No, I don't think I will join that political debate group, even if it is filled with Catholics. Maybe I should say, "especially". I know what right-wing Catholics are like right now, and I don't like it. If I'm frank about it all, I don't trust myself to be kind. I'm liable to say something outrageous just to make a point, and then have to correct myself later, and probably apologize.
If I'm completely honest, I didn't have better luck with left-wing Catholics, either, when I was in one of those groups. Just to be specific, there is no universe where I will be attacking Raymond Cardinal Leo Burke, even if I disagree with him. And if it is the left-wing fashion now to attack everyone personally who does not agree with you 100%, I don't have time for that.
I don't need to spend my time "discussing" things with people who are not actually open to changing their minds. I'm not necessarily open to changing mine; so what are we talking about?
I don't believe in abortion, or in the false anthropology that allows us allegedly to define our sexual selves. I don't believe in socialism--at least that the Church condemns--and you can safely assume that I embrace the entire Catechism.
But I suppose it is a fashion of our partisan politics to identify those leaders and clergy that would talk about things other than our favored pet issues, and then pretend or fabricate the idea that such a leader is less than enthusiastic about the most crucial teachings of our faith. I charitably assume, by contrast, that most are trying to instruct us in the way of Jesus, and not in the way of being a partisan or ideological crazy person. Are there fights among the clergy? Of course there are. I'm not in denial. At the moment, I am more cognizant about the fact that our social and economic organization is itself disordered, with respect to the common good, and by consequence, the good of all people. That's going to cut across the partisan and ideological lines, and because we have been playing a cheap unsophisticated game of cops and robbers, building a better society is going to take help from people that we have exiled or dismissed.
I wouldn't give Holy Communion to Nancy Pelosi either, but you know, she's right sometimes. She's almost completely right about "the wall". And when most of the country--at least its thinkers and leaders--realizes that family breakdown has an economic component, you're gonna need liberals to design a system of some kind of redistribution, to foster the formation of permanent bonds. Most right-wing people today are still stuck on the Soviets, or maybe the Chinese now, filling in as the bogeyman. But we can get away with a lot more transfers of wealth than many people are comfortable with, in their present ideological prison.
All that is to say, I don't have any interest in whatever the short-term conversation is on the right. I don't believe in FBI conspiracies, and I don't sympathize with Donald Trump, and I don't fear Joe Biden. I would say that I don't care about the upcoming election, but the truth is, I do. I hope Trump and all he represents loses resoundingly. Which is not to say that his loss will be total gain for America, because the social and sexual left really is on their own planet, and no matter how centrist Joe Biden wants to be, he'll be pushed in that direction.
I am Catholic first; everything else is up in the air. Your problem is, you might well think that Church teaching supports more of your political ideology than it actually does. I hope you disagree with that sentence; I hope it causes you to research it. I commonly have that reaction, anyway.
If I'm completely honest, I didn't have better luck with left-wing Catholics, either, when I was in one of those groups. Just to be specific, there is no universe where I will be attacking Raymond Cardinal Leo Burke, even if I disagree with him. And if it is the left-wing fashion now to attack everyone personally who does not agree with you 100%, I don't have time for that.
I don't need to spend my time "discussing" things with people who are not actually open to changing their minds. I'm not necessarily open to changing mine; so what are we talking about?
I don't believe in abortion, or in the false anthropology that allows us allegedly to define our sexual selves. I don't believe in socialism--at least that the Church condemns--and you can safely assume that I embrace the entire Catechism.
But I suppose it is a fashion of our partisan politics to identify those leaders and clergy that would talk about things other than our favored pet issues, and then pretend or fabricate the idea that such a leader is less than enthusiastic about the most crucial teachings of our faith. I charitably assume, by contrast, that most are trying to instruct us in the way of Jesus, and not in the way of being a partisan or ideological crazy person. Are there fights among the clergy? Of course there are. I'm not in denial. At the moment, I am more cognizant about the fact that our social and economic organization is itself disordered, with respect to the common good, and by consequence, the good of all people. That's going to cut across the partisan and ideological lines, and because we have been playing a cheap unsophisticated game of cops and robbers, building a better society is going to take help from people that we have exiled or dismissed.
I wouldn't give Holy Communion to Nancy Pelosi either, but you know, she's right sometimes. She's almost completely right about "the wall". And when most of the country--at least its thinkers and leaders--realizes that family breakdown has an economic component, you're gonna need liberals to design a system of some kind of redistribution, to foster the formation of permanent bonds. Most right-wing people today are still stuck on the Soviets, or maybe the Chinese now, filling in as the bogeyman. But we can get away with a lot more transfers of wealth than many people are comfortable with, in their present ideological prison.
All that is to say, I don't have any interest in whatever the short-term conversation is on the right. I don't believe in FBI conspiracies, and I don't sympathize with Donald Trump, and I don't fear Joe Biden. I would say that I don't care about the upcoming election, but the truth is, I do. I hope Trump and all he represents loses resoundingly. Which is not to say that his loss will be total gain for America, because the social and sexual left really is on their own planet, and no matter how centrist Joe Biden wants to be, he'll be pushed in that direction.
I am Catholic first; everything else is up in the air. Your problem is, you might well think that Church teaching supports more of your political ideology than it actually does. I hope you disagree with that sentence; I hope it causes you to research it. I commonly have that reaction, anyway.
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