Why the Left Isn’t Nice Enough, Part I: When You Cancel the Abyss, the Abyss Also Cancels You

Last updated on: December 29, 2020 at 1:07 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

Centrists, conservatives, and the alt-right love telling leftists that we’re mean. “Where has civil discourse gone?” “So much for the tolerant Left.” “I got so sick of their refusal to allow simple questions, I became a libertarian instead.” And so on. There are subtler variations on this; in my experience, almost any sentence that contains the words “both sides” paints the Left a lot more negatively than the Right. And equivocations abound when violence comes up, regardless of the context... Read more

Respect, Compassion, Sensitivity, and Asshattery

Last updated on: October 14, 2020 at 6:08 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

I adapted this post from a Twitter thread, which emerged from comments reacting to my previous post. I figured non-Tweeple who’ve read that post might still have the same questions and curiosities, so I decided to adapt the thread here too. The Catechism enjoins “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” for gay people. And honestly? I think most Catholics are okay at the compassion part. The problems come in at the sensitivity part, and get huge at the respect part. (Most of... Read more

The Double Gold Standard

Last updated on: October 6, 2020 at 10:55 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

The English translation of Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti was released on the fourth. Among other things, it restates the Church’s rejection of capitalism and why she rejects it. This has provoked the usual suspects1 to accuse His Holiness of being a communist, which irritates me in the extreme—not as a communist (which I’m not), but as a gay man. Let me explain. A musician and medical, uh, do-stuff-guy that I follow on Twitter posted something this afternoon that hit... Read more

Selections from “The Hiding Place”: Ravensbruck

Last updated on: October 2, 2020 at 3:36 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

The ten Booms used their house as a refuge for Jews (it is now a museum). They took in the occasional refugee from the beginning of the German occupation of the Netherlands, but became formally connected with the Dutch Resistance in the spring of 1942. In February of 1944, they were betrayed by an informer. Casper ten Boom died at some point during the process; no one knew when or how, save that it was within a couple of weeks... Read more

Selections from “The Hiding Place”: Invasion

Last updated on: October 1, 2020 at 7:52 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940. The Dutch had declared their neutrality the previous year, but of course the Nazis ignored this, and did not even dignify them with a declaration of war. The fighting was over in less than a week; Queen Wilhelmina escaped to Great Britain, where the Dutch government in exile remained until the end of the war. I used to think it was ridiculous that the blatant lies of the Nazis worked, and kept working, for... Read more

Selections from “The Hiding Place”: The One Hundredth Birthday Party

Last updated on: September 30, 2020 at 1:55 am By Gabriel Blanchard

The last couple of weeks have taken a lot out of me. I tried twice to write posts, and just didn’t have the energy to. I’m increasingly without hope that the transition to the next administration will take place without violence. No matter who wins. Trump’s refusal even to make a throwaway statement about a peaceful transfer of power was grim. I didn’t think he’d mean it, but I thought he’d bother to lie. And that was before his disgusting... Read more

The Nativity of Antichrist

Last updated on: September 19, 2020 at 7:26 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

Then was a saint led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, it said, “If thou be a saint of God, command that these stones be made bread.” But he answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” And... Read more

Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Ten: So What?

Last updated on: September 17, 2020 at 1:57 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

Previous posts in this series: Intro to BLM, Marxism, Is BLM Marxist?, Violence, Reporting on Violence, Is BLM Violent?, Is BLM Anti-Family?, Does BLM Support the Gay Agenda?, and Does BLM Support Abortion? So, what was the point of all that? I’m trying to establish that Catholics should support BLM, right? Probably not supporting it would be racist or something? No. I sincerely don’t care if people donate to BLM or join a local chapter. (I think they should endorse... Read more

Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Nine: Does BLM Support Abortion?

Last updated on: September 15, 2020 at 3:27 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

Parts One through Eight in this series: Intro to BLM, Marxism, Is BLM Marxist?, Violence, Reporting on Violence, Is BLM Violent?, Is BLM Anti-Family?, and Does BLM Support the Gay Agenda? Last, but not least. If a group supports abortion, we as Catholics should consider that when deciding whether to support them. Most of the time, it should be a deal-breaker.1 I’ve seen several Catholics saying that they cannot support the organization, or even use the slogan, on the grounds that... Read more

Can Catholics Support Black Lives Matter? Part Eight: Does BLM Support the Gay Agenda?

Last updated on: September 17, 2020 at 2:09 pm By Gabriel Blanchard

Previous posts in this series: Intro to BLM, Marxism, Is BLM Marxist?, Violence, Reporting on Violence, Is BLM Violent?, and Is BLM Anti-Family? So, having discussed their overt support for the family, we turn now to the gay thing. Conservatives (Catholic and otherwise) tend to frame the gay agenda as a family values issue. So, is BLM pro-gay? Yes. Now, you can stop reading here, if you don’t care about anything but the most general answer. However, as a professional... Read more