Trying to deal with abortion via SCOTUS outlawing it is an absolute and total dead end–and especially via Trump. It will never ever ever happen. Go here to read the rest.
Mark Shea Prediction
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I clicked through to the article, skimmed it and ended up with a headache. What exactly is his position on abortion? Or does he himself even know..? He’s completely fixated on Trump. The news outlets too. The news outlets are “blaming” Trump for this “catastrophe”. Blame away. I’m sure Trump is very proud of himself at this moment.
“I’m sure Trump is very proud of himself at this moment.”
I am sure as to that. This moment typifies why I became a supporter of Trump. He fights and he delivers. Politics 101, but until Trump came along few top Republicans understood that.
He wrote about it today.
https://markpshea.com/2022/05/03/this-is-the-piece-you-are-gonna-want-to-read/
“It is absurd to think that laws can ‘magic away’ abortions. We need to change hearts and minds or else we will simply get a regime founded on force, fear, blood and iron.
Now with that out of the way, let me get back to my previous point about how we need laws to mandate that everyone be injected with an experimental vaccine, and that anyone who objects should be denied a job or indeed any opportunity to interact with the rest of society.”
Nate. Wow. If it was even a coherent argument founded on something close to reality it would be bad enough. Note well that I’ve never heard a single pro-life advocate say that if we repeal Roe, it will change the hearts and minds of America. And is his argument that if the majority of a nation supports an intrinsic evil, then it is necessary that we keep the evil legal? What’s he even talking about, other than attacking the pro-life movement and the attempt to repeal Roe?
And is his argument that if the majority of a nation supports an intrinsic evil, then it is necessary that we keep the evil legal?
Shea’s whole existence now is dominated by supporting the imposition of unpopular Leftist policies on an unwilling population. He also conveniently ignores that we have a federal system and that legal protections for the unborn that will not fly in the barbaric land in which he lives may well enjoy broad support in more civilized and humane communities.
Only 13% of Americans want to outlaw abortion.
I recognize that stat– it’s the Guttmacher survey I keep mentioning. The one where they defined “pro-life” so strictly that the binding teachings of the Catholic Church wouldn’t qualify as opposing abortion, since you could have medical treatments which may cause harm to the unborn human as a secondary effect.
At one point Shea claimed that abortions had a big increase under Trump and a big decrease under Biden, despite no data having been released for Biden’s term and very little for Trump’s term. He justified this by linking to a Guttmacher Institute article saying that the abortion rate had declined from 2011 to 2017.
So repeating a piece of woke propaganda is actually a step up for him. It means that at least he read the propaganda, or accurately remembered someone else repeating it to him, which is still more than the level of care that he usually takes.
This is from Mark’s comments section, in which some of his regular readers have called him out on his support for keeping abortion legal:
“Mark Shea says:
May 3, 2022 at 10:58 am
The Church’s teaching on the legality of abortion is, painfully obviously, not clear at all. It’s teaching on the morality of abortion, like its teaching on the morality of habitual drunkenness, or the evil of war, or the existence of poverty, or the right to health care is clear enough. But its teaching on how to eliminate these evils and achieve these goods is enormously complex and filled with ambiguity, indecision, and confusion. That is why bishops are trying to figure out stuff like “Eucharistic coherence” and have to deliberate it and try to come to a prudential judgment.”
So there you go. You’d never know these issues are complex to hear him normally comment, and yet suddenly it’s all so complicated.
Abortion is murder. On that basis alone, it should be illegal.
Shea and (to a lesser extent) Greydanus are squishes. They’re obsessed with lecturing people about the evils of Trump (a man I’ve never voted for), but they’re more than willing to give pro-aborts the benefit of the doubt. And Greydanus is so used to writing for a liberal audience that he doesn’t even feel comfortable commenting on abortion without first criticizing certain aspects of the mainstream pro-life movement. It’s sad.
On another note, the right to privacy doesn’t include the right to kill people in private. Yes, the government doesn’t have the right to open your mail or listen to your phone calls or read your emails without first obtaining a warrant. But there’s a clear difference between a right to live free of government surveillance and a right to kill or dismember children.
I was saying Mark was off the rails long before it was popular to say so. But in some fairness to him, Trump was all over the place on these issues back in June 2016. In the primary debates, Trump wouldn’t commit to defunding Planned Parenthood. He may have been the only major GOP candidate who wouldn’t. He also said Planned Parenthood did some good things. His acceptance speech was in large part an hour plus attempt to pander to Bernie Bros and so-called LGBT folks. Now, thankfully, he didn’t govern accordingly.
I suspect Mark has some rather serious emotional and mental problems. I have come to have some sympathy for him there. I suspect his leftward push was fueled by his perception of the Church power base moving in that direction (which was in full swing long before Pope Juan Peron II came to Rome) and took on a life of its own from there.
Greydanus hasn’t even endorsed the news. He’s too busy tweeting about Doctor Strange. The most he’s given us is a few tweets in response to some dumb Sam Rocha post. I realize I’m repeating myself.
Note that Mr. Shea bases his whole argument in that “Only 13% of Americans want to outlaw abortion”, so banning abortion will be impossible to enforce, etc. But that is clearly misleading, because, first of all, repealing Roe v. Wade does not ban abortion, only lets voters decide. Apart from that, most people are in favor of banning at least some kinds of abortion, for example, late-term abortion, and severely limiting other kinds, which are the most numerous, because rape, incest and danger-caused abortions are very very few. Last but not least, the (misleading) number he quotes is for the whole country, but in individual states there are clear majorities in favor of banning abortion, so, once Roe v. Wade is repealed, many states would be free of this horrendous moral evil and the babies will be safe at least in those sanctuary states, which is something the Left should simpathize with.
The whole article, in my opinion, is an effort to cling to untenable position for a Catholic.
A recent article claimed that 96% of women who had been prevented from abortion eventually were happy that they did not kill their child. Laws against murder may very well have good effect. Wonder why the Almighty gave Moses a list written on stone? Mark Shea is on an argument with God.
Why you hate us (for posting Shea)?
So, it may not do away w people wanting to kill their unborn but it does mean federal dollars are not used anymore and that States can decide. Which means an opportunity to prolifers to really shine and help those w unexpected pregnancies.
I have to say if they were trying to cause something bad from releasing early, it didn’t do it for me. What a gray Mother’s Day present!
Mark Shea is on an argument with God.
And with his past self.
These articles on Mark… who? remind me of that quote by Thomas Sowell: “Racism is not dead, but it is on life support kept alive .. “
Not equating articles on Mark Shea to race hustling, but maybe if he were ignored he’d fade away.
but maybe if he were ignored he’d fade away.
Not likely. He has an article appearing in the current issue of Saint Anthony’s Messenger.
Not equating articles on Mark Shea to race hustling, but maybe if he were ignored he’d fade away.
He’s been fading away in increments for about 17 years now and his sources of income have been drying up. I’ll wager that’s a consequential vector influencing his writing. (His wife is 67 and allowed her CNA registration to expire about five years ago).
MRSOPEY
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Which means an opportunity to prolifers to really shine and help those w unexpected pregnancies.
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I live in Florida. We have the Choose Life specialty license plates where a portion of the money benefits birthing alternatives. I have one on my car. My parish has an annual money raiser called the “Baby Bottle Boomerang” where empty baby bottles are handed out and returned filled with money that benefits abortion alternatives.
“but maybe if he were ignored he’d fade away.”
Unfortunately not. I don’t know about his online blogging presence, but it seems he has seen an increase in podcasts, radio shows and speaking engagements in the last year or so. If he’s also getting more publications to allow his to write for them, there’s that as well. As for his influence, he is still in that cabal of Catholics flirting with the Left, and it isn’t hard to see in people like Deacon Greydanus or Dawn Eden the same tricks and tactics Mark was using a dozen years ago.
and it isn’t hard to see in people like Deacon Greydanus or Dawn Eden the same tricks and tactics Mark was using a dozen years ago.
Not familiar with the Deacon. Dawn Eden is the issue of the theological academy and once worked for the Archdiocese of New York. It’s not clear to me how she makes rent at this time, but she looks to be angling for an faculty position somewhere. I used to read her fairly regularly 15 years ago when she was still working for the New York Post. I think she and Shea have dissimilar sensibilities and she has every incentive to avoid the sort of public meltdowns he’s been having since 2005 or thereabouts.
Indeed. Rocha is a phony. His entire oeuvre is an exercise in telling you he’s a pseudo-intellectual without formally executing an affidavit copping to the fact. An unpleasant fellow who has his reward.
“think she and Shea have dissimilar sensibilities and she has every incentive to avoid the sort of public meltdowns he’s been having since 2005 or thereabouts.”
Right now, she’s far away. But I see her, like Deacon Greydanus, pulling tricks that Mark was pulling more than a decade ago. Things that she, or Greydanus for that matter, wouldn’t have done at the same time back then. That’s the trend I’m watching.
Careful. If you use Sam Rocha’s name too many times in a row, he may appear.
But to discuss another, more prominent, phony, Evan McMullin has released a statement saying that he is a proud “pro-life Utahn” but he is dismayed that Roe v. Wade might be overturned. Why is he worried? Because then it will go back to the states and some of them might severely restrict abortion. The only part of his statement where he even implies that abortion is a bad thing is when he mentions that abortion rates have been going down for a while anyway.
This is the same McMullin who said in the 2016 elections that Trump shouldn’t be the candidate since his candidates supposedly wouldn’t overturn Roe v. Wade, but McMullin’s supposedly would.
I really do despise Republicans in the vein of Romney or McMullin more than I do Democrats.
I used to read Shea years back, before my conversion. One thing I remember are his frequent, adoring, posts about his infant granddaughter. Does he remember that? Apparently not. Sad and horrible.
Evan McMullin is another certified fraud. Loved his “I’m prolife but” pro-choice screed. Republican bans on abortion are extreme, but not a word for blue state authorizations of abortion up to birth for any reason whatsoever.
That malevolent poser just ensured a donation to Lee.
One thing I remember are his frequent, adoring, posts about his infant granddaughter.
Didn’t know there were any grandchildren. His oldest is about 35, so I guess I should have figured it. A girl would be a novelty for both of them; they have four sons.
Evan McMullin is another certified fraud.
Some of the more conspiratorially-minded have remarked that he worked for one of the intelligence services. As Mormons go, he and his mother are way off in the tail of the bell curve. He’s childless and only recently married (at age 45). She’s divorced from his father and took up lesbianism in middle age.
Let’s leave Mark Shea’s family out of it. His writings stand and fall on their individual merits.
Between that, Goldman Sachs and being a Romney flunky, I think that explains a lot. He is an Acela Corridor denizen with zero connection to concerns outside of the ruling classes.
His writings stand and fall on their individual merits.
So if you are a Catholic who wants to actually think with the Church, or a prolifer who wants to actually save lives and not simply impose a regime founded on force, fear, blood, and iron that will, soon and very soon, be destroyed by a democracy that has had it up to here with MAGA antichrist religion, this is my crie de coeur.
https://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/long-distance-stair-fall/80978623/
Art:
Indeed, far too many of them lack any discernible merit. Which means they can be critiqued without dragging in the irrelevant.
I am happy to see that Mark is getting a lot of push back from commenters to his post:
https://markpshea.com/2022/05/03/this-is-the-piece-you-are-gonna-want-to-read/https://markpshea.com/2022/05/03/this-is-the-piece-you-are-gonna-want-to-read/
Let’s leave Mark Shea’s family out of it.
Agreed. We debate ideas here, not personalities and definitely not family members.
What percentage of Americans wanted legal abortion on demand back in the 1970’s, when the wretched Warren court imposed its diktat on the entire nation? A tiny percentage? I thought so.
Agreed. The only time I ever wanted to bring up his family is when he goes on a rant about Kavanaugh or some other republican accused of something, when he had a nephew who suffered (in his own, local way) from a similarly vindictive woman.
And that is only in the vain hope that Mark might pause a moment and considering whether the world he is trying to construct is going to harm his own or not.
What percentage of Americans wanted legal abortion on demand back in the 1970’s, when the wretched Warren court imposed its diktat on the entire nation? A tiny percentage? I thought so.
It was the Burger Court. Byron White (appointed by Kennedy) and William Rehnquist (appointed by Nixon) dissented. I believe there is evidence that the Chief Justice voted in favor in order to be able to assign the court’s opinion, lest that decision be made by Wm. O. Douglas (the senior justice in favor). He assigns it to Blackmun who produces a mess of an opinion. Other Justices in favor were Wm. Brennan (a Democrat appointed by the asleep-at-the-wheel Gen. Eisenhower as a campaign sop), Thurgood Marshall (not yet a triumph of the taxidermist’s art), Potter Stewart (Eisenhower appointee), and Lewis Powell (Nixon appointee). You had six Republican appointees on the court and only Rehnquist bears no responsibility for this horror.
Recall that Nixon made six attempts to place judges on the court. One was rejected as vengeance for the failure the scheme hatched by Earl Warren and Lyndon Johnson to put Abe Fortas in the Chief Justice’s chair and replace him as an associate justice with a preferred Democrat. One was a federal judge from Florida whose name John Mitchell appears to have picked out of a hat who was rejected when embarrassing baggage turned up, one was Warren Burger (see RM Kaus’ critique of his dispositions and performance), one was Burger’s pal Harry Blackmun (who did a 180 and acted as a 2d vote for Wm. Brennan), Lewis Powell (a trial lawyer from Richmond bereft of any time on the bench), and Wm. Rehnquist (a protege of Richard Kleindienst also bereft of time on the bench). Now look at some of the people suggested by John Mitchell who withdrew or were scotched in the vetting process. One was Richard Poff, a member of Congress from the Shenandoah Valley that Mitchell, John Dean, and Nixon wanted for some puzzling reason (baggage on race questions, no judicial experience, withdrew from consideration), Herschell Friday (a trial lawyer from Arkansas who Dean reported ‘knows little constitutional law’) and Mildred Lillie (a federal judge from California who impressed Dean; the ABA screening panel arbitrarily vetoed her and Nixon folded).
Five years later, the odious Douglas is compelled by a stroke to leave the court and who does Gerald Ford land on to replace him but John Paul Stevens. Six years later, Reagan needs to fulfill a campaign promise to put a broad on the Court so who does he get but a state court judge touted by Barry Goldwater, who successfully snookers Reagan’s vetting team. It wasn’t until 1987 that the Democrats were willing to pull out the stops to bloc a Republican nominee by which time Nixon, Ford, and Reagan had put five duds on the court (two of whom were frankly destructive).
/ rant off.
I only commented because I cannot understand how anyone with a beloved child in their family cannot make the connection between that child and other, unborn, children. It’s sadly not uncommon, just unfathomable. No attack on anyone’s family intended. Adieu.
No harm no foul SC.
A few years ago, Shea appeared in a program on EWTN about, IIRC, conversions sparked by spiritual encounters with Our Lady. He claimed to have had such an encounter and wept openly in describing it. I would say now is a good time to pray that he has another one, and soon. Perhaps she can turn him away from his self-destruction.
The Holy Mother should slap him upside the head as many a good mother has done to an erring son.
Oddly, you know, at the end of the day, the United States ended up eliminating slavery in the U.S. through “force, fear, blood, and iron.” Does Mark Shea wish we hadn’t done that?
Shea, who in an earlier ideological incarnation expressed admiration for General Robert E.Lee, now damns all Confederates and cheers for their statues being torn down. If he has any regrets about the use of military force to end slavery, those regrets are very well concealed indeed.