They’re on to me!

One of the growing trends on the Reactionary Right is the recourse to the Conspiracy Theory to explain things. Somebody wrote:

I used to respect Mark Shea, but now I only wonder what or who is at the end of his mammon leash. Did he fall into the mammon trap and now is coerced to write such nonsense? His writing has become the opposite of Catholic sanity and balance. It is so obvious to us who know better but maybe not to his leash holder. Is he fighting the leash subversively by spewing false dichotomies that he knows will of course repel real Catholics. Or has he been completely conquered by the ruler of the world? One wonders. Tis a shame no matter what.

I’m sorry to disappoint, but no Shadowy Illuminatus is holding my “mammon leash” nor am I raking much in for my incredibly unpopular views on Trump.  The idea that somebody becomes a Catholic writer for wealth, much less ticks off his already small audience for wealthy is risible.  But I hear such theories all the time.

Honestly.  How  anybody can hear me say “Listen to the whole teaching of the Church and obey it”, “Listen the the Holy Father and the Magisterium” and “Be more prolife, not less” and conclude such views are “the opposite of Catholic sanity and balance” while concluding “Cheer for a thrice-married, sociopathic pornocrat’s self-engrossment and war on the alien, the orphan, and the widow” are the living incarnation of poverty, chastity, and obedience… well, it’s all beyond me.

And it breaks my heart, as conservative Catholics do almost every day these days.