{"id":3735,"date":"2012-06-27T16:21:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T20:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=3735"},"modified":"2013-01-21T20:52:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T01:52:46","slug":"the-college-application-stratagem-or-sing-out-louise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/06\/the-college-application-stratagem-or-sing-out-louise.html","title":{"rendered":"The College Application Stratagem or, “Sing out Louise”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n<\/p>

One frequent question I got about my conversion was, \u201cUh, don\u2019t you disagree with the Catholic Church on a lot of things? Aren\u2019t you bisexual? And a bit of a statist when it come to public health? And various other things? \u00a0What are you going to do about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t paper over those inconsistencies and call them insignificant, but I don\u2019t feel like I need to either resolve them instantly or pretend they don\u2019t trouble me. \u00a0One reason the Catholic Church has adults go through RCIA (Rite of Christian\u00a0Initiation) classes is so they can make sure they actually intend to convert to Catholicism<\/em>, before anyone does anything irrevocable. \u00a0(Pre-Cana marriage counseling seems to serve an analogous purpose). \u00a0This means, presumably, that my Possibly Heretical category will be in heavy usage between now and my assumed baptism in November.<\/p>\n

Some bloggers have raised some reasonable concerns about converting in public, especially at length. \u00a0Working out one\u2019s salvation with fear and trembling is all very well, but Patrick Archibold<\/a> suggested Hell might have no fury like\u00a0aggressively\u00a0orthodox Catholics in combox (the kind who already lay into pretty much everyone in the Catholic channel as heretics). \u00a0 Kyle Cupp<\/a> disagreed, but Rod Dreher<\/a> thought the only safe option was going dark, or, at a minimum turning off comments.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"
I spent probably too much time trying variations of \u201cholding door shut against zombies\u201d on google images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

So let me say a little about the way I\u2019m planning to approach the blog over the next few months. \u00a0When I was applying to college, I was always pretty strategic about my interviews and essays. I was trying to give them some sort of narrative to hang on to (becoming a \u201cnamed lobster<\/a>\u201c) and making sure I didn\u2019t give them any reason to have qualms about admitting me. Or rather, I did that for every interview save one.<\/p>\n

I guess the best way to put it is that I conditionally<\/em> sabotaged my MIT interview. I really liked the school, but I wasn\u2019t sure if, as such a humanities nerd, I\u2019d be a good fit for such a tech-y place. I loved<\/em> the creative stuff engineering people did (and how frequently it involved explosions), but I was worried that I wouldn\u2019t get to do as much book nerdery.<\/p>\n

So when I went in to the interview, I wasn\u2019t as bouncy-positive as I was everywhere else. Although I was still cheery and upbeat, I was deliberately trying to trip warning bells in my interviewer. I said flat out they I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d be happy at a tech school. If MIT thought I shouldn\u2019t be there, I wanted to know, and I wanted to give them all the data they needed to make an informed choice.<\/p>\n

It worked out pretty well for me. MIT gave me more details about the humanities and put me in touch with some humanities students, so I got a lot more data. Ultimately, I picked Yale instead, for mostly unrelated reasons.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty much how I\u2019m approaching RCIA and this blog during the countdown to my parish\u2019s November baptisms. If there\u2019s an irreconcilable difference here, neither the Church nor I will be well served if I keep my mouth shut. \u00a0The only chance I\u2019ve got to see if I\u2019m persuaded by the Church\u2019s teachings or if I don\u2019t understand but trust or if I\u2019ve hit a principle I can\u2019t give up is by picking fights and making sure the other side gets a chance to take their best shot at me.<\/p>\n

It should go without saying that I\u2019m not an authoritative source on Catholicism, and, frankly, neither is most of the commentariat. \u00a0Citing sources is always helpful, and I may reach out to you all for book or essay recommendation, but I\u2019m not really going to try and crowdsource canon law. \u00a0Writing and seeing what questions people raise helps me organize my thoughts and concerns so I can bring them to my RCIA class.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of space on the spectrum between being a cultural Catholic who is affiliated but doesn\u2019t see the Church as an authority and understanding and assenting to every teaching. Right now, I think the Church has the best approach<\/em> to thinking about moral philosophy which isn\u2019t the same as thinking that it\u2019s theologians always come up with the right answer on non-dogmatic issues on the first go-round. But even on things that I\u2019m pretty sure are just matters of personal conscience, I\u2019ll be airing my disagreements in the hopes that, if I\u2019m wrong, I\u2019ll be corrected, and if I\u2019m right, I\u2019ll be persuasive.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t trust the Church enough to be certain I\u2019ll find myself understanding or submitting to all its said, but I definitely trust it enough to let it decide whether I can enter, provided I don\u2019t withhold data.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One frequent question I got about my conversion was, \u201cUh, don\u2019t you disagree with the Catholic Church on a lot of things? Aren\u2019t you bisexual? And a bit of a statist when it come to public health? And various other things? \u00a0What are you going to do about that?\u201d I won\u2019t paper over those inconsistencies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,4,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conversion-2","category-housekeeping","category-possibly-heretical"],"yoast_head":"\nThe College Application Stratagem or, "Sing out Louise"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One frequent question I got about my conversion was, "Uh, don't you disagree with the Catholic Church on a lot of things? Aren't you bisexual? 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