Mark is a perfect example of the truth of the doctrine that in order to benefit from the grace of God we must will to cooperate with it. Blind hate is the most effective way not to cooperate with grace, and that is a needed lesson for us all.
A Christmas Time Message From Mark Shea
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
It’s far too easy to read Mark Shea’s words of hatred and anger, and feel for him the same that he dishes out towards conservative Christians. But in this rare moment of sanity, I will quote a man far wiser than I shall ever be:
Ἄριστος τρόπος τοῦ ἀμύνεσθαι τὸ μὴ ἐξομοιοῦσθαι.
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation VI.6
Haven’t a clue why Steve Skojec fancies Michael Byrd was justified in using lethal force against Ashli Babbitt.
I’ve never heard of this fellow Lafferty. He fancies there’s something you can call ‘the Catholic reaction to the pandemic’ outside the ken of episcopal policy, and it demoralizes him. No clue and no clue.
The demoralizing thing about the pandemic is only tangentially related to the doings of clergymen and not at all with the doings of lay Catholics qua lay Catholics. It’s the inability of the what Glenn Reynolds calls ‘the administrative class’ to make a good decision to save their lives.
A cousin of mine lost her much loved husband to frontotemporal dementia. What she had to say was that she’d been married to one man for 42 years and then this stranger appeared. He lasted less than two years with it, but some people last a loooong time with it.
I’ve never heard of this fellow Lafferty. He fancies there’s something you can call ‘the Catholic reaction to the pandemic’ outside the ken of episcopal policy, and it demoralizes him. No clue and no clue.
I believe he is one of the Where Peter Is minions, uber Pope Francis loyalists.
https://wherepeteris.com/contributors/
Re: justification for shooting Ashli Babbitt: psychological projection of guilt. They [the few sane ones] fully know they stole the election and the shooting and concentration camp, and Congressional show trials are disinformation and distraction from their guilt.
Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I stopped treating Shea and his detritus as normal. Same for those other guys.
And, it’s far past time you stopped regarding governments and the hierarchy as good for anything . . . and I mean ANY THING. .
I believe he is one of the Where Peter Is minions, uber Pope Francis loyalists.
I did notice Morning’s Minion / TonyA on his Twitter feed.
WPI is the People’s Temple of American Catholicism. The Zeitgeist-hugging pontiff is always right: facts, previous teachings and basic human decency be damned. Drink your kool aid and shut your conscience off. Ignore everyone who writes for it. You’ll be a happier human being with more integrity.
Steve nailed it, sadly. While I agree that bad witness is the biggest destroyer of Catholicism, that bad witness has mostly worn collars and mitres for three generations.
Only someone living in the Perpetual Mean Girl cycle of social media Catholicism thinks that an article in the Atlantic matters a tinker’s damn to anyone outside that sad bubble.
“WPI is the People’s Temple of American Catholicism. The Zeitgeist-hugging pontiff is always right: facts, previous teachings and basic human decency be damned. Drink your kool aid and shut your conscience off. Ignore everyone who writes for it. You’ll be a happier human being with more integrity.”
Comment of the week Dale! Take ‘er away Sam!
Apparently, real psychologists [Is that a real science?] have a term for the terrifying transgender fad = “gender dysphoria.’
Do Marx Che et al suffer from a form of theology dysphoris?
Asking for a friend.
Whenever Mark Shea comes up now, I just feel sad.
It doesn’t matter what he writes. It’s all full of the same blind hatred, where all his friends are saints and all his enemies are united in a gleeful pursuit of evil.
I remember when he debated Dr. Feser on the death penalty, and he was unhinged then. He repeatedly went back to the idea that Feser, or at least those who listened to him, only allowed for limited use of the death penalty because they were Trump supporters who were glad to see the suffering of others. Every time this happened Dr. Feser basically responded with “what on Earth are you talking about? I’ve never said anything remotely like that” at which point Shea would apologize, saying that he either went to far or was talking about someone else, only to make the same accusations again before too long.
But compared to now, he was positively lucid and evenhanded back then. At least he would back down if called on things and would consider if he was wrong. Now it’s just hate, hate, hate. And like I said, it’s more sad than anything.
I especially like the fact that what he says is demonstrably false. Not a single survey or study I’ve seen has politics in general, much less those rascally MAGA types, as the main reason people are leaving the Church. Most studies I’ve seen say the biggest reason is that they just don’t believe the Church’s teaching. Nothing to do with politics at all. But then, I long ago stopped taking seriously anything Mark writes as it’s almost always wrong on some level, if not entirely.
I have become more and more convinced that the “strong delusion” of 2 Thess 1 is a total loss of self-awareness. Mr. Shea seems to be a case in point.
I think that Mr. Shea’s ongoing project is to convince himself that he’s really not heterodox, and one of his unfortunate go-tos for that is to spew forth invective against orthodox Catholics. Evidently he’s still unconvinced. Me too.
Each day, Marx Che becomes expodentially more irrelevant.
Each missive includes as many logical fallacies as he can pack in. Maybe he’s out to invent a new one.
It’s unfortunate because I feel like Mark does have some good things to say from time to time (less and less these days (but he’s unreadable because his written is filled with so much rage and Hage. He bullies anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with him. He needs lots of prayers.