Being an older man, I was brought up with the boomer soft Catholicism that emphasized being kind, avoid curse words and listening to sister Mary Elephant. There was nothing bracing about this religion, it was for goody two shoes types and that wasn’t me. It wasn’t until a decade ago I started realizing I was sold a bill of goods by the soft, ghey clergy of the 60s and 70s. Reading Raymond Ibrahim, Tolkien, Lewis and the knights of the round table, the Iliad, the Odyssey and Dante made me realize I was down right lied to about Christian Masculinity and what I thought it was. Many thanks to you for your insights. They are sorely needed to combat the feminized Christianity we see today.
So you left the Church for a significant stretch of time? Strikes me as a very reasonable thing to do, given the circumstances. I have a very hard time blaming those who were underwhelmed with soft Catholicism. I actually sometimes wonder how and why I stayed around long enough to discover that there was something hidden beneath the reforms and modernizations.
I too have felt this way and have come to see this point.
Prudence and the Duty to Know
I remember being disappointed years ago upon hearing the claim that the Faith emphasizes orthodoxy (right thinking) whereas a creed like Islam stresses orthopraxy (right practice). Orthodoxy struck me as a thing for nerds and sticklers. Isn’t practice, action, living more important? But now I see the point. If you don’t first insist on clarity and correctness, right action is not possible. If you let vagueness and sloppiness intrude into core teachings, wayward living will follow—as is made painfully clear by the consequences of the False Commandment
Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the
world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war.
When Justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers.
Fascinating variation on Matthew 10:
34 Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.
35 For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household.
It is from the Gospel of Thomas: The sayings of Jesus, part of the Nag Hamadi scrolls.
https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Gospel%20of%20Thomas%20Lambdin.pdf
I keep getting in trouble for thinking and talking like this! I’m grateful others are speaking up and speaking out. Thank you!
Stay true!
Being an older man, I was brought up with the boomer soft Catholicism that emphasized being kind, avoid curse words and listening to sister Mary Elephant. There was nothing bracing about this religion, it was for goody two shoes types and that wasn’t me. It wasn’t until a decade ago I started realizing I was sold a bill of goods by the soft, ghey clergy of the 60s and 70s. Reading Raymond Ibrahim, Tolkien, Lewis and the knights of the round table, the Iliad, the Odyssey and Dante made me realize I was down right lied to about Christian Masculinity and what I thought it was. Many thanks to you for your insights. They are sorely needed to combat the feminized Christianity we see today.
So you left the Church for a significant stretch of time? Strikes me as a very reasonable thing to do, given the circumstances. I have a very hard time blaming those who were underwhelmed with soft Catholicism. I actually sometimes wonder how and why I stayed around long enough to discover that there was something hidden beneath the reforms and modernizations.
A very well written passage 10/10.
I too have felt this way and have come to see this point.
Prudence and the Duty to Know
I remember being disappointed years ago upon hearing the claim that the Faith emphasizes orthodoxy (right thinking) whereas a creed like Islam stresses orthopraxy (right practice). Orthodoxy struck me as a thing for nerds and sticklers. Isn’t practice, action, living more important? But now I see the point. If you don’t first insist on clarity and correctness, right action is not possible. If you let vagueness and sloppiness intrude into core teachings, wayward living will follow—as is made painfully clear by the consequences of the False Commandment
Thank you kindly!
that picture is disgusting. please take it down.
The way they've attempted to remake the Lord is indeed disgusting and I will not take it down.