{"id":2292,"date":"2012-11-26T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/11\/beware-of-geeks-bearing-glyphs.html"},"modified":"2012-11-26T09:01:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T09:01:00","slug":"beware-of-geeks-bearing-glyphs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/11\/beware-of-geeks-bearing-glyphs.html","title":{"rendered":"Beware of Geeks bearing glyphs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So I made an offhanded remark about Leah Lebrisco hating football the other day<\/a>. \u00a0I didn\u2019t make that up. \u00a0I had gone to her site to read about her conversion to Catholicism. \u00a0While\u00a0looking through her various posts on the subject, I stumbled across\u00a0this post<\/a>, where she made it clear that her concern about all the concussions in football was not some unbiased observation about a potential danger. \u00a0It was something that she felt validated her utter hatred of everything to do with the gridiron. \u00a0And that got me to thinking, as I am wont to do.<\/p>\n

Leah appears to be one of those folks who wears the label \u2018geek\u2019 with pride and honor. More at home\u00a0discussing\u00a0the\u00a0intricacies\u00a0of an Expelliarmus<\/i>, or the philosophical underpinnings of Hobbit fare than, say, watching a\u00a0NASCAR\u00a0race or being in the backyard with friends improvising some tackle-in-the-mud football. \u00a0She doesn\u2019t appear to be the only one. <\/p>\n

The Blogosphere it typically dominated by people who can write. \u00a0To be brutally honest, I\u2019m not one of those, as a\u00a0perusal\u00a0of my blog will demonstrate. \u00a0Oh, I can write well enough to get a thought\u00a0down\u00a0 but it isn\u2019t my gift, my talent, my\u00a0passion\u00a0 \u00a0Many who can write, however, are drawn to blogging, and it is because of their talents and gifts that they\u00a0develop\u00a0 a readership.<\/p>\n

Among those who can write is a certain subsection dedicated to all things nerdy. \u00a0I mean, never in history has a medium emerged more\u00a0conducive\u00a0to feeding the obsession behind what is typically considered geekdom than the\u00a0Internet. \u00a0Especially the blogosphere. \u00a0Across the Web, you can find kindred spirits for almost any\u00a0pastime\u00a0 and\u00a0those\u00a0who\u00a0obsess\u00a0over the\u00a0anatomical\u00a0distinctions of Vulcan Ears can suddenly have a following in the hundreds who share their interests.<\/p>\n

Leah\u2019s own blog often mixes a profound\u00a0interest\u00a0in ethics and philosophy with a proud display of\u00a0unbridled\u00a0nerdiness. \u00a0As such, she receives praises from others who share her particular interests, even if the greater topics of ethics, religion and philosophy were at odds. \u00a0Chief among those was Mark Shea, who introduced me and many of his readers to her blog. \u00a0And Mark is hardly unique within the Catholic Blogosphere for being one whose interests tend toward the non-athletic\/non-jock world of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Star\u00a0Trek\u00a0 \u00a0Many of Mark\u2019s readers and visitors, some who have their own reputable Catholic blogs, also seem to dwell in the land of make believe, and do so proudly. \u00a0Jimmy Akin and Sean Daily are \u00a0two examples of those who seem to possess that particular gene. \u00a0There are certainly many others as well. Not that all love of Fantasy is\u00a0incompatible\u00a0with sports or popularity either. \u00a0But\u00a0there\u00a0are those who certainly boast of setting the two worlds at odds.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all fine and dandy. \u00a0To each his own I always say. \u00a0But there is something that dawned on me as I kicked this around. \u00a0Those who embrace the glories of geekdom seem almost proud of the fact today. \u00a0No longer something to hang one\u2019s head over, many seem to boast that they were outcasts in school; that while most kids were wasting their time in sports or on this or that team or part of this social club, they were alone with their select circle of friends, set apart by their desire for that ultimate +4 Sword of Dragon Killing. <\/p>\n

OK, now we\u2019re coming to the point. \u00a0It seems that the blogosphere in general has its fair share of such folks. It certainly appears that this particular demographic is well represented in at least a corner of the Catholic blogosphere as well. \u00a0I\u2019ve made the case\u00a0before<\/a>\u00a0that the Catholic blogosphere is dominated by many who are, for want of a better phrase,\u00a0amateur\u00a0apologists. \u00a0Many have no formal training, or if they have taken classes or even\u00a0received\u00a0degrees, they have done so apart from the gristmill of hands-on ministry. \u00a0In my ministry days, we could always tell the professors who had served in some form of pastoral ministry, and those for whom it was only an academic endeavor. \u00a0Those Catholics who have training often have it on an intellectual basis only, never having to filter it through the trenches of a crumbling marriage or an ICU with a dying child. \u00a0And those are the ones with degrees and training.<\/p>\n

As such, the same trap that lurks around any minister no matter what\u00a0the\u00a0experience, is there for those\u00a0amateur\u00a0apologists, only\u00a0more so\u00a0 \u00a0And that trap is being an advocate for The Faith, while at the same time slowly conforming the Faith to my own personal preferences. \u00a0One of the hardest parts of being a pastor was making sure the Word Proclaimed was God\u2019s Word (at least through whatever particular\u00a0denominational\u00a0interpretation), as opposed to my own personal opinion. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t an easy temptation to overcome. \u00a0Sometimes you begin\u00a0proclaiming\u00a0the Sacred\u00a0Opinion\u00a0of Me\u00a0without\u00a0realizing it. \u00a0If you were\u00a0fortunate\u00a0 you had someone in your congregation, or family, who was loving enough to let you know when you had gone to\u00a0full-blown\u00a0opinion\u00a0mode.<\/p>\n

But where so many have little to no training, where it can be an academic exercise in the sealed off world of the Blogosphere, I imagine the temptations to\u00a0blur\u00a0the line between Gospel Truth and my opinion are even greater, and subtler. \u00a0Some of the\u00a0temptations\u00a0may be nothing more than failing to realize that one\u2019s own identity may be the bias, the filter through which the Faith is lived out.\u00a0And so we have bloggers who are proud of their geekdom, and seem to celebrate the fact that they were once the outcasts, they never really belonged, they were never joiners, they scoffed at those folks who sought popularity (or in some cases, obtained popularity) in the halls of high school. \u00a0Now, is it possible that this, to an untrained blogger, could end up being the prism through which the light of Gospel reflections is bent? <\/p>\n

I thought about this as I reflected on the overwhelming call by some bloggers to just say \u2018no\u2019 during the election cycle. \u00a0There were many, and I mean many, who made it clear that fealty to either major party was nothing more than fealty to the devil himself. \u00a0Sure, you could\u00a0technically\u00a0vote for a major party candidate and not lose your soul, but it better only be because you admitted it was a lost cause and that both parties were the\u00a0manifestation\u00a0 of hell itself, all politicians and parties were basted in sinful corruption, and you were just doing it with the knowledge\u00a0that\u00a0it was a worthless act no matter what.<\/p>\n

OK. \u00a0My question, upon reflection, was how much of this was good old Real Catholic\u00a0Doctrine\u00a0 and how much of this was because those who were calling down a pox on all party affiliation were, by nature of their own life tendencies,\u00a0inclined\u00a0to have adopted that feeling about belonging in general, at least belonging to what most others belong to? \u00a0I mean, could it be that they were being a tad bit influenced by a completely extra-Catholic disdain for belonging in the first place, a contempt for those who shuffle along and belong to what the majority belongs to? \u00a0Could it be less a\u00a0serious\u00a0and penetrating reading of Catholic tradition, and more a resurgence of that memory of sitting in&n
\nbsp;the\u00a0lunch room, and scoffing at all those losers who think being on the football or baseball team means anything, when they know full well it\u2019s pontificating about the best way to read The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Just a thought. \u00a0Not that there isn\u2019t a distinct biblical tradition of being strangers in a strange land for the serious disciple.\u00a0Not that those who were, by their own accounts, outcasts don\u2019t have anything to bring to the table. \u00a0Sure they do, and when it comes to criticizing politics, it isn\u2019t as if there is no case to be made. \u00a0But in all things, I think it\u2019s\u00a0worth\u00a0remembering\u00a0that there is what the Church teaches, and there is what it teaches filtered through our own biases and preferences and loyalties \u2013 be it blind\u00a0loyalty\u00a0to a party or candidate or movement, or even a lifelong tendency to heap scorn on any such\u00a0loyalties\u00a0 and therefore being blind to the party affiliation of not-belonging no matter what; conforming to non-conformity as it were. \u00a0Just a thought.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I made an offhanded remark about Leah Lebrisco hating football the other day. \u00a0I didn\u2019t make that up. \u00a0I had gone to her site to read about her conversion to Catholicism. \u00a0While\u00a0looking through her various posts on the subject, I stumbled across\u00a0this post, where she made it clear that her concern about all the […]<\/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-2292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBeware of Geeks bearing glyphs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So I made an offhanded remark about Leah Lebrisco hating football the other day.  I didn't make that up.  I had gone to her site to read about\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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