I get that many good Catholics love +Barron, but saying Elijah was "fired" by God for being too violent with Baal-worshippers is horrific modernist exegesis. It's the same disease as woke critics of the past: we apply our man-made modern standards to condemn previous generations. pic.twitter.com/bmmgVHCwQB
— Eric Sammons (@EricRSammons) August 17, 2022
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.
1 Kings 18: 21
Elijah fired because he had the prophets of Baal executed after they lost the battle of the Gods on Mount Carmel? The same Elijah who communed with Jesus during the Transfiguration? Of course there is not a scintilla of evidence to support this absurdity in the Old Testament account. Bishop Barron always struck me as an intellectual light weight, with some talent as a popularizer, but this goes well beyond being wrong into the territory of simply lying in order to engage in obeisance to twenty-first century fake pieties. There are many ways to offer a pinch of incense to false gods and manipulating Scripture to serve current intellectual prejudices is one of them.
Bishop Barron tries to throw the Prophet Elijah under the Chariot for being “too violent”. I wonder how that’s gonna go over on Judgment Day.
Between him and Shea, they enforce the joke “I would become Catholic, but I’ve actually read the Bible.”
He’s taking the low-hanging fruit here by tying this to the death penalty; he should be intellectually honest and go all the way. For if, as he has said, Jesus is only a “privileged way” to God, and if, as his putative white-cassocked boss has said, “God wills the diversity of religions,” then Elijah wasn’t fired for the death penalty. Rather, he was fired for an overt act of proselytism.
His confronting the prophets of Baal would be an act of intellectual and religious colonization. His challenging them to prove their claims would both be hubristic and an attempt at cultural shaming and erasure. His refusal to engage in dialogue and accompany them in their rites, beliefs and practices is an ecumenical failure borne out of arrogance and rigidity, and by not allowing for this Baal-ic mode of inculturation in worship is another attempt at cultural colonization. I haven’t done a deep exegesis on this passage, but I’d suspect he also engaged in performative whiteness.
Before I was Catholic I ran into this sort of nonsense in Methodist churches with great regularity, so +Barron’s treatment of this isn’t particularly innovative or insightful but rather quite banal. I converted to Catholicism primarily because Jesus is THE way, truth and life, but also because it struck me as a religion that actually took itself seriously. Unfortunately, most of the current hierarchy seems to be going out of its way to disabuse me of that notion.
Thanks for the crystal clear warning Bishop Barron. You’re a false shepherd. Got it.
Being taken to heaven in a fiery chariot is a kind of “fired” that looks more like a reward than a punishment.
I wonder if Elijah got the memo from BB that God fired him? 🤔
I used to read/watch some of his vids and think 🫤. He seemed to be focused on atheists. It wasn’t until CRT that I won’t watch him at all. If you don’t have enough brain cells to rub together to see what is going on before your eyes, I ain’t got time.
It’s of no surprise he fired Elijah.
This pretty well completes my estrangement from Bishop Barron. The first crack in the wall happened when I heard him spouting the Balthasarian absurdity that “it is reasonable to hope that Hell is empty.” Since that statement effectively calls both Christ and His Mother liars, it is probably heresy of some degree. Unfortunately, a certain Cardinal Ratzinger also seemed, at one time at least, to be a Balthasar fan, which is disappointing, although not so bad compared to his abdication, for which I forgive him because I have to, not because I want to. But I digress.
The second big issue was when Barron said not one public word about the rampant heresy and apostasy on display annually at the Los Angeles “Catholic” education conference, in which he gleefully participated the entire time he was in LA.
You are right, FOS. He’s just another of our many false shepherds. Pray for him.
Elijah’s successor was the kinder and gentler Elisha:
In case the lesson isn’t clear, the current NAB provides this useful footnote:
Thank God he’s not my bishop. Everything he just said is BS.
I’m of two minds about Bishop Barron. I don’t think he’s an awful person or a complete sell-out like far too many today. But that’s just terrible.
“Word on Fire”, eh? If being sent out into the wilderness to, at last, hear the Voice of the Lord is being “fired”, may we all be so “fired”.
In this setting, the taunts of this group of young toughs as they came upon the prophet walking alone can be seen within this ongoing religious conflict. “Go on up” is not only a directive to go to the city, but to the high place to make a sacrifice. Refusal to participate in the Israelite civil cult had led to the murder of hundreds of prophets of Yahweh at the ends of Ahab’s forces (1 Kgs/3 Kgdms 18:4). Non-compliance with the demands of this mob to engage in pagan worship would have resulted in Elisha’s death as it had for so many other prophets. The addition of the insult “baldhead” only accentuates the threatening nature of their approach. The term used here, which is translated ‘baldhead,’ is not the usual term for baldness as is normal to aging men. Rather, it is a term referring to those suffering from a leprous condition and therefore ceremonially impure or unclean. It was therefore not only a term of mockery but also of religious and societal ostracism and condemnation directed at the prophet of Yahweh.
When the she-bears emerge, then, it is not to slaughter children for the impiety of making jokes at a prophet’s expense. It is not to avenge Elisha’s honor. Rather, these bears emerge to protect Elisha and to save his life from the ancient Israelite equivalent of brownshirts. While no total number is given for these young officials, that the bears maul forty-two out of their number means that it was more than this. Yahweh protects one faithful prophet when he is confronted and surrounded by a hostile pagan gang intent on forcing him to offer sacrifice to their gods or lose his life.
Within the overarching story in context, this brief story is included to show that just as Yahweh was with and protected Elijah, so also He now protects Elisha. Though those faithful to the God of Israel are fewer in number and those who serve the powers of darkness hold the power of the state and its military, the creation itself will rise up to defend the righteous. After his rescue, it is not a coincidence that he passes by Carmel, the place of Elijah’s great victory against Baal and his prophets before traveling on to Samaria, capital of the apostate northern kingdom, for the battle to continue.
–Source
[…] Catholic Exchange Charismatic Renewal – The Challenge – David Torkington at Catholic Stand Bishop Barron Trying to Relate. . . – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American Catholic Rich Soil, Poor Soil – Mikaila […]
So called “man made standards” of today seem much more defensible than the “man made standards” of the past that justified misogyny, racism, violence and revenge, to name a few.
Two fallacies in your reasoning John. The standard under discussion was made by God not Man. And the contemporary Left which you are a card carrying member of is filled with misogyny, racism, violence and revenge.
Very informative Nate, thank you!
Elijah proved that his God, our God, the Infinite Supreme Sovereign Being, is the one true God. (There cannot be two Infinite Supreme Sovereign Beings as they would preempt one another.) After the prophet Elijah proved that our God is the one true God, the prophets of Baal refused to accept the proof positive, thereby violating the compact they made with Elijah. Only after the prophets of Baal, who saw the miraculous power of God and knew better, refused to keep their bargain with Elijah, and continued in their blasphemy against the one true God, did Elijah served them their just deserts.
Speaking of just deserts: The murderer of homicide in the first degree as a member of the state and of the government brings himself to Justice and is executed through his own power of attorney.
I can forgive my murderer. I cannot forgive your murderer without becoming an accessory after the fact.
Speaking of hell: Hell is empty of souls sent to hell by God. Hell is overflowing with souls who choose to go to hell and freely choose to stay in hell for everlasting eternity. Souls in hell hate God and if they were in heaven, heaven would be hell for them, really.
The fire that springs forth from the face of Jesus Christ in the mosaic in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God carried the prophet Elijah into heaven.
It is imortant to know that religious freedom only extends to true religion, the worship of the true God and man’s response to the gift of Faith from God in the same way that freedom of speech covers only truth. “Give us this day our daily bread” petitions God for Faith.
Some atheists blame God for not giving them Faith in the true God, while refusing to accept Faith in the true God. Some people are angry that thei were created in original innocence and rejected their opportunity to maintain their original innocence. Atheists reject the opportunity of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church to return them to original innocence.
Beware of false prophets. The guy isn’t even a legitimate bishop. Another ignorant of true Catholic teaching because he isn’t Catholic.