{"id":3585,"date":"2011-02-28T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/02\/live-action-lying-and-the-land-of-a-thousand-blogs.html"},"modified":"2011-02-28T15:29:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T15:29:00","slug":"live-action-lying-and-the-land-of-a-thousand-blogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/02\/live-action-lying-and-the-land-of-a-thousand-blogs.html","title":{"rendered":"Live Action, Lying, and the land of a thousand blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You would think that until the debate sprung up across the blogosphere in reaction to Lila Rose and Live Action\u2019s sting operation against Planned Parenthood, I wouldn\u2019t have known lying is wrong.\u00a0 I certainly didn\u2019t realize that the Catholic Church condemns all falsehoods, including but not limited to, espionage, spying, undercover police work, law enforcement sting operations, and undercover investigative journalism.\u00a0 It must be true.\u00a0 Folks on the Internet have made it clear: There is only one obvious take on the question.\u00a0 Some suggested that those, like Peter Kreeft, whoonce may\u00a0 have been a respectable Catholic professor of philosophy, are now in the muck and mire of heretical thought for not conceding this clear point<\/a>.\u00a0 Obviously Christians who lied while they hid Jews during WWII were sinning, too.\u00a0 Corrie ten Boom, I was informed\u00a0during a discussion, was just a sinner who screwed things up and is loathed by many for having caused the deaths of so many innocent people by way of her sinful falsehoods.\u00a0 As did all who dared sin the great sin in their incompetency.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Now, the thing I\u2019ve come away with during all of this?\u00a0 Beware the Catholic blogosphere, the posts that bite, the comments that snatch.\u00a0 It is, for the most part, amateur apologists with little to no actual theological training.\u00a0 Those who do have it, more often than not have no real ministerial experience behind it.\u00a0 For instance, Dawn Eden, whose\u00a0article<\/a>, written with William Doino, Jr., was among the first to take attention off of Planned Parenthood and place it firmly on Lila Rose, has a degree in theology.\u00a0 She just earned it.\u00a0 A former rock groupie journalist who converted to Catholicism in recent years, now has a degree.\u00a0 By that logic, this former Protestant minister who converted to Catholicism and spends the next two years getting a business degree, can then go up and down main street telling all of the business owners how badly they are screwing things up.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean to dis Dawn, or anyone for that matter.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure they\u2019re fine Catholics and great people.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not for nothing that Paul warns those who are new converts to be slow in throwing their hats in the overseer ring.\u00a0 If ministery teaches you anything, it\u2019s that you can be right and still end up being wrong, in more ways than one. <\/p>\n

Am I saying there is no debate here?\u00a0 No.\u00a0It is an old debate that has been passionately argued\u00a0for ages: is any lie or falsehood not only always wrong, but so bad that it\u2019s worth risking your own life and the possible lives of innocents in order to avoid the telling?\u00a0 Or is there a principle involved?\u00a0 Does this fall under the heading of \u2018the Sabbath of made for man, not man for the Sabbath\u2019?\u00a0 Good Christians of good faith have had radically different opinions.<\/p>\n

The problem is, this became fodder for the Internet, a forum where people react and act in ways they never would to someone sitting next to them, looking them in the face.\u00a0 Thus both sides hurled the insults, the accusations, the judgements<\/a>.\u00a0 The side that insisted on the sinfulness of lying looked like nothing so much as a KJV only fundamentalist Baptist preacher.\u00a0 Fans of various bloggers rushed to their defense, insisting that all of those other folks who are obviously wrong are NOT the Magisterium \u2013 missing the clear fact that those bloggers they are fans of are not the Magisterium either. <\/p>\n

And in it all, a possibly horrendous act on the part of an already dubious institution has more or less gotten off free.\u00a0 The discussion was used to split, once more, the Catholic ranks.\u00a0 A pro-life organisation that was filled with young people passionate about defending the unborn was not gently reminded to walk closer to the truth, but was used as a case study for the evils of lying by folks who I can\u2019t help but guess have probably told a lie or two in their lives, and for reasons far less noble.<\/p>\n

But then, the Internet tends to breed a certain fundamentalist attitude.\u00a0 Bloggers, many of whom are so because they are talented writers, have the craft and ability to make powerful cases.\u00a0 They attract followers and fans who quickly circle the wagons and dare any would be critics to beware.\u00a0 And if the heat gets too bad, if a person plows forth with disagreements and hits too close to home?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s where the handy \u2018delete\u2019 button on the blog kicks in.<\/p>\n

Altogether, a reminder.\u00a0 The Internet is not the Vatican.\u00a0 Catholic bloggers, no matter how talented, insightful, Christ loving, and faithful, are NOT the Magisterium.\u00a0 Some of them are wonderful.\u00a0 Some have insights and understanding of the Faith that would put a theology professor to shame.\u00a0 But they still are not coequal with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.\u00a0 And the Catholic blogosphere is not some denomination of exclusive Truth within Sacred Tradition.\u00a0 So when we do step forward to guide and lead people to truth, we should\u00a0do it like Catholics, not like the average Protestant fundamentalist caricature.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t to hear Himself talk that Jesus, in telling us to be innocent as doves, also told us to be shrewd as serpents.\u00a0 And in this little train wreck of a discussion, many may feel they have truly achieved the \u2018innocent as doves\u2019 portion of the charge, but I can\u2019t help but feel it was done at the expense of the \u2018shrewd as serpents\u2019 clause.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You would think that until the debate sprung up across the blogosphere in reaction to Lila Rose and Live Action\u2019s sting operation against Planned Parenthood, I wouldn\u2019t have known lying is wrong.\u00a0 I certainly didn\u2019t realize that the Catholic Church condemns all falsehoods, including but not limited to, espionage, spying, undercover police work, law enforcement […]<\/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-3585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLive Action, Lying, and the land of a thousand blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You would think that until the debate sprung up across the blogosphere in reaction to Lila Rose and Live Action's sting operation against Planned\" \/>\n<meta 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