tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post8939724791416715816..comments2024-01-20T00:00:10.459-08:00Comments on Mudblood Catholic: To Forgive a PredatorGabriel Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17607504369762849930noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-39748796459837414432014-07-09T01:45:24.629-07:002014-07-09T01:45:24.629-07:00A great article but I just chimed in to say the aw...A great article but I just chimed in to say the award for best use of a mewithoutYou lyric goes to you, good sir (pardon my ignorance of they pinched it from somewhere else). Bravo. Robert.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-51478150710053543472014-07-01T20:24:28.460-07:002014-07-01T20:24:28.460-07:00As the great Pontius Pilate once said (in perhaps ...As the great Pontius Pilate once said (in perhaps the most intellectually rigorous statement in the entire New Testament): "What is 'truth'?"Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-23041134421079722062014-06-28T11:18:37.096-07:002014-06-28T11:18:37.096-07:00A good question. If we define rape as necessarily ...A good question. If we define rape as necessarily involving violence or the immediate threat of violence -- which is, rightly or wrongly, the mental image most of us have of rape -- then of course this way of talking seems nonsensical.<br /><br />However, the law, in my opinion rightly, regards as rape all non-consensual sex -- which means that those who are not in a position to give informed and free consent (like children), and those whose consent is obtained through manipulation or deception (e.g. impersonating someone for sex -- for instance, creating a false identity on a dating website and using that false identity to seduce someone) are also treated by the law as victims of rape. I personally think this is appropriate, though, it must be said, violent rape is most certainly the wickedest kind, and doubtless has the worst effect upon the victim.<br /><br />It could be argued that cases in which consent is not really possible (minors, the mentally disabled or ill) and cases of rape by fraud ought not to be defined as rape. I don't agree with such objections; but I don't think the position a monstrous one, provided that it does recognize them as not only wrong but as sexual crimes -- i.e., that they are and ought to be punishable by law. (Whether that law is administered by the state, as in our current setup, or by some other means, as in the anarchist ideals that I espouse, is for these purposes irrelevant).Gabriel Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17607504369762849930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-83222450145510647302014-06-27T10:15:15.381-07:002014-06-27T10:15:15.381-07:00Gabriel, I had no idea that anything like that had...Gabriel, I had no idea that anything like that had ever happened to you. It absolutely breaks my heart to hear it.<br /><br />Your faith and understanding of it overwhelms me at times. I'm glad you can forgive. And I'm glad that I know you. You never fail to teach me a thing or two. :)Brendonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18248268499428066786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-84243710632823483002014-06-26T07:17:42.715-07:002014-06-26T07:17:42.715-07:00"Why do you even put up with Christianity any..."Why do you even put up with Christianity anymore? Don't you see all of the skeletons and cobwebs?"<br /><br />I put up with Christianity because Christianity is true. The arguments for its truth are not in any way compromised by the sins you point out.Tynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-20248061296457564212014-06-25T20:27:32.438-07:002014-06-25T20:27:32.438-07:00How is it rape if you are not threatened or forced...How is it rape if you are not threatened or forced? OreamnosAmericanushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15602268350813211243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-88230538358309842052014-06-21T19:25:13.221-07:002014-06-21T19:25:13.221-07:00Turning to your remarks on Christian sinfulness an...Turning to your remarks on Christian sinfulness and indeed criminality, it can scarcely be denied. A waggish reply would be that it proves one Christian doctrine -- that of Original Sin -- rather neatly, and in a sense that's true, but it hardly serves as a complete answer.<br /><br />A fuller reply would involve pointing out that none of these things, now or in the past, have required Christianity in order to exist. Murder, rape, &c., go on quite energetically in civilizations that have never heard of Christianity, and at the hands of persons who do not profess it. Every worldview, Christian or non-Christian or pre-Christian or anti-Christian, must begin with the data of the world as we know it, and that world includes evil.<br /><br />That these evils also emerge in largely or partly Christianized societies and even among Christian leaders is certainly horrible and shameful. But it must be admitted that it does square with the Christian belief that all men are sinners, that Holy Orders confer authority rather than virtue or superiority, and that the will remains as free to reject God after Baptism as it was before.<br /><br />Now, none of this is a reason to accept the Christian faith, still less the Catholic faith specifically. I think it a rebuttal to certain objections to that faith, but that's different.<br /><br />However, I would point to the examples of the saints as a reason to reconsider. When the Nicene Creed states that the Church is holy, this means a few things, and the belief that Christians in general will always be morally outstanding people isn't one of them. But it does mean that the Church will always be productive of saints: i.e., those rare and remarkable individuals who are not simply outstanding in virtue, but whose love and holiness shine with an unwonted and unnatural light, people whose lives are inexplicable except in terms of the personal influence of the Christ they worship. Mother Teresa, who poured out her life for decades for the poor, is of course an example; Stephen Protomartyr and Maria Goretti, whom I mentioned in this post, are classic examples of martyrdom and forgiveness for the men who murdered them; Francis of Assisi, who combined in exhaustible joy with utter poverty and charity (ministry to lepers, for instance), is one of the most enduring examples.<br /><br />Again, none of this is conclusive. But I find it suggestive. I don't believe that there is any knock-down drag-out argument for Christianity, but I personally find that all of the arguments do not force belief, yet point in the same direction. That puts me in a position of asking, "Do I trust that Christ is who He claimed to be, and, correspondingly, did what He claimed to do?" And to that question, I answer "Yes."Gabriel Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17607504369762849930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-31694447328134506592014-06-21T19:07:06.606-07:002014-06-21T19:07:06.606-07:00Certainly I see them, M. I don't know how well...Certainly I see them, M. I don't know how well you know the history of Christianity -- perhaps quite well indeed -- but I know it well enough to be closely acquainted with some of its ugliest contents: witchcraft trials, ecclesiastical intrigues and corruption, the Inquisition. My faith is not now, and so far as I recollect never has been, based on the illusion that Christians are generally good people.<br /><br />To answer your question of why I put up Christianity (or, in my own words, why I believe it) could be answered in a book or in a sentence. The sentence is that I believe it because I think it's true, based on my analysis of the evidence, philosophical and historical, available to me. The book would be an explanation of that evidence and why I find it persuasive; for which of course there isn't space here, but I can give a precis of the more relevant factors.<br /><br />You mention Jesus, and the possibility that He was insane. That is certainly a very good explanation for most people who believe themselves to be God and/or a messiah of some kind. And any account of the Church, whether that account concludes that she is the Body of Christ or a cobwebbed skeleton, can only be based upon Him. The explanation that He was insane simply doesn't satisfy me, because the only records we have of Him are too shrewd and, in fact, too funny (within His genre of repartee) for a lunatic to have pulled off, in my opinion. Moreover, His moral teaching is too complex and subtle for me to ascribe it to lunacy, which tends, when it does take a moral cast, to be monomaniacal. And the fact that the people whom He convinced were mostly peasants, who tend to be hard-headed, as opposed to religious fanatics or academics (notoriously credulous types), makes the insanity explanation difficult to maintain as well.<br /><br />Since I can't bring myself (on grounds I'll leave aside for brevity) to believe that He was a liar, either, I am therefore left with the conclusion that He was telling the simple, if shockingly weird, truth throughout. And that is the fundamental premise of Christianity, Catholic or otherwise.Gabriel Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17607504369762849930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-74140764634297543142014-06-21T18:40:19.095-07:002014-06-21T18:40:19.095-07:00Thanks mang.Thanks mang.Gabriel Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17607504369762849930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-49672991956110538792014-06-20T22:12:05.752-07:002014-06-20T22:12:05.752-07:00The liturgy speaks to each person separately . How...The liturgy speaks to each person separately . How serendipitous that today should be the feast day of St. Aloysius Gozaga S.J. in the traditional Roman calendar, the saint of angelic purity.Mr. Cogitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-58812364710393606862014-06-20T21:52:31.939-07:002014-06-20T21:52:31.939-07:00This just shows, especially the Saul/St. Paul exam...This just shows, especially the Saul/St. Paul example, that Christianity is a religion of murderers and "sinners". What with King David being a murderer and composing the psalms, which Christians pray and examples like this of pastors raping children, I am surprised that anyone even regards Christianity favorably anymore nowadays. Jesus himself may have been a righteous man, but he could have also been the greatest con artist and the first person documented with a Messiah complex. Why do you even put up with Christianity anymore? Don't you see all of the skeletons and cobwebs?Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-14700625114707934622014-06-20T21:21:21.804-07:002014-06-20T21:21:21.804-07:00I like to take this approach to difficult topics, ...I like to take this approach to difficult topics, too: taking a side, but also pointing out the flaws in the most popular arguments. It bothers me greatly when Christians speak of revenge because it is so contrary to what it means to be a Christian, and I agree with you completely about dehumanization. Jen Fulwiler wrote a great section about that in her book.<br /><br />I also think that, if we truly believe God is forgiving, he can forgive even people who commit terrible acts such as this man did. If God can forgive, we should at least try to do the same.Lindsay @ Lindsay Loveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17851651248359760680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-61992283796828439052014-06-20T18:09:59.454-07:002014-06-20T18:09:59.454-07:00Good work, dude.Good work, dude.Joseph Preverhttp://www.stevegershom.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-27474498533426055002014-06-20T12:33:06.139-07:002014-06-20T12:33:06.139-07:00I dunno about quarterback, seester. But I am gonna...I dunno about quarterback, seester. But I am gonna run for two thousand yards. *hug*Gabriel Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17607504369762849930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5766538007498037282.post-16370831946090733702014-06-20T12:21:45.127-07:002014-06-20T12:21:45.127-07:00This post breaks me, and makes me ache. I wish I c...This post breaks me, and makes me ache. I wish I could say that forgiveness makes so much sense to me, but often it doesn't, and I am very bad at it. But what you say is true of our calling as Christians. I am challenged and inspired by Jesus. Thanks, lil Brudder. You're gonna be a quarterback when you grow up. Sydney McFearlesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02475197599327578043noreply@blogger.com