Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Bullies
As I reflected on my new best friend Ken's remarks yesterday I realized that the mindset of many of these extreme right-wing people is the same as that of the school-yard bully. They really believe that if they just abuse you enough you'll be reduced to tears, shut up, and go away. This tendency to bully, incidentally, isn't just characteristic of religious right-wingers , but of political ones as well. This fact seems to lead credence to the recent claim that such extreme conservatism is in fact a mental disorder. To be fair, I think that it was also claimed that extreme liberalism is likewise a mental aberration. It all seems to bear out the common sense realization that extremes of any kind lead to trouble. In medio stat virtus - Virtue stands in the middle.
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4 comments:
"In medio stat virtus" I wonder how many saints would agree with you.
I am minded of an excellent motto: "The truth does not lie in the middle way - the truth lies where it lies"
A good question. The truth indeed lies where it lies. And the truth, especially to a world like ours, can indeed seem quite extreme. But I was not referring to the Church vis-à-vis the world, but the extremes within the Church itself. I don't think many Saints would be happy with the way nominally Catholic people rip one another to shreds over the tiniest little details.
In my own archdiocese, the homosexual activists are trying to shred our coadjutor Bishop for simply stating Church teaching...and he did so very charitably, including info for Courage. The tone of his article was very matter-of-fact.
The local group is bashing him, going on a media craze, calling it hate speech and the typical stuff. Bullies. Complete bullies.
There are bullies on all sides. Last week I considered not blogging anymore because all I see some days is snark and bullying.
As I was bullied in my Jr. High years and actually nearly committed suicide both due to the bullying and the very dysfunctional home life...well, I guess I'm just overly sensitive to it. I do not say this to elicit pity or some other such thing, but to call to attention the reality that words and attitudes are harmful.
Church teaching is what it is. It's in print, it's accessable to everyone, and we all have the ability to determine whether we will follow it or not. If we choose not to, then we are not Catholic.
It's pretty simple, really. And since I now work in a parish and often am face to face with people who do not accept Church teaching, it has softened me...because the way to reach them neither lies in vitriolic proclamations and attacks, nor in catering to what they want to believe, but in stating Church teaching and admitting that I fail, too, sometimes. The path is in humility, not attacks.
And no, I'm not great at humility, either.
About liberalism....Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that liberalism was actually the reaction to the previous liberalism...and was often a reform. I have not found his comments online although I've heard it on Relevant Radio a few times.
The thing that bothers me the most about blogging is the number of people who make anonymous comments.
There can be reasons to be anonymous, and I have posted a half dozen or so (out of many hundreds) anonymously.
If someone wants to make a statement that is intended to disagree with or provoke the intended readers, then one should have the courage to post one's name.
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