It’s like Kabuki

The Great Man and his toadies continue taking the same passages out of context they’ve been taking out of context for 10 years.

Some Catholic who knows how to read then points out that they are taking the passage out of context.

Meanwhile, in my comboxes, more toadies waste the time of Catholics who can afford to play whack-a-mole with people who have dedicated the use of their intellect to playing stupid games like “How-can-you-prove-Scripture-is-not-perspicuous-if-you-quote-the-Bible-since-if-the-Bible-is-not-perspicuous-then-you-don’t-know-what-it-says-and-can’t-quote-it-so-there!”

Or else you get the variation on the “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” meme used among atheists, in which the anti-Catholic professional tells you, “If you can prove X to my satisfaction, then I will do Y.” My favorite among these Stupid Apologist Tricks is the NoTRoMaN.org’s ridiculous “Catholic Challenge” in which we are seriously told that all you have to do is persuade Eric Svendsen to part with $100,000. He will, of course, be completely impartial as he decides whether or not your arguments are worth throwing away $100,000.

It’s not merely that it’s mind-numbingly stupid. It’s that nothing has freaking changed with these people in 15 years. It’s the same tedious round of silly verbal tricks, questions feigning a desire to understand, insults alloyed with self-pity, and impregnable theory trumping common sense and reality.