young families and productive businesses, both of which are leaving blue hellholes as fast as they can. As usual, Mark listens to the wrong entities, not all of which, I fear, are of this world.
ReplyDeleteWhy, then, are we listening to him?
DeleteAnon, again because it should bring attention to the problem. When I was a Protestant minister, Fred Phelps was a media obsession. My colleagues and I spent quite a large amount of time making sure our congregations, and the public at large, knew he wasn't to be listened to or seen as representative of Protestant Christianity. Sadly, there appear to be no such efforts in the Catholic Church to get the message out about paid apologists who get it wrong, and furthermore commit endless sins in defending the wrong.
DeleteIs the benefit worth the cost? I don't think Shea has any fans among your readers, and I at least never hear about him except when you bring him up.
DeleteI figure it's worth the cost, as the cost is minimal. The benefit of helping even one person who might swing by avoid the error and its consequences is more than worth it.
DeleteI don't follow him so much as people will still send me or show me things he writes. He exists largely as a cautionary tale. Also, it's a chance to make sure people might hear that he isn't to be trusted to teach anything Catholic. If even one person is stopped from believing you can be an ardent Satan worshipper who would happily abort a million babies for a blasphemous orgy while rejecting the Gospel, you need only earn salvation through good works and labor to destroy white conservatism, it would be worth keeping an eye on him. And, quite frankly, we can always pray that he turns away from the void.
ReplyDeleteThat post makes one question whether Mark knows certain things.
ReplyDelete1. EVERY generation is dying. When you read in the news of a teenager dying in an automobile accident, or a random shooting, or of a rare disease, or whatever, that reduces the count of living members of his generation by one, and that number will never go up again until the end of time. Within a hundred years from now, that generation will all be gone.
2. Death is not annihilation. A lot of foolish nonsense is said to comfort people grieving over the death of a loved one, but the immortality of the soul is not just comforting foolishness. The communion of saints is real. Mark appears to think we should sorrow, even as others who have no hope.
3. The nature of reality is not determined by a vote. Maybe a majority of Americans want abortion to be legal. If so, so much the worse for America, but that does zip to show that abortion is even tolerable (to say nothing of good) and actually should be legal.
"I don't support infanticide! I just support the party that supports infanticide! Sure, Democrats may love child sacrifice, but at least they say nice things about immigrants, black people, and the people! And that's good enough for me! What's that? My Democratic state legislators just voted to ban Catholicism? Huh. Well, I'm still voting blue!"
ReplyDeleteBarely an exaggeration considering he regularly rants about the lies of the pro-life movement. (Why yes, he NEVER seems to acknowledge any lies from pro choice. Funny that...)
Delete"The poor" should be "poor people."
Delete"Your party is dying of old age" says the literal Baby Boomer.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the same thing happen with Dems relative to the March for Life. Older dems will insist that the attendance must be down, because kids must be all in on abortion. After all, who better to know about what kids think that someone in his 60's? But if you look at the actual March for Life you see that it is full of young people, and the only group that looks like it walked out of a retirement home is the inevitable small but hyped by the press counter-protest.
I find humans of all stripes are like kids. They might take the easy way if it's handed to them, but they want the tougher way. Most people looking for God legit expect a religious tradition not to simply mirror society. If you get people in by being like the worst of the world, there's a good chance they were looking for something else and the church merely delievered.
DeleteFor those curious, Shea apparently did an interview recently.
ReplyDeletehttps://markpshea.com/2022/11/14/last-month-i-did-an-interview-with-paul-fahey-and-dominic-de-souza-on-the-pope-francis-generation-podcast/
And that's the problem with Mark. It's not that he's a political partisan zealot. It's not that he teaches false doctrine. It's not that he engaged in calumny and personal attacks and bearing false witness. It's that he continues to be lifted up and supported by Catholic organizations, parishes, and ordained clergy. As if the old 'superior by Catholic' turns out to be true.
DeleteIn good conscience I cannot click on such a link. And I had to look up the hosts of this convo because “PF Generation”? God help us! It’s the Church Boomer generation part 2! It’s just too depressing on a human level to think of it.
ReplyDeleteI think Catholics are going to have to fess up that many in the Catholic Church - including leaders - long ago abandoned the historical faith. Just like Mainline Protestant denominations did. By the 20th Century, it was clear many Protestants had replaced the historical Faith with whatever ideologies, philosophies, theories or fads of the day were buzzing about. That left them an open door to simply jettison anything that stood in the way of aligning with the latest, best. Some resisted of course, hence the endless splits within traditions over the last century of Protestantism. But much of what I see in Catholicism today is no different than that, albeit a few generations behind (but running fast to catch up). Pope Francis, clearly liberal in his outlook and informed by Liberation Theology, has opened the door for Catholics who want to get hip to the times. And since in doing so they are on the side of the powers defining the times, it becomes more and more difficult to reach them or even engage.
DeleteI don't quite understand though... if you find yourself on the side of the "world", shouldn't you stop and wonder if that's actually a good thing? (Rhetorical)
DeleteI've learned they don't take it that way. They insist they're still the brave soldiers fighting against the World (defined as those who disagree with their politics, but not stated explicitly). Sort of like Pope Francis. He's much beloved of the world. We actually had a cable company use him in their commercials. Yes, he riles them a bit when he says things like abortion is the murder of children. But when he makes it clear that murdering children by the tens of millions is hardly a deal breaker, he goes back to beloved of the world. Unlike the previous popes, who sometimes garnered a little respect, but were often openly attacked and reviled.
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