Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:40am

Of Mark Shea and Elderly Poodles

 

 

I have described being banned from a site on the internet as being akin to being gummed by an elderly poodle:  it does you no real harm, but it does tell you that it is time to move on.  Dave Griffey at Daffey Thoughts has been banned by Mark Shea:

 

 

 

UPDATE: Apparently Mark has banned me from his Facebook page for good. We’ll see if there is more to say about that later.  For now, the link might not work.  Which is fine.  It wasn’t pleasant reading.  Anyway Happy July 4th.

UPDATE 2: Mark has now banned me from everything at this point.  My wife too.  Towards the end of the Facebook debate, Mark called upon his readers to join him.  No, he didn’t say he wanted them to join and gang up on me.  But I was pretty sure that was where he was going.  During the course of the development, his readers made it clear that they supported Mark’s approach to discourse over mine.  They were also aghast that I would post a link to his page and beg my readers to go over there.  Personally I wouldn’t have minded if a few readers came over and helped me out against the onslaught.

Now Mark has done that very thing more times than I can count.  I was shocked to find out it was a big deal.  Heck, back in the day I would follow links Mark posted about debates he was in on other sites and rush to defend him when he was being attacked.  I imagined that it was fine to do.  But Mark clearly had issues with it, and Mark is an honourable man.

Likewise, Mark made it clear he was outraged at the posts where I have criticized him, his styles, or that part of the Catholic blogosphere with which he associates.  Usually, those posts came after heated debates with Mark in which Mark either said something about others I felt crossed the line, or said something about me which I thought crossed the line, and either threatened to ban me or ordered me off of his page.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being accused of wanting to increase human slaughter or not really caring about Jesus.  Especially when, in the course of debating, I’m forbidden from defending myself under threat of being banned.

Nonetheless, despite the fact that Mark has made his living by posting the writings and statements of others and criticizing them and calling on his readers to do the same, he was upset at the fact that I had done the same to him.  I didn’t see it as some hate thing, I’m sincerely worried about Mark’s spiritual pilgrimage.  Yet Mark was offended.  And Mark is an honourable man.

So from now on, if Mark stops taking the words of others and using them to attack those individuals or encouraging others to do the same, then I will refrain from further posts or criticisms of Mark or his tactics.  Quite frankly, if Mark stops doing that, I’ll have little to complain about.  When Mark actually writes about Church teaching or unpacking the Bible or day to day Christian living, there are few better.  What could I complain about?  So that is my pledge.  I will no longer criticize Mark or post references to him, unless it is to give a thumbs up regarding something he has written, if Mark also ceases the same approach that he criticized me of using.  After all, if he does that, then I could honestly say that Mark is an honourable man.

 

 

Go here to read  the comments.  Mark can of course ban whoever he wishes from his blog or his Facebook page.  However, Mark’s stock in trade is the outraged rant against groups and individuals.  For a man who is so quick to make intemperate, and frequently ill-informed, diatribes against those he disagrees with, he possesses a remarkably thin skin.

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Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Sunday, July 3, AD 2016 1:10pm

Mark Shea is like another blog meister with whom I hae dealt. This one is a supposed pro-nuclear activist and a self-appointed guru of all things nuclear, but in his own words he has proudly voted for only liberal progressive Democrats regardless that these are the very politicians who emasculate the industry which he says he loves so much. In this he is just like Shea: he says he supports one thing but he advocates principles and policies and people who are diametrically opposed to what he says he supports. And just like Shea, he bans those who dare call him on the carpet for his hypocrisy and lunacy. As far as I am concerned, such people are excrement fit only to be flushed down the tolet bowl of history were it not that while they have the smallest brains of any of the primates, they have the largest uncontrolled sphincters from which that odiferous and putrid effluvium ever flows. Truly I have nothing but contempt, disdain and disgust for these worthless excuses of human beings. I for one would treat them precisely as they have treated others.

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Sunday, July 3, AD 2016 3:19pm

Mark Shea is an insignificant Internet personality and should be treated as such. I have no use for Shea’s opinions, views or politics. Accordingly I spend none of my time reading anything he writes or caring about it.

Brian
Brian
Sunday, July 3, AD 2016 4:08pm

I was banned from Shea’s blog long ago. Your yapping, toothless poodle analogy is perfect. There is the initial, “What the? …”. Then, the reality hits, this is not a man I wish to talk with or be affected by in any way. The ban I s fine. Yes. It’s his blog; his work, whatever. And it’s my time and my soul and I chose long ago to dump his books in the trash and want nothing more to do with the man.

The adage about “throwing pearls before swine” applies here, I think, (figuratively speaking from an analogically scriptural sense). Bottom line, it is what they call PREVENIENT grace that convinces people to follow truth. It has nothing to do with knowledge or verbal skills. All that is good, all that succeeds, comes from God. Without that heavenly element at the center of any exchange it is a waste of breath and limited time.

I ban blog authors who I think do not interact with their readers and/or myself in good will. It’s like watching an inappropriate movie; not good for the soul.

Foxfier
Admin
Monday, July 4, AD 2016 12:21pm

Mark Shea is an insignificant Internet personality and should be treated as such.

I wish that were so; as internet personalities go, yes, he’s not a very big fish. Partly because nobody is. 😀
The problem is that he has a large amount of borrowed authority that he is quite willing to abuse in the service of his own prudential judgements.
Contrast his behavior with that of, say, Jimmy Akin, never mind B16.
***
The biggest problem is that he’s misleading people; those who trust him to lead them to the truth, and those who don’t— and will be driven off from the truth because of it.

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Monday, July 4, AD 2016 1:10pm

Foxfier, there are always some who are more comfortable with their ideological BS than with the truth. The editorial pages of the Washington Post and New York Times are evidence of that.
Shea is not worth the time talking about him.

Foxfier
Admin
Monday, July 4, AD 2016 1:21pm

The problem is that he is promoting things as a teaching of the Church when it’s a teaching of the Shea, and we do have to answer those falsehoods when we run into them. I’ve mentioned before that most of the “I was raised Catholic” anti-Catholics I know were driven out because of exactly this kind of false teaching.
No use going to his places to do it, but we can’t ignore the junk he says just because it’s from him when we run into folks promoting it, either.
There’s also the issue that he’s either knowingly making false accusations or he’s needlessly presuming bad intent in those who do not agree with him, and making the Church look bad by the way he responds to those who do not accept his teaching authority as binding.

TomD
TomD
Monday, July 4, AD 2016 3:48pm

I like to post on sites that promote discourse. I especially like to opine on sites where I can learn something. TAC gets an A+ on both counts in my book.

While I have learned a few things at Shea’s NCR posts, I quickly came to realize he does not promote discourse. I can’t say that I joined the ranks of “banned by Shea” because I didn’t stick around.

I’ve written it before: No one is more wrong about so many right things as Mark Shea. And that’s the best that can be written.

Brian
Brian
Monday, July 4, AD 2016 7:47pm

TomD,

Your post is tonic. Well said!

I keep coming back to Catholc blogs because I am fascinated by the free flow of ideas and unique insights. I love the comments section because it opens up the room to a free for all among good-hearted Catholic souls. All very interesting.

There are other blogs, (NOT referring to Mr. Shea here) that, although interesting and entertaining and frequently correct, are toxic to the soul no less than a violent R rated movie. Because of how they treat people. Just came from one of those, and I need a bath.

Thanks for your great words of encouragement at just the right time for me. Blogging is great. So are opinions; especially if dissent is tolerated and engaged with a good will. Then it becomes enlightening. I look for those and keep coming back.

And you are right. TAC, this site, is A+. Among the very best. No, THE best because it also includes such a wide variety of interesting ancillary topics and links ito accompany its educational orthodoxy.

Mr. McClarey has disagreed with me. But it was civil. And he’s probably right.

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