{"id":72719,"date":"2026-01-19T16:55:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=72719"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:55:40","slug":"maxima-culpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/01\/19\/maxima-culpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxima culpa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cSin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That\u2019s what sin is.\u201d
\n\u2014 Granny Weatherwax (Terry Pratchett)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 Lydia Polgreen posted a gift link to her column in today\u2019s New York Times,<\/em> \u201cIn Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War<\/a>.\u201d
\nHer conclusion starts with the remarks of a high-school student:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cICE might not break into my house and try to take one of my family members, because we\u2019re all white\u201d Fee told me. \u201cBut I\u2019m not gonna not care, just because it\u2019s not gonna happen to me. That\u2019s irresponsible, that\u2019s disrespectful, and it\u2019s sinful, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all their military gear and unchecked power, the federal agents flooding this city, like the president ultimately commanding them, seem unprepared for what they are facing here. Like the agent who slipped on ice, they have misjudged the ground beneath their feet: a state full of ordinary people \u2014 real estate agents, high school students, solar energy consultants \u2014 who\u2019ve decided that watching their neighbors being dragged away is an intolerable sin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 Yesterday\u2019s \u201csmart things\u201d post included David Dasharath Kalal\u2019s RNS column on \u201ca racist refusal of the Eucharist<\/a>.\u201d That column was the first I\u2019d seen of that story, which blew up on the Nazi-bot\/porn-on-demand site X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha depicted in one of the stained glass windows at St. Elizabeth Church, Chester Springs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Friendly Atheist waded into the muck over there to cover this: \u201cA Catholic racist refused the Eucharist from an Indian woman, then bragged about it online<\/a>.\u201d That\u2019s a great summary of the story with Hemant doing a good job explaining how this gray-haired Groyper named Mike is violating his own purported Catholic faith, and why this is something other than \u2014 and more troubling than \u2014 hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

He also digs through the full history of Racist Mike\u2019s Twitter feed to reveal a bit more about this guy:<\/p>\n

One thing articles about Mike have not pointed out, though, is where he goes to church.<\/p>\n

I can answer that one for you because Mike loves to overshare. He said in a video last year that he attends Saint Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, OK then.<\/p>\n

St. E\u2019s is about a 10-minute drive from here. I\u2019ve been there a lot because my kids played softball and rugby on their fields. Only been inside the place once, for my older daughter\u2019s confirmation (wrote about that years ago here, see: \u201cMy family\u2019s involvement with a criminal conspiracy<\/a>\u201c).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never met racist Mike, but I\u2019ve met a lot of guys just like him, either here in Chester County or back in Delco where, at weddings and funerals, I\u2019ve heard the same and worse from white Catholics who never missed a Sunday and never failed to miss the point.<\/p>\n

Like Mike, those church-going white folks all seemed to understand that their attitudes and actions weren\u2019t something their religion condoned. So they\u2019d do that thing where they\u2019d look over both shoulders to see who was nearby before saying the worst of it \u2014 making sure there weren\u2019t any of those people,<\/em> or any priests within earshot. (Or either of my daughters within earshot, because that\u2019s<\/em> a mistake a few folks have learned not to make again.)<\/p>\n

Or they\u2019ll do the kind of half-joking thing Racist Mike does in his video, where he acknowledges that \u201cI did a bad thing in church today,\u201d and tries to pass it off as just something rascally and mischievous, like, \u201cI\u2019m violating the Greatest Commandment and committing a mortal sin, ain\u2019t I a scamp?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Hemant highlights this aspect of Mike\u2019s video. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna receive [the Eucharist] from anyone who\u2019s non-white,\u201d Mike says, \u201cSorry. \u2026 I guess I\u2019ll go confess this to my priest. But I\u2019ll continue doing it. That\u2019s the compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemant writes:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also strange that he says he\u2019ll confess this to a priest because a confession only counts, according to Catholics, if you\u2019re sincerely<\/em> atoning for your sin. And Mike makes it perfectly clear he\u2019s not going to stop being racist.<\/p>\n

That misunderstanding of confession led to a community note on X\/Twitter explaining that confessions don\u2019t count if you have \u201cno intention of avoiding [that sin] in the future.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think Mike knows this, which is why he\u2019s seeking absolution from another source, using Twitter as his confessional as he drives down Rte. 100 to the Chipotle over on Swedesford Road. (Gonna have to be even more careful driving around here with this guy on the road.)<\/p>\n

It may seem odd for me to suggest that a guy bragging online about his unrepentant racism and his refusal to ever repent is somehow \u201cseeking absolution.\u201d But again, I\u2019ve met a hundred of these guys and this is what all of them are looking for \u2014 absolution without repentance. And on some level, they all understand that nobody is able to give them that \u2014 not their priest, not their \u201cliberal\u201d relatives, not even their \u201cBlack friends\u201d (i.e., the co-worker acquaintance who usually puts up with them somewhat because they\u2019re at work).<\/p>\n

On some level they understand that this dilemma is not due to the particulars of Catholic doctrine, but to the basic reality of how the universe is and how it works. They understand<\/em> that absolution without repentance is a contradiction, an impossibility.<\/p>\n

And so even as they flail about seeking someone, anyone, who might offer this impossible absolution they also seek out others who have similarly exempted themselves from the possibility of grace through their own stiff-necked refusal to repent. Without the possibility of absolution, they seek the poor substitute that is<\/em> possible \u2014 the company of others who are also gritting their teeth and also pretending that they also don\u2019t care whether or not they ever receive the absolution they desperately need.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s irresponsible, that\u2019s disrespectful, and it\u2019s sinful, honestly. An intolerable sin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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