Sunday, July 03, 2011

A Comment and a Request

Note:  I deleted most of the comments from yesterday's post due to the vile nature of many of the comments. Interestingly, it appears that IP 108.18.117.23 is responsible for most, if not all, of the posts. This IP Address traces to Bethesda, Maryland. What is worrisome is that it appears that all of the scurrilous posts originate from that IP address, which means we have either ONE person from Bethesda with an axe to grind or many people who happen to have the same IP address. I know one very vocal critic who claims to be an orthodox Catholic but, if it is that case that the vicious posts also originate with her, it would be a terrible indictment of her character.  


Teaching high school has forced me to develop a little bag of tricks to use in the classroom. Sometimes it pays enormous dividends simply to stake a position, make an outlandish claim, just in order to incite the students to an argument. If you know how to push the right buttons, you can really bring about some amazing conversations.

Yesterday's post certainly seems to have done that. In fact, it did far more than I could have hoped: it completely lays out what I see as the satanic nature of a subsection of so-called "Catholic" bloggers. They dwell in the shadows, they quote thinkers and lines that are convenient and non-threatening to their ways of thinking, and they do all of this under the veil of Anonymity. How courageous! They speak the truth in "charity" but are too cowardly to sign their own names.

I mean, look at the ad hominem attacks that resort to crude language, innuendo, and libel. Have they grappled with the issues I raised? Nope. Have they raised any points? Nope.

To such posters, let me ask: what has your cowardice won? You have not silenced me, nor do you silence others. You have not enkindled a spirit of love or charity but, rather, exposed only the ugliness of your own malice. You have not helped to contribute to the building of God's Kingdom, preferring instead to advance your own deranged agenda. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ who looks to all those who have come before me, most especially the saints, to see how each of these fellow sinners responded to an invitation to discipleship. With the exception of the Blessed Mother, all of these women and men were, in fact, sinners. So forgive me if I do not capitulate because any particular theologians or thinkers are trotted out as proof texts: holy though they may be, they weren't God.

It's fitting that I went to see the movie Green Lantern today. The gist of the film is that there is a constant struggle between the creative force of the Will and the destructive force of Fear. When all hope was extinguished, hope still managed to pierce the darkness. The oath of the Green Lantern Corp:

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight. 
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power...Green Lantern's Light!

To the anonymous posters who have nothing but venom and hatred to spew: I am not afraid of you. I pity you. I will pray for you that your heart be touched with some sense of love and charity that will help you to see how your shadowy operations only work to perpetuate the Kingdom of the Enemy of our Humanity. I have made mistakes in the past and I am certain I will make them into the future. But I know this: I am a sinner, a man who prays daily for the strength to respond as generously as possible to Jesus' love and grace, and I'm doing the best I can. I might not look like what you want, or write what you want, or even have the interests that you want. I'm sorry. I'm trying to live out my vocation as best as I can and I keep this blog to give others a glimpse into what this life is like. I'm sorry if I fail to live up to your expectations and, if you'd be so kind, I'd love to hear your constructive feedback on how I might improve.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you, Ryan. Don't back down from these so-called Catholic terrorists. If it's true that Maria posted all of those comments, shame on her.

Jules said...

The so-called orthodox Catholics and/or 'real' Catholics, through their vile attacks against you and others who aren't in lockstep with them, do nothing but reinforce in me why I'm not, nor do I strive to be, a 'real' Catholic. More and more of us are shying away from the Church because of these whackjobs who think they can terrorize you into accepting their word as the word of God. They are sick people and need new hobbies.

Flute playing priest finds YouTube fame