[9] And to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, he spoke also this parable: [10] Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
[11] The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. [12] I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess. [13] And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. [14] I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.
Luke 18: 9-13
Hattip to commenter Nate Winchester. Mark Shea has written a long apologia for ever being a conservative. Go here to read it.
Shea is an object lesson for all of us. His entire “confession” is a continual patting on his back for no longer embracing what he once believed and embracing what he now believes. The only exception was when he blamed himself for not loving Maga people. He might start by not hating them. Self congratulatory prayer is right up there with prayers attempting to bring down the wrath of God upon someone. In either case God is an afterthought, a Divine Audience who is simply supposed to applaud noble us. Political zealotry is always dicey business, spiritually speaking. Purportedly religious people, who morph into political zealots, often are the worst. Shea was like that long before he began his march to the left. That bold bad man Oliver Cromwell had one good piece of advice for all zealots:
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.
I will say, however, that not being beset by whatever mental or emotional deformity that has Mark in its throes is truly something worthy of thanking God for.
Shea’s apologia reminds me of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. He’s saying, “thank God I’m not like those Trumpites,!” I don’t use babies as a shied for my politics, I’m against torture, I don’t hate gays, and on and on. He’s crowing now because he thinks he’s on the winning side, but history shows his “winning side” will lose big time in the end, like it did in Russia, and Eastern Europe.
I’m not going to read his garbage. Shea is best ignored. His audience at this point is so miniscule — mostly made up of putrified detritus left over from Vox Nova — that any noise he makes will mostly go unheard and unremarked upon. Unless we decide to give him more of an audience than he deserves.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
The line in his apology:
Is like an alcoholic declaring he’s going to stop drinking right now… while holding a bottle in his hand.
Sure he used to be arrogant and was totally ignorant about stuff. But that was back then! Now he can be totally assured he knows all he needs to know. He’s so sure about it, one might say… he’s arrogant.
@Jay Anderson
Well he does have enough of an audience to have 100 patrons for $1,603 a month.
Not sure how to check how well his latest book is selling, but he was apparently hosted on several podcasts at the time.
With the internet it seems, you don’t need a big audience, just a few thousand really devoted fans.
I’m not reading that.
Besides, those who have followed the trajectory have already done so, anyway.
The bottom line is that being a functional apologist for the neoliberal corporatist oligarchy and its speech and HR codes is not going to wear well on him.
Speaking truth to power is not possible when you side with the powers that be.
I’m often puzzled by other people’s internal dialogue.
Right now, you’ve got two choices in this country: people who recognize the autonomy of culture and the autonomy of working adult citizens, and people devoted to gleichschaltung. He’s chosen poorly.
I stopped Mark last year and the sun shines the brighter for it. I gave his new blog a chance to see if it might improve on his Patheos site. It was worse, especially among the comments section. Serious pits of Hell stuff there. But Mark remains a cautionary tale for me. But then, when I think of others I used to read back in the day, he’s not alone. One of the worst perhaps, but not alone.
I will not give him clicks. However, based on what I’ve read about him here and on other Catholic blogs since he changed sides, I believe Mr. Shea is an object lesson in what pride can do to us if we are not vigilant.
Marx’ all-consuming, rabid advancements of abortion and totalitarianism (the criminal demoncrats, hate-filled oligarchy and Chinese occupiers) are not Catholic, either.
With his arrogant, execrable attitude, I’m convinced that he he’ll get into Heaven after about 700 trillion years in Purgatory. That would be five minutes before Adolf Hitler gets in.
Whether left or right, we are all capable of going down the road of insanity that Shea has decided to walk (or perhaps I should say, run on). Right now, however, the left has greater propensity for doing this than right. And Lord knows, Shea is a leftist commie.
I will not give him clicks. However, based on what I’ve read about him here and on other Catholic blogs since he changed sides, I believe Mr. Shea is an object lesson in what pride can do to us if we are not vigilant.
My suspicion is that he’s intensely bitter about life and his reaction has been to lash out at befuddled third parties. I don’t think the issue’s ever been the issues.
“My suspicion is that he’s intensely bitter about life and his reaction has been to lash out at befuddled third parties. I don’t think the issue’s ever been the issues.“
I get that sense as well.
From one of Shea’s commenters:
I’m not sure we can beat this thing without resorting to China security state measures
And I helped instill in conservative Catholics the deep attitude of the defiant, mocking, victim martyr who sneered at his liberal persecutors as they slowly worked toward the day of our final showdown. It never occurred to me to see them as actual Catholics. I was the real Catholic[TM], as were the rest of my Faithful Conservative Catholic readership.
First, I never remember Shea actually doing this. Even when he was more orthodox he always gave an olive branch to those on the left (which in itself is not shameful). I am guessing that he is rewriting his past in this way to make it easy to apologize for something, rather than admitting what the actual apology is for (i.e. strongly supporting Church teaching).
Second, this is exactly what he has been doing for the last five or so years if you just swap the words “conservative” and “liberal.”
I wonder about the whys of what happened to him, and I’m hesitant to take a guess. If I had to, however, it might just be he’s the type who joins a cause and has to believe his cause and the cause of the angels are one and the same. He once told me, ages ago when we butted heads about something, that he used to wrongly think American conservatism and Christianity were the same thing. I’d submit he’s still making the same mistake, but with a different side. Only while not all of American conservatism at its core could be argued to be the same thing as the Gospel, much of the modern Left at its core is antithetical to anything close to the Gospel. I imagine that alliance alone would make for some interesting twisting and turning to make things fit. His one benefit now being that he has all of the world’s deck stacked in his favor, while back in the day he was running upstream against the prevailing national currents.
I mean, he literally invented a term (“christianist”) to refer to conservative Catholics and make clear that they were not actually Catholic. Did he ever do something remotely similar for liberal Catholics?
He’s outright admitted he wants to be like his father (or was it grandfather?) and their generation and loves to see himself as rolling up his sleeves to take on the nazis. He’s also admitted that he longs for public recognition more than any desired vice.
I don’t think there’s any suspicion or wondering needed. The left preys exactly upon the sentiments Mark is weakest towards. Add on a complete and blind NPC-like acceptance of the current narratives (he does live in Seattle after all) and it’s no more mystery as to his reasonings than an NPC in a game. Just look at what he wrote today:
From kidnapping children from their parents at the border with the lie that they are “keeping them safe” to depriving poor kids of food to teach them “responsibility” to burning down black churches the other day in the name of “order” (while prating about “religious liberty” for themselves) to deporting unaccompanied children to countries where they did not originate (with no provision for them once they step off the plane) and calling that “rule of law” to trying to disenfranchise 20 million voters and calling that “protecting democracy” to selfishly helping to kill 300K Americans with pandemic because having to mask makes these sociopaths feel persecuted, the selfishness of this demographic pleading “religious oppression” is the greatest civic curse the US faces and a stench in the nostrils of God and man.
He is a true believer in the catechism of the modern media. There are nuances, no additional information, nothing left out that he needs to consider, and he is ready to play the Inquisitor to make sure it stays that way.
I still think that the biggest hint towards his current outlook is his reaction towards the “Solar Freakin’ Roadways” scam. He swallowed it completely and brushed aside the many commenters who pointed out the numerous and obvious problems with the idea (usually with some sort of variation on “well, we could try this out in a bunch of cities to see if it works before we dismiss it”).
It was clear that he was only interested in the idea of the payoff of the scam, not the logistics or plausibility.
I think that he views more conventional news in the same way. In fact I’m sure of it, remembering him doing things like arguing against guns by posting a list of “school shootings” incidents that it quickly became clear he had not read (and he shut down people pointing out that most of the incidents on the list weren’t actually school shootings, since they either did not occur at schools or no one was actually shot).
So I think Nate is on the right track.
Don’t tell Marx, “Biden Didn’t Win. We Were Robbed. We Know What They Did Last November.”
Nate,
The comment you quote can be summarized in one word: delusional. Tragically, it’s a national delusion.
Or, as Vinny Pazzini {in the movie, “My Cousin Vunny”] would say, “Everything that guy just said is bull shit.”
Nate, that’s interesting because we just had a discussion here at home along the same lines, but with generations rather than individuals. That is, my boys have said ‘Hitler ruined evil the way Lucas ruined violence and Kubrick ruined blood. In a similar way, in some sense, the WWII generation at least upped the ante on heroism if they didn’t ruin it. They sacrificed, gave and in many cases lost everything to defeat two of the most evil empires in history. How do we top that? Easy. Make sure if there are no Hitlers in the world we find them. And if we can’t find them? We invent them.
I thought that was a clever analysis, and it seems more clever now that you put it that way.
Yes, he had some snark, occasionally brutal, towards left-wing Catholics/dissenters in place. Some of it wince-inducing, if I am being fair to the targets.
But it was never, ever the relentless stream of Roland Freisler-esque recrimination, invective and pure loathing he engages in to this very minute. He is truly a man of the left now, and he will never be able to let up. If nothing else, his horrific southpaw totalitarian friends won’t permit it.
That, sadly, is exactly the case.
He’s outright admitted he wants to be like his father (or was it grandfather?) and their generation and loves to see himself as rolling up his sleeves to take on the nazis. He’s also admitted that he longs for public recognition more than any desired vice.
His father was career military, in the service from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1950 to 1965. He also had a stint in the New York National Guard, adding three years to his age to be able to enlist in February of 1936; don’t know how long he was in before the Guard discovered the deception (if they ever did).
The grandfather was a foreman at a chemical plant outside of Buffalo, and that’s where his father grew up. Shea’s family is Canadian, more or less. His mother was Canadian, his paternal-side grandmother was Canadian, and his paternal-side grandfather grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, right on the border.
If he wanted to be like either, the time to follow that path was a while ago.
. . . “in dire need of mechanization”. . .
That line was funny from the video you posted Don.
🙂
Are we the baddies is a keeper video Tito!
@Art you’re being a bit over literal. In Shea’s own words.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2019/05/i-think-i-need-to-repent-and-apologize.html
So here’s the thing: In my opposition to the ugly and evil policies of the Trump Administration and its conservative Christian supporters, my approach has been strongly influenced–ironically–not by “liberalism” as my critics always assume, but by conservatism, and particularly my respect for my Dad and what he endured fighting Nazis in World War II. So if you really want to get the hang of my response to our White Supremacist-in-Chief and his vile winks and nods to Nazis, think World War II and this:
Sick man. Prayers for him.
That sums it up Frank. One Hail Mary for him from me. I shall try to do this daily.
and particularly my respect for my Dad and what he endured fighting Nazis in World War II. So if you really want to get the hang of my response to our White Supremacist-in-Chief and his vile winks and nods to Nazis, think World War II and this:
Of course, there were no winks and nods to Nazis, vile or otherwise. He just swallows whole the worst sort of propaganda.
AFAICT, the BIRLS file indicates his father was in the Army Air Corps in the European theatre, so he may have endured a great deal. He was evidently stationed in Canada at one point, as he acquired a Canadian wife before the ink was dry on his discharge papers. (My father was also in the Air Force and also got married before the ink was dry on his discharge papers; he spent the Korean War stateside and on the ground; not everyone in the service endured a great deal above and beyond the austerity and irritations of military life).
My uncle was career military. He’s alive and as well as you can be at age 93. He’s not an antagonist of the president, so what does Shea fancy my response should be?
To pick up on Don’s point: it’s a very good idea to make as our first response towards those who either hate us, or tempt us to wrathful anger, to offer to God, on their behalf ,a sincere word of prayer. They need it, and so most assuredly do we.
Publicly noting this. I quoted Shea’s Jan 15th post where he said:
“burning down black churches the other day in the name of “order” (while prating about “religious liberty” for themselves)”
Someone on the blog asked about it:
“Which black churches were burned down and when? I’m shocked and deeply troubled that this isn’t getting news coverage. Or am I interpreting “the other day” as being more recent than you meant?”
And Shea’s reply?
https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/12/21/948794990/proud-boys-leader-takes-credit-for-burning-d-c-church-s-black-lives-matter-banner
A leader of the Proud Boys is claiming credit for tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter banner belonging to a local church last weekend.
In other words, Shea is a liar.
In other words, Shea is a liar.
Or highly emotions-driven and exceedingly sloppy. It occurred to me before he went off the deep end that he benefited a great deal from Brian St. Paul’s editing.
Quite right, Art, though Shea has regularly blasted Trump’s own sloppy & emotions-driven words as signs of how much of a liar the president is, so I see no reason to spare Mark from his own standards. (seriously he’s blasted Trump and by him, “enablers of this dime-store antichrist” for lesser distortions)
Good point.
I have a problem in general wiith professional Catholics, like Shea, whether conservative or leftist. Many don’t have a great understanding of Catholic theological thought and always have a politically or personal nuanced interpretation . If one cannot see that the rise of the leviathan state as represented by the Democratic platform is a greater danger than so called Trumpism, he has ignored the social and economic teachings of the Catholic Church as well as the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill.” Liberalism is a mental disorder so logic and common sense do not apply to its irrational, evil and subjective constructs.
I have a problem in general wiith professional Catholics, like Shea, whether conservative or leftist.
Something tells me it’s a minefield that the prudent communicant would do well to avoid. I don’t think parishes and dioceses can avoid having a salaried and wage staff of laymen. However, I’ll wager you that most diocesan chanceries are exemplars of Parkinson’s law and parishes would do well to have shared staff rather than each having its own secretary &c.
As for the magazine writers and itinerant lecturers, what’s been distressing has been the decline in academic chops of that set of people. Someone like Ralph McInerney dies and he isn’t replaced by anyone up and coming.
Then of course, there are the scandals. Some of them concern finances (the absurd salary Karl Keating’s board was paying him) others amatory history (Deal Hudson, Amy Welborn).
PATRICK
*
You make a good point about the leviathan state. I read a recent article at the Catholic World Report website titled “US bishops disagree with designation of Cuba as terrorism sponsor.” The USCCB position was pretty much the same case that was made when Nixon went to China.
*
I posted the following comment:
*
The statement is the same PR spin that was used during the Nixon China initiative. The Chinese people are still waiting for their political liberalization. The evidence is that increasingly both the Catholic Church and the USA have a leadership that is becoming Sinicized. In the USA Catholic Social Teaching appears, in practice, to give primacy to governmental solutions, with all power being given to the administrative state, just like China. It is getting to be to the point of giving this administrative state the limitless powers of godhood, the idolatry of government. The preferential option of the administrative state being the destination for all power, a new Tower of Babel.
*
The failure of the Pope to meet with the Cuban dissidents and the secretive nature of the Vatican’s China agreement make it clear that the state is the boss.
* End of CWR comment *
The only other thing that I can add to this comment is that, in practice, the Church hierarchy are more ecclesial politicians and bureaucrats than shepherds. This would explain the statist world view. Birds of a feather.
Gargantua explains why abortion is Trump’s fault, and Biden is not really pro-abortion. https://t.co/ADTy6pTy4i?amp=1
Orwellian is too weak to describe Shea’s take.