Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see Trump as that big of a threat, but if you do, than I agree, you shouldn\u2019t worry whether or not conservatives think you are being mean.\u00a0 But look, your note got my attention, so St. Francis de Sales is right, \u201cyou always catch more bees with honey, than with vinegar\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I agree with St. Francis.\u00a0 The hard part is that when bees are stinging you, it\u2019s often more prudent to swat them. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
A lot of conservative Catholics are strange though, its true, when you go to a Latin Mass crowd event, more than a few are a couple fries short of a happy meal, and they won\u2019t hear the truth, the rest do have a desire to be faithful to all of the Church\u2019s teachings, so I see welcoming them as your best approach, although I get the sense sometimes your trying to win over people on the left who do have a lot in common with the Church, and I welcome that, even if you are a little mean to people like me in the process J<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My purpose is twofold.\u00a0 Short term: get rid of Trump.\u00a0 He\u2019s a menace.\u00a0 Any person of good will who will help is welcome.\u00a0 It\u2019s all hands on deck.\u00a0 So everybody from Glenn Beck to Samantha Bee is on the side of the angels if they seek to stop this peril.<\/p>\n
Beyond this, my overall concern is to bear witness to the Church\u2019s whole teaching\u00a0 And the problem is that Trump is not the problem: It\u2019s a conservative Catholic subculture that is now, by far, the loudest and most powerful enemy of the Church and the magisterium.\u00a0 Most conservative Catholics are now in the position Screwtape loves: running around with fire extinguishers during a flood and crowding that side of the boat that is already nearly gunwale under.\u00a0 The overwhelming number of conservative Catholics I run into not longer measure their thinking in comparison to the Church\u2019s teaching.\u00a0 They measure in comparison to what they imagine their hated culture war enemies would think and do and say at their very worst.\u00a0 And since that will *always<\/strong>* appear to them far worse than what they (who are servants of God and, sure, not *perfect<\/strong>* but far better than those damned liberals) want to do, everything they do is great.\u00a0 Once that habit takes root, anything that the Church says that smells \u201cliberal\u201d is deemed giving aid and comfort to the Enemy while any evil thing culture war allies do is seen as \u201cgritty and realistic\u201d.\u00a0 So brutalizing refugees, torture, unjust war, grinding the face of the poor are all \u201crealistic horse trading\u201d and Pope Francis and the bishops are all ivory tower ninnies who don\u2019t realize what it takes to Keep America Safe and get Roe overturned (which is the great eternal fantasy of the prolife right).\u00a0 So we perpetually play along with Trump and the Vandal Horde who are currently doing everything in their power make America safe for polluters, crooks, and the 1%.\u00a0 And the result will be, among other things, a rise in our abortion rates, since poverty is the biggest abortifacient we have.<\/p>\nNone of this is escaping the notice of our children, who are bearing the brunt of the concentration of wealth in fewer hands and the flatlining of income for the middle class.\u00a0 They know they are being fleeced.\u00a0 They know who is fleecing them.\u00a0 And they know that conservative Christians blindly cheer for the fleecing in perpetual pursuit of the prolife carrot those guys have no intention of ever giving them.\u00a0 Our monomania about abortion and our refusal to listen to the rest of the Church\u2019s social teaching (because it \u201csounds liberal\u201d) has guaranteed that we will get neither the rollback of abortion, nor anything else but despoilment at the hands of con men like Trump.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a real evangelistic opportunity has appeared.\u00a0 People on the left are *really<\/strong>* listening to the gospel.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s true they are not able to hear the whole thing yet. (That is common most places, as the Cafeteria Right abundantly demonstrates).\u00a0 But nonetheless, the Left is discovering that the Church has something to say to them and paying attention.\u00a0 So we see, for instance, Elton John (who a decade ago was calling for the worldwide destruction of the Church) speaking with respect for Francis.\u00a0 We saw, just a few days ago, a really respectful conversation between atheist Dave Rubin and Bishop Robert Barron.\u00a0 I have had numerous fruitful conversations with a number of atheists and leftists who have remarked on their surprise and delight over the discovery that Catholic social and intellectual tradition is not simply composed of a few pelvic prohibitions and that it really does have a great deal to say about the real goods that they really do genuinely care about. One of them has actually taken the trouble to read Benedict and has remarked with surprise that she would never have believed ten years ago that she would be making real friends with a bunch of gung ho Catholic types. Indeed, the great irony is that noisiest opponents of evangelism are people like Lifesite News and the Reactionary Catholics who find it offensive and somehow proof of some kind of sinister agenda at work that people like Francis and Bp. Barron are getting a hearing from the Wrong Sort of people.\u00a0 It reminds me of nothing so much as the Pharisees who were certain that the welcome Jesus got from tax collectors and sinners was prima facie evidence that he was a threat.\u00a0 Me: I\u2019m happy whenever anybody takes a step toward the gospel.\u00a0 That\u2019s my overriding goal always.<\/p>\nI will keep you in my prayers, best!\u00a0 Thanks again<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And thanks to you too.\u00a0 God bless you and thank you for a thoughtful and charitable letter.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see Trump as that big of a threat, but if you do, than I agree, you shouldn\u2019t worry whether or not conservatives think you are being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-99165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mailbag"],"yoast_head":"\n
Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-14T07:12:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-12T05:28:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html\",\"name\":\"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-14T07:12:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-12T05:28:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader...","description":"with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader...","og_description":"with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2017-02-14T07:12:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-12T05:28:03+00:00","author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html","name":"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-02-14T07:12:25+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-12T05:28:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"with whom I corresponded last week. He writes: Mark, thank you so much for that kind note, it has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 I personally don\u2019t see","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/02\/follow-conversation-thoughtful-reader.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Follow up conversation with my thoughtful reader…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}