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{"id":1419,"date":"2015-01-01T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2015\/01\/mark-shea-at-his-best.html"},"modified":"2015-01-01T14:31:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T14:31:00","slug":"mark-shea-at-his-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2015\/01\/mark-shea-at-his-best.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Shea at his best"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a couple articles he wrote years ago, even before I began visiting his blog. \u00a0This one<\/a>, from 2005, taking aim at the simplistic faith people have in the latest academic skeptic. \u00a0 This one<\/a>\u00a0, from 2002, unpacking a historic understanding of traditions and Tradition. \u00a0It\u2019s worth noting that one is in the Imaginative Conservative, the only Conservative publication Mark references in a positive light, despite contributors to that publication advocating the very perspectives Mark calls down the hellfires of damnation on in other cases. Sad. \u00a0But the articles themselves remind me of happier times, when Mark Shea could truly unpack the Church\u2019s teachings with wit and restraint in such a way that this Protestant minster took notice. \u00a0You can see the positive, the affirming, the celebration of differences while desiring to explain them. \u00a0You can also see, without it being said, that this was a conservative Catholic making sure his faith wasn\u2019t compromised by holding to the wrong traditions. All that makes any apologist more than worth the money.<\/p>\n