Too much reality for some conservative Catholic bloggersThis will be a short post today. I am linking to two Catholic blogs which present interesting takes on the inauguration. I suspect one of them will stun any reasonable Catholic. At least I hope it will.
First though, Douglas Kmiec posted on Commonweal how taken back he was by the venom directed at him from blogs of the Catholic right. I personally sort of took that with a grain of salt. Anyone who reads blogs gets an eye full of ad hominem attacks from both ends of the spectrum. His post did however, prompt me to take a gander at some of the right wing Catholic blogs to see how they were taking Obama's inauguration and first days in office. Get ready folks, because America under President Obama is going to be slammed with vitriol like we have never seen.
Get your heads around this post on docweasel. Be forewarned, it's not not political commentary, it's pornography.
What amazes me about the docweasel post is the site from which I linked to it. The Anchoress is a Catholic site, very conservative, which has been selected as one of the blog finalists for a number of blog awards for 2008. I've generally found it a good source for insight into the mindset of conservative Catholics. I was very surprised to find docweasel was linked twice in a thread on the inauguration with zero warning as to it's content. The Anchoress also linked to this site giving commentary on Michelle Obama's inaugural wardrobe.
If this is where the Catholic right is going, Douglas Kmiec's observations are on target and this is scarey stuff. As one commentator on the Anchoress site wrote from her own unique point of view: "I don’t know how you feel about this, Anchoress, but there is going to come a point in which many on the Right are not going to take the abuse anymore. Someone is going to explode and do something he/she might regret. One can take such behavior for so long in human terms. I can now see why some are talking quietly about the possibility of secession. I would not blame them for wanting to have no part with that group of “I-want-my-money-now!” entitlement freaks."
Wow, scary stuff indeed, and not particularly Catholic, much less Christian.
Like on one of Paulo Coelho's book a Catholic author from Brazil and living in France:
ReplyDelete. . ."So, for me, as I wrote in my book , Jesus is the one that is standing outside the church, telling Athena, as well as all the people that are excluded and repudiated by the strict dogmas of the church:
‘My child, I’ve been excluded too. It’s a very long time since they’ve allowed me in there.’. . ."
Whew!Colleen, sometimes it really is nice to stand outside of some circles. . .
The right wing definitely has some dark elements in it that need serious anger management. I've never seen so many swear words and hate-filled words in a written document. What a temper tantrum! Quite the contrast to Obama's enlightened and hopeful and calming speeches. Like night and day. I prefer the daylight of Obama to the Dracula's on the right.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was disappointed reading the Anchoress. Is this a Catholic publication? Nothing but gossip. No substance. Just gossip and ramblings of one person's opinion. Big deal. I'm not impressed at all.
ReplyDelete"some dark elements"
ReplyDeleteoh well clutch your pearls and get the smelling salts.
keep your sweet little old lady attitude and whatever friggin' constituency you represent will stay powerless.
and someone explain to the owner of this blog how trackbacks work so he can quit qvelling about the poor, blameless Anchoress. She is a saint and a great blogger. WTF have you ever done except sneer, "butterfly".
Yeah, we tear down, but we build too. Try that before you have the gall to sniff how you're "not impressed" with the Anchoress.
docweasel, I am perfectly aware of how trackbacks work. It is the reason I wrote this post.
ReplyDeleteI read the Anchoress and appreciate some of her insights, I just had a real tough time with linking to your post with no warning as to the nature of the contents.
I wonder if she even read it.
Wow. What on earth are those anchoresses doing in their cells?
ReplyDeleteThat docweasel screed is one of the vilest outpourings of hate I've seen in a long time. The mentality beneath the anger (the mentality that feels entitled to that anger) fascinates me.
It's obviously male, and regards women as beneath its high status (and as objects to be used). It obviously also believes its way is the only possible way. Depart from it, and he'll make you hurt.
It's adolescent (the vocabulary of the posting is about 7th grade at best, and a foul-mouthed 7th grade). And it projects its totally immature view of religion onto religion itself, so that it expects religious bodies to function at a foul-mouthed 7th-grade angry male level, thinking of women as despised objects and intent on forcing everyone in the world to agree.
I can only say wow again. The Anchoress site's endorsement of this disturbs me.
Bill, this was just my own little way of giving a shout out to the Anchoress.
ReplyDeleteWhatever she was doing in her cell it doesn't appear it had much to do with monitoring her links.
She has a big site though, and I guess sometimes that happens. It's why I prefer to manage my little site.
Butterfly, don't over use the smelling salts, that might damage your pearls. :)
If I had pearls I would not be clutching them. I admit that smelling salts was needed for women well over a hundred fifty years ago because it was trendy to wear a corset very tight and a very old man would know that too. And it was the elite and rich that wore the corsets, of which I do not belong, nor have such desire to belong. As to how that imagery came into mind and to interject it in the present time one can only imagine the wavelength of antiquated depictions one predominantly meanders in a lame attempt to tear somebody down. LOL docweasle is more a shadow of the "dark element" and he is a blood thirsty element, hence the name Dracula, and more an elementary school yard element in the larger scheme of things of the bully type. Ignorant and filthy language, an obsession with pornography, and horror films no doubt clutter his mind, heart and soul; garbage in and garbage out. I suggest Dracula clutch a Bible, say a rosary, take a long walk in a park and clear his head out of garbage and get some anger management for his pornographic mental issues, then he can identify real saints, focus on helping to build a better world, of which he is currently and obviously totally unfit. But if Dracula insists on writhing and thriving in his wrath and anger and going into fits of tantrums and going against every Christian principle to achieve his goals to be a blood-sucking pimp bully in the world, and to urge others to be bullies and liars, all I can really do is pray for his poor soul to be enlightened by the light of Jesus Christ. I put his words at the foot of the cross of Christ and ask the Lord to dispense of them from whence they came into the bowels of hell.
ReplyDeleteAs for Anchoress it is the first time I heard of the website and my true initial insight into the heart of the content is that it is mostly gossip and heresay and not enlightened. As for a constituency, that is for politicians, and that I am not nor have any desire whatsoever to be. As an American, I too, little old lady that I am, whose vote counts as equal as a man's, am entitled to my opinion and in keeping my spiritual life and soul far away out of the gutter of pornographic and hate-filled websites of which I will gladly never return. Free will is an amazing gift if one chooses to use it wisely. I choose to not use the F word and to be educated in how to communicate with others on a moral and Christian level. Amen.
?. . .Erl King in the forest?. . .not to worry these women have powerful ponies!. . .
ReplyDeleteRiver, I was thinking that very same thing. Erl King rides, but as you say, there are women with very strong horses.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most interesting is how "conservative catholicism" and "conservative christianity" both are synonymous for bigot, hatemonger and sadist.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that causes those with conservative religious viewpoints to also be filled with so much hate?
Is it hate that is already festering within them that draws them to conservative religion where they find others of like mind.
Or is it the nature of conservative religion to breed festering hate?
Docweasel, yes, conservatives do destroy, but that is all they do. Destroy and leave a smoking ruin in their wake as they move forward to their next "victim". Reconstruction only happens after the conservatives have left.
We are living with the aftermath of 8 years of conservative leadership that has destroyed the nations economy, destroyed our nations natural resources, destroyed other countries. Millions of lives destroyed.
Conservative = lies, theft, destruction, corruption, hate, all done in the name of God. Very impressive.
dear Colleen. . .found myself continuing to think about the dynamics of Fundamentalism and and The Erl King. . . I went back and read Dr. Estes article and substituted fundamentalism for the Erl King, and the father as the Pope, and the child as the voices that are trying to evoke caution. . .I wonder who the horse might be, but believe it could be read as Marian or feminine instintual as a fit. . .
ReplyDeleteThis is a line from Dr. E's writing that perfectly fits fundamentalism these days. . .
"voracious monster that reaches through dark broughs of trees to steal and carve the child's mind with its own crooked liking."
i would encourage others to check goggle video or Netflix and watch the complete version of "Jesus Camp", a documentary on the conditioning and programming of religious fundamentalism here in America. . .It is mind blowing and having seen it, have been able to understand what Dr. E. writes about the father that could not protect the child, because his own soul had been seized long ago by the "Erl King". . . Also as i have known first hand the expression and barbs of fundamentalisms, there was something about seeing the small children programmed and manipulated that opened a larger space in my own heart of understanding and compassion for those terrorized by systematic religious programming, and the more i can do that, the more i can walk a path that does not just become the mirror image of the abyss. . .thus becoming that which is repulsed . .
Freiedrich Nietzsche's statement is always a powerful light for me; "He who hunts monsters should see to, that in the process, he does not become a monster himself." -
As well as . . "If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." - Hermann Hesse
Also dear Col55 i agree what you write, but i think it is much greater than just Catholicism beginning influenced by Christian Fundamentalism . . .Fundamentalism is found in every religious expression. . . Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Catholic, Islamic, Native American, Jewish. . . and often times i think we do discredit to our religions by allowing the various religions names to be cuppled with the word Fundamentalism as it has come to be expressed. . .I think it would be more accurate to express it as tribalism with the expression of anger based in the legitimate fear that modernity and a deeper spirituality is leaving them in the dust. . .
Just my ponderings. . .
Hope everyone has a good weekend. . .
river