Tha' Herd.
July 22, 2002
Seems as though I've ticked Mark Shea once again. No, no. I'm not out to get him.... it just so easy to get him riled up. (Something about needing to be the biggest ass in this collective herd off asses to which we all belong, but that's just a guess.)
Anyway, he responds here and here first thinking that I'm a closet fundamentalist and second that I'm just a fool for trying to point out that ideas don't really do anything, but that people do.
Note: There seems to be a problem with Mark's archives. Those links are only turning up blank pages. Try this link and scroll down for the comments. And yes, I know there is a joke in there somewhere about those blank pages....
As to the first charge, I'll easily grant that the Love of Mark's Invisible Sky God can be very nuanced in Catholic faith. It can also be pretty cold and harsh, in Catholic and Protestant faith, depending on whom you read, when it was written and for what reasons. Generally though, Jesus' admonishment that lust in your heart is the same thing as actually having done it, is fairly unambiguous and pops out every time someone thinks a thought they regard as being "bad."
It's an absurd idea in any event, stemming from ancient superstition and magic, that just plays right into people's insecurities and doubts about their own moral worth. No matter how nuanced you want to get, the best that such an admonishment has done is to endlessly fill bank accounts, be they those of The (insert flavor here) Church or of psychotherapists.
As for the second bit, I wouldn't really have minded so much if he'd either quoted me fully or provided a FRELLING LINK so that others could have read the comments and joined the discussion. I suppose though when you are a proud possessor of The Truth, you have no real need or desire to let anyone think for themselves, to read, argue, debate and grow. That's something only we Godless Atheistic Secular Humanists (tm) believe in. By definition then, it's suspect...
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) American feminist leader and suffragette 1896, addressing the National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting
Posted by Jody at July 22, 2002 11:52 AM
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