{"id":9090,"date":"2022-02-09T16:44:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T21:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=9090"},"modified":"2022-02-09T16:44:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T21:44:19","slug":"where-well-behaved-jen-fitz-is-writing-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2022\/02\/where-well-behaved-jen-fitz-is-writing-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Well-Behaved Jen Fitz is Writing This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If you want to understand the thing I\u2019m about to announce, consider reading Simcha Fisher\u2019s excellent essay \u201cThe Church you\u2019re building\u201d:<\/a><\/p>\n

First, let me be clear. There are people who feel this way, who have truly done their best to seek out\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0good, true, and beautiful in\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0institution founded by Christ, but it seems that every Catholic they encounter is on a mission to show them\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0bad, false, and ugly. I know people who are trying tremendously hard to refocus their hearts and minds on what is essential and eternal about\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0faith, but they are met, again and again, with Catholics who wound them profoundly. And I will not tell them that they should just work harder to get past it.<\/p>\n

I know people who have tried to get away from what is hurting them in\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0church<\/span>, and they have found that they can\u2019t, because they\u2019ve already been wounded so deeply. They carry their wounds with them, and when they walk, they bleed. I\u2019m not going to tell people in this state what they ought to do, or where they ought to go.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s only some people. There are others, who, when they say, \u201cI\u2019m so tired of\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0Church<\/span>,\u201d are in a different place entirely. I know, because sometimes this is me . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

. . . Very often, when I say I\u2019m tired of the<\/span>\u00a0Church<\/span>, what I really mean is that I\u2019m tired of\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0weird, ugly little quasi-church<\/span>\u00a0I\u2019ve half-consciously built around myself out of sheer cynicism and snark and self righteousness. It\u2019s a very flimsy, ugly, broke-down\u00a0church<\/span>\u00a0indeed. No wonder I don\u2019t like it there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What I\u2019ve been grappling with over the past several years are the different worlds of spiritual needs out here on the Catholic internet.<\/p>\n

Me? I love debates.\u00a0 I love wrestling with the truth. When I look out at the problems in the world \u2014 hunger, loneliness, war, disease \u2014 I want to figure out ways to solve those problems.\u00a0 Debates ordered towards truth-finding<\/a> are a means of discerning the best ways to mitigate human suffering.<\/p>\n

But those debates can also be a treacherous, faith-destroying distraction.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I came up with\u00a0The How-to Book of Evangelization<\/em><\/a> because, in discussing possible book projects with an acquisitions editor at OSV, it became evident that I was passionately interested in that topic<\/a>. It was the topic of the first essay I wrote here<\/a>, before I even had my own Patheos blog.<\/p>\n

I knew there was a need for the book because I had heard many faithful Catholics say so. They\u2019d show up at Sherry Weddell\u2019s evangelization and discipleship forum<\/a> and ask: \u201cOkay, I am ready to evangelize! But, um, what do we do? How does this work?\u201d<\/p>\n

So I wrote the book.\u00a0 I also had to re-write at least one chapter in its entirety because my fantastic editor for the project cleared her throat and communicated with the correct combination of clarity and impatience: This is a great blog post, but it is utterly inappropriate for the book.<\/em><\/p>\n

(That\u2019s my paraphrase. I\u2019m not going to dig up the annotated manuscript and give you the exact words. It will hurt us.)<\/p>\n

To be honest, the book is so darn civilized I can sometimes forget that I wrote it. Turns out you can be emphatic\u00a0and<\/em> charitable. Who knew!\u00a0 Here at Patheos I\u2019m just proud if I start with a cussword and then change it to \u201cexcrement\u201d and then reluctantly allow that the metaphor, no matter how politely worded, will not actually change hearts and minds and I\u2019m going to have to rewrite completely.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s a bit of a conflict.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a longtime reader here, it\u2019s because you are comfortable-enough with strong and clashing opinions. You\u2019ve seen me discuss controversial things, seen me be wrong some of the time, and you know that\u2019s all just part of the discourse. But not everyone is comfortable there.\u00a0 A lot of people who care about sharing Jesus don\u2019t want to camp out on the war-of-words battlefield.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the new thing:<\/p>\n

One Soul at a Time<\/em><\/a> is a substack devoted 100% to Catholic evangelization and discipleship.\u00a0 No liturgy wars. No pope complaints. No links to expos\u00e9s at The Pillar<\/a>. No COVID-policy debates. None of that.<\/p>\n

I know, you can barely breathe thinking about it.\u00a0 Is there even enough air in the world if we don\u2019t have that?<\/p>\n

Relax. I will still be passionately wrong-headed here at Patheos, for all your doomscrolling needs. Seriously? You thought I could just quit opining like that<\/em>? As if.\u00a0 Heck, in paring down my social media presence post-illness, I\u2019ve chosen\u00a0Twitter<\/em><\/a> of all places to be where I run my mouth short-form.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re over at\u00a0One Soul at a Time<\/em><\/a>\u00a0you don\u2019t have to know any of that.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve intentionally created the substack in a way that lets you not be sucked into social media if you don\u2019t want to be. You can subscribe for free and receive all content straight to your e-mail inbox, which even makes it safe for Lenten social-media fasts \u2014 and the content itself will be Lent-friendly.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the plan.\u00a0 I\u2019ll still hit\u00a0controversial<\/em> E&D, catechetical, and spiritual topics here, but follow both Patheos and One Soul at a Time<\/em><\/a> if you want everything I have to say, even the nice stuff.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

PS: Even though I\u2019m really even-tempered and charitable (for me) over at the new place, I\u2019m still hitting the hard topics in the spiritual life<\/a>. Just doing it from a place of more prayer and less redacted-bits.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you want to understand the thing I\u2019m about to announce, consider reading Simcha Fisher\u2019s excellent essay \u201cThe Church you\u2019re building\u201d: First, let me be clear. There are people who feel this way, who have truly done their best to seek out\u00a0the\u00a0good, true, and beautiful in\u00a0the\u00a0institution founded by Christ, but it seems that every Catholic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,251,7,482,248],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-come-see-me-talk","category-evangelization","category-good-things","category-writing-stuff"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Well-Behaved Jen Fitz is Writing This Year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you want to understand the thing I'm about to announce, consider reading Simcha Fisher's excellent essay "The Church you're building": First, let me be\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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