{"id":2042,"date":"2013-02-23T00:35:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T00:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/how-not-to-be-a-catholic-stereotype.html"},"modified":"2013-02-23T00:35:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T00:35:00","slug":"how-not-to-be-a-catholic-stereotype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/how-not-to-be-a-catholic-stereotype.html","title":{"rendered":"How not to be a Catholic stereotype"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
We judge. \u00a0We condemn.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It\u2019s important to remember, as Catholics, that much of the world sees a rather diabolical portrait of our Church as demonstrated by the above picture. \u00a0It\u2019s from the 1982 made for TV movie Ivanhoe<\/i>, staring the legendary James Mason and 80s TV heartthrob Anthony Andrews. \u00a0It\u2019s good. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t discredit Scott\u2019s actual work, and keeps to the basic themes and characters. \u00a0This being the early 80s, the idea of prejudice and bigotry are put front and center, and you don\u2019t really have to imagine who the bad guys are. \u00a0Of course the wily Prince John, forever consigned to movie\u00a0villainy, is the main antagonist,\u00a0as is the brutal and sadistic Reginald Front de Boeff. \u00a0But when it comes to pure evil, I mean the sort of evil that\u00a0surpasses\u00a0Darth Vader evil, you don\u2019t go any farther than the movie\u2019s portrayal of Lucas Beaumanoir,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the Grand Master of the Knights Templar who is pictured here.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s mean. \u00a0He\u2019s cruel. \u00a0He\u2019s a zealot. \u00a0He\u2019s a witch hunter who doesn\u2019t seems to believe\u00a0a rip of it, but revels in the power to torture and maim and kill. \u00a0He appears to take unholy delight in watching Isaac squirm under his feet, as he first tells him that Rebecca, Isaac\u2019s daughter, has been burned at the stake, then tells him she is to be\u00a0burned\u00a0unless a champion can be found (I\u2019ll leave the gentle reader to figure out just who the\u00a0champion\u00a0will be). \u00a0In short, he\u2019s what most people outside of the Catholic Church (and a few within the Church) envision when they reflect on what Catholicism is all about.<\/p>\n

When I was a pastor, I used to tell my congregations to avoid living up to negative stereotypes. \u00a0I realize there really isn\u2019t anything you can do about stereotypes. \u00a0People will develop them and apply them, usually to groups they don\u2019t like. \u00a0Still, you can try to avoid living up to them. \u00a0Therefore, when it comes to reflecting on what the world thinks about Catholicism, consider this: don\u2019t rush to condemn. \u00a0I don\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t look at things, or call a spade a spade. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t call good what it is, or evil what it is. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t pray for justice. \u00a0It does mean we should exercise restraint. We should avoid the appearance of little inquisitor wannabes. Even if we know in our guts someone is guilty; even if\u00a0we\u00a0know, for instance,\u00a0that three police officers causing the death of a young man with Down Syndrome<\/a> is an appalling and\u00a0inexcusable\u00a0breach of professional responsibility\u00a0at best, we should still wait and see what the facts of\u00a0the\u00a0case actually are. <\/p>\n

And no, we can\u2019t just appeal to the\u00a0media\u2019s accounts of what happened. \u00a0That would be the media that has gone a long way in convincing the world that anyone who\u00a0thinks\u00a0about the Catholic Church should envision this image:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

As Catholics we should pray for the victim and the victim\u2019s family and loved ones. \u00a0We should pray that justice is done, and that God grant peace to the families of those who were party to this man\u2019s death. \u00a0We should expect proper payment to be made, jail time if it is deemed\u00a0appropriate, \u00a0termination from the job, whatever. \u00a0Or, if the facts should emerge, innocence. \u00a0But what we shouldn\u2019t do is jump on the bandwagon and sound as if we have the word of the\u00a0inerrant\u00a0media, and it\u2019s time to\u00a0poll-vault\u00a0over all the due process and evidence garbage and get straight to the execution. \u00a0Good for aiding anti-Catholic stereotypes, bad for actually being about the presence of Christ in the world.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We judge. \u00a0We condemn. It\u2019s important to remember, as Catholics, that much of the world sees a rather diabolical portrait of our Church as demonstrated by the above picture. \u00a0It\u2019s from the 1982 made for TV movie Ivanhoe, staring the legendary James Mason and 80s TV heartthrob Anthony Andrews. \u00a0It\u2019s good. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t discredit Scott\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHow not to be a Catholic stereotype<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We judge.  We condemn.It's important to remember, as Catholics, that much of the world sees a rather diabolical portrait of our Church as\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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