{"id":754,"date":"2011-11-18T10:55:35","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T15:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/?p=754"},"modified":"2011-11-18T11:57:38","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T16:57:38","slug":"walker-percy-interviews-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/2011\/11\/walker-percy-interviews-himself.html","title":{"rendered":"Walker Percy Interviews Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

The whole thing is priceless, but have my favorite part:<\/p>\n

Q: What kind of Catholic are you?
\nA. Bad.
\nQ: Are you a dogmatic Catholic or an open-minded Catholic?
\nA: I don\u2019t know what that means . . . . Do you mean do I believe the dogma that the Catholic Church proposes for belief?
\nQ: Yes.
\nA: Yes.
\nQ: How is such a belief possible in this day and age?
\nA: What else is there?
\nQ: What do you mean, what else is there? There is humanism, atheism, agnosticism, Marxism, behaviorism, materialism, Buddhism<\/a>, Muhammadanism, Sufism, astrology, occultism, theosophy.
\nA: That\u2019s what I mean.
\nQ: I don\u2019t understand. Would you exclude, for example, scientific humanism as a rational and honorable alternative?
\nA: Yes.
\nQ: Why?
\nA: It\u2019s not good enough.
\nQ: Why not?
\nA: This life is too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then to be asked what you make of it and have to answer \u201cScientific humanism.\u201d That won\u2019t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God. In fact I demand it. I refuse to settle for anything less. I don\u2019t see why anyone should settle for less than Jacob, who actually grabbed aholt of God and would not let go until God identified himself and blessed him.
\nQ: Grabbed\u00a0aholt<\/em>?
\nA: A Louisiana expression.
\nQ: But isn\u2019t the Catholic Church in a mess these days, badly split, its liturgy barbarized, vocations declining?
\nA: Sure. That\u2019s a sign of its divine origins, that it survives these periodic disasters.
\nQ: You don\u2019t act or talk like a Christian. Aren\u2019t they supposed to love one another and do good works?
\nA: Yes.
\nQ: You don\u2019t seem to have much use for your fellowman or do many good works.
\nA: That\u2019s true. I haven\u2019t done a good work in years.
\nQ: In fact, if I may be frank, you strike me as being rather negative in your attitude, cold-blooded, aloof, derisive, self-indulgent, more fond of the beautiful things of this world than of God.
\nA: That\u2019s true.
\nQ: You even seem to take certain satisfaction in the disasters of the twentieth-century and to savor the imminence of world catastrophe rather than world peace, which all religions seek.
\nA: That\u2019s true.
\nQ: You don\u2019t seem to have much use for your fellow Christians, to say nothing of Ku Kluxers, ACLU\u2019ers, northerners, southerners, fem-libbers, anti-fem-libbers, homosexuals, anti-homosexuals, Republicans, Democrats, hippies, anti-hippies, senior citizens.
\nA: That\u2019s true \u2013 though taken as individuals they turn out to be more or less like oneself, i.e., sinners, and we get along fine.
\nQ: Even Ku Kluxers?
\nA: Sure.
\nQ: How do you account for your belief?
\nA: I can only account for it as a gift from God.
\nQ: Why would God make you such a gift when there are others who seem more deserving, that is, serve their fellowman?
\nA: I don\u2019t know. God does strange things. . . .
\nQ: But shouldn\u2019t one\u2019s faith bear some relation to the truth, facts?
\nA: Yes. That\u2019s what attracted me, Christianity\u2019s rather insolent claim to be true, with the implication that other religions are more or less false.
\nQ: You believe that?
\nA: Of course.<\/p>\n

Read the full interview!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The whole thing is priceless, but have my favorite part: Q: What kind of Catholic are you? A. Bad. Q: Are you a dogmatic Catholic or an open-minded Catholic? A: I don\u2019t know what that means . . . . Do you mean do I believe the dogma that the Catholic Church proposes for belief? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,1],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-catholics","category-uncategorized","tag-walker-percy"],"yoast_head":"\nWalker Percy Interviews Himself<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The whole thing is priceless, but have my favorite part: Q: What kind of Catholic are you? A. Bad. 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