More Evidence that Reactionaries Hate Evangelism

The sort of mail I get from the Combox Inquisition typically begins with a “question” that seeks, not information, but ammunition in that oily sort of voice that used to ask “Tell us, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” and “We caught this woman in the very act of adultery. What should we do?” and then hangs back waiting for the quarry to step into the trap. It drips with malice:

Below is a comment you recently made. Your vagueness prompts me to ask, are you saying it’s ok to receive Communion while living in a grave sinful state without confessing and repenting?

He means that holier than thou super-Catholics who spend much of their time demanding that the Impure be barred from the sacraments need to pipe down and accept the judgment of their pastors when they allow weak sinners to approach the Altar. He’s addressing a sort of latter day Jansenism that wants to keep as many people as possible from approaching the sacraments.

Note to reader: I was discussing Francis here and his encouragement of people to approach the Eucharist and not be slowed down by the Piety Nazis who think God died and told them to make sure people they deem unworthy of communion are barred from the sacrament. This is, among other things, due to the fact that Francis sees the sacraments as opportunities for encounter with God, while Reactionaries see them primarily as reducing valves designed to keep as many people away from salvation as possible.

I answered my reader’s “question” as clearly as I could:

No. I’m saying laypeople should mind their own business and leave such judgements about others to their priests and bishops. I, for one, have no idea whether the person in the pew next to me is in grave sin as a general rule. Nor if they have been to confession. I am not their personal Holy Spirit. Piety cops who appoint themselves tut tutters when they see somebody go up for communion are usually fake soul readers who should be attending to the log in their own eye.

Whereupon my reader sprang his attack:

Oh I get it. Don’t be judgmental…Right?
You’re a member of the church of nice…like Michael Voris says.
So, if you know that one of your “friends” is sleeping around, because he told you, and you say nothing …that’s better…yeah right.
That position, just like many “nice” clergy, will really help them get to heaven…you must be part of the I’m ok ..you’re ok crowd.
Your thinking is a left over from your protestant days.
Get a grip on reality!

So many words in my mouth and none of them mine. I guess imagining you are rebuking somebody for things they never said is easier than actually doing what the Church teaches. This guy lives out the classic pattern of the Reactionary: attacking people who are obedient to Holy Church and in dissent from none of her teachings while doing nothing constructive and imagining himself competent to know which of the dozens of strangers in the pew around him is in mortal sin. The Church of Nice is an imaginary construct of Reactionaries. Fighting with it siphons off energy from the Church and devotes it to the worship of the cult of Anger. These people are auditioning for the role of Accuser of the Brethren when that role is already filled. The Reactionary mentality (which is, at the end of the day, arguing with Francis, not me) teaches its devotees to spend all their time attacking faithful Catholics while contributing not one calorie to toward the reform of the Church or obedience to its teachings. It goes in search of witches to burn, not converts to win. This guy’s rhetoric is a prime example of what the cult forms its disciples to do.

And of why that cult is not going to end well and eventually eat its young. Avoid it.