Simcha Fisher reports on a bizarre and abusive children’s book

February 13, 2020 By Mark Shea

It’s called The Seed Who Was Afraid to be Planted and is, by some crazy random happenstance, authored by Anthony DeStefano (Frank Pavone’s right hand man at Priests for Life) and published by Sophia Institute Press (which gave the world the fear-mongering conspiracy theories of Taylor Marshall’s nutty Infiltration). It’s endorsed by a bunch of Trumpian types who have spent years cheering for and defending the infliction of traumatic horrors on children at the border and in poor homes, so... Read more

The Bilko Party

February 12, 2020 By Mark Shea

Back in 1996, Steve Martin did a remake of Sergeant Bilko, the great Phil Silvers character who is the biggest con man in the US Army. One scene that always sticks with me as the perfect metaphor of the GOP abortion strategy comes where Sergeant Bilko is trying to threaten somebody while having zero intention of carrying out the threat. “Hold me back!” he shouts while transparently signaling to his men that he really does want them to hold him... Read more

Why Bad Theology Matters

February 11, 2020 By Mark Shea

There’s an old joke. When Christianity came to Greece, it became a philosophy. When it reached Rome, it became an Empire. When it hit Europe, it became a civilization. And when it got to America, it became a business. Har! In the past, I have talked about how Catholic culture is like tofu: it tends to take on the flavor of the culture around it. Early Christian culture tastes intensely Jewish, with a hint of Greek flavoring. That’s what we... Read more

The Weird Fundamentalist Catholic/Evangelical Alliance

February 10, 2020 By Mark Shea

A few days ago, we looked at the strange Reactionary Catholic sect TFP courtesy of Where Peter Is and saw some of its contributions to the small (globally speaking) but powerful and well-funded sect of Francis-haters. Most of that sect is located in or near the US for the same reason Willy Sutton robbed banks: that’s where the money is. So ETWN, 1 Peter 5, The Remnant, Taylor Marshall, Sophia Institute Press, Napa Institute, Lifesite News, FOX, Church Militant and... Read more

I love these Pitch Meeting thingies

February 8, 2020 By Mark Shea

Something fun for a Saturday morning: Read more

In Honor of A Good Man: Deacon Steven Greydanus

February 7, 2020 By Mark Shea

So a couple of years ago, Deacon Steven Greydanus did one of his Reel Faith 60 second reviews of the many many films he reviews each year. The film was Call Me By Your Name. I happen to know by experience that in order to say something in the space of a minute that does not sound like an ad on Hulu warning at lightning speed that Tremfaya maycauseheartattack,insanity,male pregnancy,diabetes,blindness,nausea,vomiting,globalwar,economiccollapse,paralysis,Crohn’sdisease,stutteringandextremeflatulenceaskyourdoctorifTremfayaisrightforyou then you basically have 88 words to work with. That’s... Read more

The Massive Failure of the “Prolife” MAGA Cult

February 6, 2020 By Mark Shea

Here, as if paid to illustrate yesterday’s post about the “Abortion is Our #1 Priority!” Shell Game, is a conversation I had over on the Book of Face yesterday: Fr. Dwight Longenecker quipped: There was a rep named Nancy the Ripper Who shredded speeches as quick as a zipper She was so mad at Trump She was ready to dump The Donald into a wood chipper. I replied: You get that it was actually Trump who helped the Saudis literally... Read more

The “Abortion is Our Number One Priority” Shell Game

February 5, 2020 By Mark Shea

A reader writes: Mark….the Catholic Bishops have declared that abortion for us voters is the “most important issue” for citizens to consider while casting a vote. Pope Francis has agreed with statement. END OF DEBATE…Vote as you wish Mark but on our faith will follow Holy Father and US Bishops guidance….CASE CLOSED….Next Thank You for playing. I agree that abortion is the most important issue. Now here’s the thing: There are two parties. One is the party that established our... Read more

Nerding Out

February 4, 2020 By Mark Shea

So a few days ago, my wife sent me this. She got it from her sister Kathleen, who overlaid the Bible verse on a picture Jan took a while back when we kayaking in Pacific County (a wonderful September day!). Neither of us are sure what it means, but Jan speculates it may be because I am neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat. I’m going with that. At any rate, it was good for a laugh and hug,... Read more

David Mills on the Failure of Ideology

February 3, 2020 By Mark Shea

Over on the Book of Face, my friend David Mills offers some wise words: IDEOLOGICAL READING Facebook brought up a post from last year, which included an attack on Rebecca Bratten Weiss for her views on abortion, including posting the “New Pro-Life Movement” description of the effect of unwanted pregnancy on some women. It made the difficult point that for some women, having the baby would be harder for them than aborting him. Some FB friends leapt to declare the... Read more